Android file direction: An piece of cake-to-follow guide

From managing files on your phone to seamlessly syncing folders with your computer, this guide will plough y'all into a certified Android file master.

hand reaching out to folders and files
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Table of Contents
  • Managing files on your Android phone
  • Supplementing your phone'southward local storage
  • Transferring files betwixt your phone and computer
  • Transferring files wirelessly between devices
  • Syncing your Android phone's storage with a computer

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When you retrieve about your smartphone, apps and interfaces are probably the showtime things that come to mind. Beneath all that surface-level stuff, though, our modern mobile devices are filled with files — folders upon folders of 'em! — just like the clunky ol' computers we've relied upon for ages.

We may not come up face to face with our phones' file systems too often, simply it'south valuable to know they're in that location — and to know how they can work for us when the need arises. Later on all, your Android device is a productivity powerhouse. It can juggle everything from PDFs and PSDs to presentations and podcasts. Information technology tin can even act every bit a portable hard drive and house any sort of important files you might need in your pocket (and not just on some far-away cloud). Your mobile device tin acquit an awful lot of data, and there may come a fourth dimension when yous want to dig in and deal straight with it.

Here's everything you demand to know to get under the hood and tap into your telephone'southward file managing powers.

Managing files on your Android phone

You might non realize information technology at a glance, but Android really allows you to access a device'southward unabridged file arrangement — even from the device itself.

The operating system has had its own native file manager since 2015's Android 6.0 Marshmallow release, and what started out as an experimental-seeming effort has evolved into a capable tool for bones data manipulation. With Android half-dozen.0 through 7.1, the system-level file director is somewhat hidden: Yous take to look in the Storage section of your system settings, and so scroll all the way to the lesser and tap the line labeled "Explore" to find information technology.

With Google's Android viii.0 Oreo release, meanwhile, the file manager lives in Android'due south Downloads app. All yous have to do is open up that app and select the "Show internal storage" pick in its carte du jour to browse through your phone'due south full internal storage. Y'all can then open, move, rename, re-create, delete, and share files as needed.

And if you lot have Android 9 or higher on your phone, things get even easier: In those recent Android versions, the file manager exists in its own sensibly named Files app. Simply open it up to scan any area of your local storage or a connected Drive account; you lot can either use the file type icons at the top of the screen or, if you lot desire to expect folder by binder, tap the iii-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner and select "Show internal storage" — and so tap the 3-line menu icon in the upper-left corner and look for your phone'southward proper noun.

android file management files app JR Raphael/IDG

The most recent version of the system-level Files app lets you lot browse through files in a variety of means, including via a traditional folder-by-binder view.

If yous don't see the Files app on your telephone, odds are you're using a device past a manufacturer — such as Samsung — that opts non to include this system-level Android element in its software and instead to provide its own self-made alternative (ostensibly with the goal of pushing its own cloud storage service and/or a paid partner'due south cloud storage service alongside Google Drive). Such an app might exist within a folder bearing the manufacturer's name, in your app drawer, and might be called My Files — or something along those lines. You'll probably find the same basic sort of file management functionality within it, only with a somewhat different interface and set of options.

If yous want to do more than the about bones on-device file management, meanwhile, a third-political party file manager is the fashion to go. Y'all can find my latest recommendations for various needs in my separate roundup of the best Android file managing director apps.

Supplementing your phone's local storage

One piffling-known feature of Android is its ability to connect with external storage devices like USB memory sticks and even larger-capacity portable hard drives. A phone just has to support something known as USB On-The-Go, or USB OTG, in order for the connection to work.

A fair number of devices, including Google's Pixel phones and many Samsung Galaxy products, offer such support. If you aren't sure if your phone does, your best bet is to Google its name along with "USB OTG"; odds are, y'all'll find the answer fairly quickly.

Provided your device supports USB OTG, all y'all need is a USB-A to USB-C adapter like this i made by Amazon. (If you accept an older device that doesn't have USB-C, you'll need a USB-A to micro-USB adapter instead; y'all tin find plenty such options on Amazon or at pretty much whatever electronics retailer.) Utilise the adapter to plug the external drive into your phone, and so look for a notification confirming the bulldoze is connected.

