Not everyone with a Mac uses an iPhone. And if you are among them, then you might be frequently facing issues when it comes to transferring files from your android device to your Mac. Maybe the best way to experience the Apple ecosystem it’s just not something we all are interested in. The biggest problem for Android users with the Mac is that there’s no direct plug and play functionality for transferring files between the two main devices. Sure, there is Android file transfer, but I think we can all agree that is a big pile of mess. I’d actually recommend you stay away from that app. So, how do we transfer files from Android to Mac without Android File Transfer?
In this article, I’ll tell you many different ways, how you can transfer files between a Mac and an Android device. While there’s no direct method to do this short of using Android file transfer, there are a couple of great apps that you can use. Let’s explore each of them one by one.
Copy file from Android to Mac using a wired connection
If you prefer using wired connections, you should definitely take a look at Handshaker. it’s very easy to use. To transfer files using Handshaker you just need to follow a few simple steps.
Step 1 – Install Handshaker on your Mac. You can download Handshaker from here.
Step 2 – Launch the app and connect your Android device. Handshaker will now install the app on your android phone.
Step 3 – Once that is done simply connect your Android phone to your Mac and you should be able to see all your files in the Handshaker app.
You can easily copy and paste files between the two devices and the speeds are decent enough.
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Move files between Android and Mac wirelessly
While Handshaker is definitely a great app, there are times when you simply don’t want to deal with cables. You might want to transfer files without carrying cables all the time. That makes complete sense. And we have solutions for wireless transfers as well. Let’s check them out.
Using Airdroid to transfer files
Airdroid is another cool app to transfer files from Android to Mac. It comes with a web interface as well. So, you just need the app on your phone and not on your Mac. Below are the steps to transfer files between android and mac wirelessly using Airdroid:
Step 1 – On your Android device launch the Airdroid app.
Step 2 – You will see an IP address.
Step 3 – Simply launch a browser on your Mac and navigate to that IP address. It will ask you to accept the connection on your android device. Accept it.
Step 4 – You will now be able to transfer files between Android device and the Mac.
You can do a lot more with Airdroid, like view call logs, messages, take screenshots, etc. However, those features are not the point of this blog post, so I’ll leave it to you to explore them.
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Moving files using SHAREit
If you tried Handshake and Airdroid. And you didn’t like any of those, there’s another great app that will let you transfer files wirelessly between android and mac. It is SHAREit. SHAREIt is a cool Android File Transfer alternative. It is an app that works by creating a Wi-Fi hotspot on your devices and transferring data over it. Below are the steps you can follow to transfer file from android to mac using SHAREit.
Step 1 – Launch SHAREIt on both your Mac and your Android device. Download SHAREit from Apple store.
Step 2 – On your Android phone, tap on “Send” if you want to send files to your Mac or “Receive” if you want to receive files.
Step 3 – Tap on connect to PC. Tap on “Scan to connect”.
Step 4 – Scan the QR code displayed on your Mac and you’re ready to start transferring files.
Copying Files using ES File Explorer
If you use ES File Explorer on your Android phone, then you can easily use FTP to transfer files from Android to Mac wirelessly. Below are the steps you can follow to do that –
Step 1 – On your Mac, launch the terminal and type this command below and hit enter.
sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist Step 2 – You will be asked for your password. Enter it here and hit enter again.
Step 3 – You have now created an FTP server on your Mac.
Step 4 – However, you still need to know the IP address for your Mac before you can connect to the FTP server from your android phone. Press and hold mac’s option key ( “alt” ) and click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar. You will see your Mac’s IP address there.
Step 5 – In ES File Explorer, tap on the hamburger icon and go to FTP under network.
Step 6 – Tap on new and fill in the details for the FTP server you created.
Step 7 – You will need to enter the username and password for your Mac’s login ID.
Step 8 – Tap on OK and you can connect to the FTP server. You can now copy and paste files between from android to Mac.
Using Google Drive
If all of the above tools feel much of a hassle for a few smalls files that you have. Then you can always go ahead with frequently used apps. One of them is Google Drive. To transfer files from Android to Mac without Android File Transfer or any of the apps above, I would recommend Google Drive. It takes a few minutes and work gets done. Just download the google drive app on your Android device and upload your images, word docs or Powerpoint presentation, etc. to your Google drive. Once uploaded, open google drive on your Mac and download them. It is an easy approach and works for small files very well.
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Using WhatsApp to transfer files from Android to Mac
This is particularly useful when you want to share files from your android device to your friend’s mac. Just open the WhatsApp text messaging app, there you will find a “clip” button in the chat menu. Tap on it and it will ask you what you want to share. It has various options from images to videos, documents, contacts, etc. Select any of these based on your requirement and send it to your friend’s WhatsApp. Within a few seconds WhatsApp will transfer your files to your friend’s chat. Ask him to open “web.whatsapp.com” on his Mac and scan the QR code using his/her WhatsApp mobile app. Once the login is complete, the files will be available to download on mac.
So, these were some of the easy tips and tricks to transfer files from Android to Mac without using Android File Transfer. Let us know in the comments if you have found more cooler options and share them with us.
