I'm posting this since I have already transferred my sync files to the Pixel, but assume that others wanting to do the same might benefit from information and or suggestions.
I just made the phone transition from a very old android Moto G6 to a Pixel 4a.
I had been using a FFS sync via USB cable from the phone to a two year old Lenovo Laptop running Win 10, and while the syncs were slow, it was not a big deal because only modified files were transferred.
The Moto phones had a Micro SD carrier, so, setting up the initial files were not a problem since it was possible to do so by removing the SD card and using an SD card reader to initially populate the SD.
However, while the Pixel 4a has an abundance (135 gig) of memory which makes it ideal as an "always with me backup of my critical files" it has no slot for an SD card, so the initial population (sync) had to be done via USB C cable ...talk about SLOW!
FFS's speed readings were initially in the low MB range, but would then drop for long periods of time into the KB range and sometimes drop into the "Bytes" range. It took over 6 hours to load less than 8 GB of files. (The PC's USB port was 3.0)
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on setting up an optimal USB file transfer connection?
Thanks in advance,
Beverly Howard
Tip, get your phone's name edited before you start setting up FFS. I had my PCs correctly named all along, but it seems that with the subscription expired, FFS does not display them... was a real puzzle to determine which PC was which.
Syncing to Pixel 4a
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Are you sure it was a USB 3.0 cable?
What is the source?
What is the source?
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- Joined: 22 Jul 2016
It twas a 3.0 (usb-C) cable connected to a usb 3 port on the PC
"Normal" large file transfers to and from the Pixel via USB cable are noticeably slow by comparison to wifi, but acceptable.
The FFS transfer rates approached the high megabyte range at the beginning of the transfer, but then dropped steadily throughout the transfer.
When the transfer ended, it didn't end normally and I finally "stopped" the sync probably 10 minutes after the sync screen stopped. When I then ran a comparison, it was both complete (and surprisingly fast)
Again, I'm posting this for others who may want to sync to a phone with no sd card tray for informational purposes and on the assumption that the author would appreciate the information.
Thinking about this since yesterday and one thing I might do is to revisit setting the phone up on a fixed ip address (which I did years ago) and giving this a try via wifi. Now using Google Wifi and need to go look and learn how to set a fixed ip address.
Not sure how the addressing will work since the FFS way to address an android device as connecting via many apps back then could only connect via ip address.
Took a while for me to deduce the FFS address (mtp:\<devicename>\Internal shared storage\...) to sync via USB cable. If I am lucky, the same FFS address that I am using for the cable might work for a wifi connection. Anyone know? I will report back.
Thanks for the response,
Beverly Howard
"Normal" large file transfers to and from the Pixel via USB cable are noticeably slow by comparison to wifi, but acceptable.
The FFS transfer rates approached the high megabyte range at the beginning of the transfer, but then dropped steadily throughout the transfer.
When the transfer ended, it didn't end normally and I finally "stopped" the sync probably 10 minutes after the sync screen stopped. When I then ran a comparison, it was both complete (and surprisingly fast)
Again, I'm posting this for others who may want to sync to a phone with no sd card tray for informational purposes and on the assumption that the author would appreciate the information.
Thinking about this since yesterday and one thing I might do is to revisit setting the phone up on a fixed ip address (which I did years ago) and giving this a try via wifi. Now using Google Wifi and need to go look and learn how to set a fixed ip address.
Not sure how the addressing will work since the FFS way to address an android device as connecting via many apps back then could only connect via ip address.
Took a while for me to deduce the FFS address (mtp:\<devicename>\Internal shared storage\...) to sync via USB cable. If I am lucky, the same FFS address that I am using for the cable might work for a wifi connection. Anyone know? I will report back.
Thanks for the response,
Beverly Howard
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 22 Jul 2016
Found out how to set a fixed ip
Wifi/Settings/Advanced settings/dhcpIP/+
However, android is a client only, so, it may not be possible to trigger anything from the phone... I used to do this with an android file manager app that is no longer available.
CX File Explorer has something similar. Experimenting ...will report back but it may be days or more.
Beverly Howard
Wifi/Settings/Advanced settings/dhcpIP/+
However, android is a client only, so, it may not be possible to trigger anything from the phone... I used to do this with an android file manager app that is no longer available.
