Android file direction: An easy-to-follow guide

From managing files on your phone to seamlessly syncing folders with your figurer, this guide will turn you into a certified Android file master.

hand reaching out to folders and files
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Tabular array of Contents
  • Managing files on your Android phone
  • Supplementing your telephone'due south local storage
  • Transferring files between your phone and computer
  • Transferring files wirelessly between devices
  • Syncing your Android phone'due south storage with a computer

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

We may not come face up to face up with our phones' file systems too often, but it's valuable to know they're there — and to know how they can work for us when the need arises. After all, your Android device is a productivity powerhouse. Information technology can juggle everything from PDFs and PSDs to presentations and podcasts. It can even human activity as a portable difficult bulldoze and house any sort of important files you lot might demand in your pocket (and not merely on some far-away cloud). Your mobile device can carry an awful lot of information, and there may come a time when you want to dig in and deal directly with it.

Here's everything you need to know to become nether the hood and tap into your phone'south file managing powers.

Managing files on your Android phone

You might not realize information technology at a glance, merely Android actually allows you to admission a device'due south entire file organisation — even from the device itself.

The operating system has had its own native file manager since 2015's Android half-dozen.0 Marshmallow release, and what started out as an experimental-seeming endeavour has evolved into a capable tool for basic information manipulation. With Android 6.0 through vii.ane, the system-level file manager is somewhat subconscious: You have to look in the Storage department of your system settings, then scroll all the mode to the lesser and tap the line labeled "Explore" to notice information technology.

With Google'southward Android 8.0 Oreo release, meanwhile, the file manager lives in Android'south Downloads app. All you have to practice is open that app and select the "Show internal storage" option in its menu to browse through your phone's full internal storage. You can so open up, move, rename, copy, delete, and share files every bit needed.

And if you have Android nine or higher on your phone, things become even easier: In those recent Android versions, the file director exists in its own sensibly named Files app. Just open it up to browse any area of your local storage or a connected Drive business relationship; you lot can either use the file type icons at the top of the screen or, if you lot desire to look folder by binder, tap the three-dot card icon in the upper-right corner and select "Show internal storage" — then tap the three-line card icon in the upper-left corner and look for your phone's proper noun.

android file management files app JR Raphael/IDG

The nigh recent version of the system-level Files app lets you scan through files in a variety of means, including via a traditional binder-past-folder view.

If yous don't see the Files app on your phone, odds are you're using a device by a manufacturer — such as Samsung — that opts not to include this organisation-level Android chemical 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's cloud storage service alongside Google Drive). Such an app might exist within a binder bearing the manufacturer's proper name, in your app drawer, and might be chosen My Files — or something along those lines. You'll probably discover the aforementioned basic sort of file management functionality within it, merely with a somewhat different interface and set up of options.

If you want to exercise more than than the almost basic on-device file direction, meanwhile, a third-party file manager is the way to get. Yous can find my latest recommendations for various needs in my separate roundup of the best Android file manager apps.

Supplementing your phone'south local storage

I little-known characteristic 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 back up something known as USB On-The-Go, or USB OTG, in order for the connection to piece of work.

A off-white number of devices, including Google's Pixel phones and many Samsung Galaxy products, offer such support. If you aren't certain if your phone does, your best bet is to Google its name along with "USB OTG"; odds are, you lot'll find the respond adequately quickly.

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

Tap the "Explore" option within the notification, and that's it: You can now scan and access all the files on your external drive.

android file management usb otg JR Raphael/IDG

Await for the notification that pops upward when an external drive is connected, and yous'll be browsing the drive'south contents in no time.

When y'all're finished, don't forget to go dorsum to the notification and tap "Squirt" earlier disconnecting the drive.

Transferring files between your phone and computer

In addition to supporting external difficult drives, your Android telephone tin can human action as an external hard drive. Just plug your device into any Windows, Mac, or Chrome Os calculator, and yous can access its entire file arrangement and drag and drop files betwixt it and your desktop with ease.

With a Windows or Chrome Os system, information technology's essentially as simple as plug and play. With a Mac, yous'll starting time need to install a special program on your computer before the connection tin can be established.

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

Transferring files wirelessly between devices

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

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

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

If you're using devices on unlike platforms — and/or devices that aren't in the same concrete location — a handy tool worth considering is a multiplatform app called Bring together (which also has the ability to encrypt its transfers, though you'll need to look inside the app's settings to activate that option). Install the app on your Android device and so install that same app, the Chrome version, or the Windows 10 version on any other device with which you desire to share files. You lot can also access the service via a regular website on any desktop calculator — if, for instance, you use a Mac forth with a browser other than Chrome.

Once yous've signed into the apps on both ends, you're ready to initiate hassle-free file transfers in either direction. On Android, just share a file from any app — a file manager, an image gallery, or any other sort of file-using utility — and select Join equally the destination. The file will appear on your desktop within seconds.

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

android file management join app JR Raphael / IDG

Drib a file into Join on your desktop (left), and information technology'll appear on your Android device a second later (right).

Join has a bunch of other functions — including the ability to send a "Annotation to cocky"-style notification from a computer to your phone and even to paste text from a figurer directly into your phone'due south clipboard — simply fifty-fifty if you just use it for wireless file transfers, it's well worth keeping effectually. The app comes with a free (ad-supported) one-calendar month trial and and so requires a one-time $five buy if you want to keep using it.

Syncing your Android telephone'southward storage with a computer

Maybe yous like having certain files stored locally on your Android phone, merely you also want those files to exist backed up and saved on your estimator. The best of both worlds, right?

Believe it or not, this is actually quite like shooting fish in a barrel to pull off. Just grab an Android app called AutoSync, which is available for use with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. Information technology'll let y'all create pairings between a local binder on your phone and a cloud-based folder — for free with a single binder pair and files smaller than 10MB or for a one-time $v payment without any real restrictions.

Install the appropriate computer-side app for whichever service you lot prefer, brand sure it's prepare to sync with your calculator's hard drive — and there ya have it: Your Android device's folder is now effectively function of your PC.

Yous can fifty-fifty have the folders stay constantly synced in both directions — so if you add or update a file on the calculator, the same changes volition appear on your phone besides.

That'due south a wrap!

Congratulations: You've officially earned the championship of Android file primary. (For existent — yous can even type it into a document, print it out, and tape information technology to your desk so everyone knows.)

Side by side upward: Make sure you understand the ins and outs of Android backups. They're ultimately fabricated up of files, also, after all — and pretty important ones, at that.

This article was originally published in September 2017 and virtually recently updated in Feb 2020.

Copyright © 2020 IDG Communications, Inc.