How to Transfer Files from PC to Phone Without a Cable (Android & iPhone)

You've got a video, a PDF or a folder of photos on your PC, and you want it on your phone — without hunting for the right cable. There are plenty of ways, and they differ a lot in speed, file-size limits, and whether they work with an iPhone.

Quick comparison

Phone Link (built into Windows)

Phone Link connects Windows 11 to your phone for messages, notifications and calls. With Android (especially Samsung and Honor phones with Link to Windows), you can drag files between PC and phone. iPhone support covers messages and calls but not general file transfer.

Good if you already use it; less reliable for large files.

Quick Share (Android)

Google's Quick Share app for Windows (formerly Nearby Share) sends files directly between a PC and nearby Android phones over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, fast and without internet. Install it from Google's website, sign in or set visibility, then right-click a file → Send with Quick Share. Android only.

Bluetooth

Built into almost every PC and phone: Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Send or receive files via Bluetooth. It's universal on Android but painfully slow and flaky for anything large. iPhones don't accept general Bluetooth file transfers.

Cloud drives

Upload to OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud for Windows, then open the app on your phone. Works for both platforms and across the world, but you wait for the upload and the download, it uses your quota and data, and your files pass through a third party.

LocalSend (open source)

LocalSend is a free, open-source app for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS that sends files directly over your local network, encrypted. It's excellent — the one requirement is installing it on both devices.

Browser-based Wi-Fi transfer (nothing to install on the phone)

The last option avoids installing anything on the phone at all: an app on the PC starts a small local server and shows a QR code. Scan it with the phone's camera, and a transfer page opens in the phone's browser — tap to download files, or pick files to send back to the PC. Everything stays on your Wi-Fi.

It's especially useful when:

• The phone is an iPhone and you want something faster than cloud upload
• It's a work or borrowed phone you're not allowed to install apps on
• You're sending to several people's phones at once
• The file is huge and you don't want it in the cloud

Tips for faster, smoother transfers

• Use 5 GHz Wi-Fi (or Wi-Fi 6) and stay near the router. Direct Wi-Fi transfers are limited by your network.
• Connect the PC by Ethernet if you can — then only the phone uses Wi-Fi.
• Zip many small files into one archive; one big file transfers faster than thousands of tiny ones.
• Check your phone's free space first, especially for videos.
• Public Wi-Fi: avoid local-network transfers on networks you don't trust, or use an encrypted method.

The app I built

Share Files PC is my take on the browser-based approach: drag files onto the window, scan the QR code with any phone's camera, and the transfer page opens in the phone's browser — no app on the phone, no account, and nothing uploaded to the cloud. It works with iPhone, iPad, Android and other PCs, has no file-size limit or daily quota, sends from phone to PC just as easily, and lets you download everything as one zip. When you stop sharing, the link stops working.

If you need the QR code for something else — a Wi-Fi password, a link — the free QR code generator makes one in your browser.