Tap the "Explore" option within the notification, and that'south it: You can at present browse and access all the files on your external drive.

android file management usb otg JR Raphael/IDG

Look for the notification that pops upwards when an external drive is connected, and you'll be browsing the drive'due south contents in no time.

When you're finished, don't forget to get back to the notification and tap "Squirt" earlier disconnecting the drive.

Transferring files betwixt your phone and calculator

In addition to supporting external hard drives, your Android phone can deed as an external hard drive. Just plug your device into any Windows, Mac, or Chrome Bone reckoner, and you can access its unabridged file organization and drag and drop files between it and your desktop with ease.

With a Windows or Chrome Os system, it'southward essentially every bit simple as plug and play. With a Mac, you'll first need to install a special program on your reckoner before the connectedness can be established.

For step-by-step instructions on whatsoever of those fronts, click over to my comprehensive Android file transfer guide.

Transferring files wirelessly between devices

Want to transfer files betwixt your Android phone and a figurer (or another Android telephone, iPhone, etc.) without the need for wires? No trouble.

Your almost basic option is to embrace a middleman — specifically, a cloud storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. Just upload the files to a binder within the corresponding app on your Android phone, then find the binder within the same app on the receiving device (or vice versa).

Y'all can get more advanced than that, though — and make your life significantly easier equally a result. If you're transferring between ii Android devices in the aforementioned physical area, Google's own Files app (which, confusingly, is not the aforementioned as the same Files app that comes preinstalled on many devices) will get the job done with minimal fuss and hassle. Just install the app on both devices, tap the Share tab at its bottom, and then tap the Send or Receive push button to ready the transfer. The app will automatically encrypt any data it sends.

If y'all're using devices on dissimilar platforms — and/or devices that aren't in the aforementioned physical location — a handy tool worth considering is a multiplatform app chosen Join (which also has the ability to encrypt its transfers, though y'all'll demand to look inside the app'southward settings to activate that selection). Install the app on your Android device and so install that same app, the Chrome version, or the Windows 10 version on whatsoever other device with which you lot desire to share files. Y'all can also admission the service via a regular website on any desktop reckoner — if, for instance, you use a Mac along with a browser other than Chrome.

One time you've signed into the apps on both ends, you lot're set to initiate hassle-free file transfers in either direction. On Android, just share a file from whatsoever app — a file manager, an image gallery, or any other sort of file-using utility — and select Bring together as the destination. The file volition appear on your desktop inside seconds.

On a computer, meanwhile, sending a file is as simple every bit opening the Join app or extension, selecting your phone as the receiving device, and and so dragging the file into the window.

android file management join app JR Raphael / IDG

Driblet a file into Join on your desktop (left), and it'll appear on your Android device a 2nd after (right).

Join has a agglomeration of other functions — including the ability to send a "Note to self"-style notification from a computer to your phone and fifty-fifty to paste text from a computer directly into your phone'southward clipboard — but even if y'all just utilise it for wireless file transfers, it's well worth keeping around. The app comes with a complimentary (ad-supported) ane-month trial and and then requires a one-fourth dimension $5 purchase if y'all want to keep using it.

Syncing your Android phone'southward storage with a computer

Maybe y'all like having certain files stored locally on your Android phone, but you also desire those files to be backed up and saved on your computer. The best of both worlds, right?

Believe it or not, this is actually quite piece of cake to pull off. Simply catch an Android app called AutoSync, which is available for utilise with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. Information technology'll allow you create pairings between a local folder on your phone and a cloud-based folder — for free with a unmarried folder pair and files smaller than 10MB or for a one-time $5 payment without any real restrictions.

Install the appropriate computer-side app for whichever service y'all prefer, brand certain it's set to sync with your calculator'southward hard bulldoze — and in that location ya take it: Your Android device's folder is now effectively part of your PC.

You can even have the folders stay constantly synced in both directions — so if you add or update a file on the computer, the same changes volition appear on your phone as well.

That's a wrap!

Congratulations: You've officially earned the title of Android file master. (For real — you tin can even type it into a document, impress it out, and tape information technology to your desk so everyone knows.)

Next up: Make sure you understand the ins and outs of Android backups. They're ultimately made upward of files, too, after all — and pretty important ones, at that.

This article was originally published in September 2017 and almost recently updated in February 2020.

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.