Anyone has a fool proof method? Preferably that does not involve third party apps, or a Foss one.

PS at home I use mixplorer over my home WiFi, but on the go WiFi direct would be useful. I use a Samsung smartphone and lenovo tablet, both on android 14. I can easily connect them, but I never see any WiFi direct option in the share menu (nor Samsung’s quickshare)

EDIT: Enabling Quickshare on both devices then the quickshare icon shows up in the share menu.

Although:

  • it asks to deactivate WiFi direct (as Markaos says below, probably so it can decide the best connection type, and probably active WiFi direct on demand)

  • it relies on the contacts of the Google account. As I use a dummy and different gmail on both, and Foss apps for contacts, the only way to share is to “allow sharing with everyone for 10 minutes”

So my question remains as to how to use Wi-Fi direct well…directly.

  • @[email protected]English
    6•2 months ago

    This is why I only buy Androids with MicroSD. This problem was solved in the 1980s with the invention of floppy disks. Now it seems they have worked hard to “uninvent it” so your data needs to go through their servers before you are allowed to have a copy.

    • @[email protected]English
      8•2 months ago

      You know that you can use a cable or a flash drive right? Fiddling with microSD cards seems annoying.

      • @[email protected]English
        -2•2 months ago

        Cable + MPV is the precise nightmare that lead me to be prejudice of these “non-solutions”.

        And plugging in a big ackward fat USB-C in the bottom of the phone sounds like a hazard way to break your USB port.

        Avoiding phones without 3.5mm AUX and without MicroSD is easier. Problem averted.

        Edit: Also, phone suddenly dead? No problem pull the MicroSD for your data.

          • @[email protected]English
            1•2 months ago

            MTP* and if you don’t understand why plugging a chonker into USB-C might be a bad idea you probably haven’t had decades of repair experience and “accidents”.

            You should see what people do to their DC-AC ports.

              • @[email protected]English
                1•2 months ago

                I suggest you are more careful with your phone.

                I suggest you re-read my postulate and stop acting in bad faith.

                  • @[email protected]English
                    1•2 months ago

                    Fair enough, I understand your view. For my use case I will vote with my dollar for 3.5mm and MicroSD.

                    Data recovery pulling a MicroSD from a phone is much easier than trying to desolder a memory chip with a hotair gun and figure out how to download it.

                    Also I am not cool with Google and Microsoft and Apple stacking the deck to send all the data to their headquarters, but that’s just me.

                    YMMV. Choice is good. And yes I got what you meant about people. USB-C is engineered better than predecessor ports still without a proper stand or attentive care I can’t see average user wear and tear not breaking some ports assuming they knew how to do it to begin with.

                    Maybe you could argue that a external NVME would be less hazardous but a stiff Flash is going to be harder to make a case for. I’ve seen people have more problems with USBC than USBA despite its improvements.

                    But that’s just my view and if you have your own and we disagree I understand and that’s okay.

        • @ValmondEnglish
          0•2 months ago

          Uh, so I guess I should stop “plugging in a big awkward fat USB-C” every day to charge my phone then…

          That must be why my phones have a broken port … checks motes … zero times in the last many years.

          BTW a USB key with USB-C on one side and a classic USB-A on the other side is great for transferring stuff between a phone and a PC IMO.