CX File Explorer has something similar. Experimenting ...will report back but it may be days or more.
Beverly Howard
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 22 Jul 2016
BINGO! It's been so long since I did this, the grey cells had to be repeatedly prodded.
The key to this is an android app named CX File Explorer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer
This app has the ability to "Access from Network"
In fact, what it does is to set up an FTP service on the phone via the current wifi connection. I would assume that other android file manager apps might have the same option.
As mentioned, you can set a fixed ip for your phone, then set a fixed password, and CX File Explorer will set up an FTP service with the username "PC" on port 5524. You can then configure an FTP client with that ip address and those credentials and then transfer files to an from the phone.
It appears that FFS also has FPT sync options, but I have not yet experimented with them.
In the case of an initial setup with large amounts of files, the transfers should transfer at reasonable rates.
I would appreciate more info and tips from anyone who is currently syncing FFS via FTP
I do remember that FTP transfers had some file timestamp issues, but that's for sometime in the future.
Hope this is of value to others,
Beverly Howard
The key to this is an android app named CX File Explorer https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer
This app has the ability to "Access from Network"
In fact, what it does is to set up an FTP service on the phone via the current wifi connection. I would assume that other android file manager apps might have the same option.
As mentioned, you can set a fixed ip for your phone, then set a fixed password, and CX File Explorer will set up an FTP service with the username "PC" on port 5524. You can then configure an FTP client with that ip address and those credentials and then transfer files to an from the phone.
It appears that FFS also has FPT sync options, but I have not yet experimented with them.
In the case of an initial setup with large amounts of files, the transfers should transfer at reasonable rates.
I would appreciate more info and tips from anyone who is currently syncing FFS via FTP
I do remember that FTP transfers had some file timestamp issues, but that's for sometime in the future.
Hope this is of value to others,
Beverly Howard
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 22 Jul 2016
Update on the Pixel4a (android) sync;
I ran some transfer times using USB compared to FTP via Wifi and the transfer speed differences were not that large.
When syncing, the comparison time difference for 21,000 files was that FTP was 30% faster, which means that when you take the time needed to start the ftp service on the Pixel, the ease of simply making a USB connection would make that preferable unless there would be large file transfers during the sync.
I would assume that initially setting up a pc to android sync would be faster via FTP but, based on what I have learned, I would do the initial population transfers manually.
However, there was a problem with the FTP sync that stopped me from even trying it... FFS's FTP comparison showed a large number of files to delete on the PC that did not show up when running the same FFS comparison via USB... the files looked like deleted jpg's in folders on the pc that were not visible using win10 file explorer.
Re the USB-C connection speeds, I ran transfer tests on two PC's, one with USB 3 port and the other PC had a dedicated USB-C port, but there was no significant transfer speed difference between the two... the time to run a FFS 58mb sync was 21sec which is slow, but acceptable in my case where not that many files are going to be updated during any sync.
The speed during a USB connection using windows explorer to transfer a 250mb file was 5sec or 50mb/sec, much faster that the above FFS sync file transfer speed of 2.75mb/sec
Hope this information is helpful,
Beverly Howard
I ran some transfer times using USB compared to FTP via Wifi and the transfer speed differences were not that large.
When syncing, the comparison time difference for 21,000 files was that FTP was 30% faster, which means that when you take the time needed to start the ftp service on the Pixel, the ease of simply making a USB connection would make that preferable unless there would be large file transfers during the sync.
I would assume that initially setting up a pc to android sync would be faster via FTP but, based on what I have learned, I would do the initial population transfers manually.
However, there was a problem with the FTP sync that stopped me from even trying it... FFS's FTP comparison showed a large number of files to delete on the PC that did not show up when running the same FFS comparison via USB... the files looked like deleted jpg's in folders on the pc that were not visible using win10 file explorer.
Re the USB-C connection speeds, I ran transfer tests on two PC's, one with USB 3 port and the other PC had a dedicated USB-C port, but there was no significant transfer speed difference between the two... the time to run a FFS 58mb sync was 21sec which is slow, but acceptable in my case where not that many files are going to be updated during any sync.
The speed during a USB connection using windows explorer to transfer a 250mb file was 5sec or 50mb/sec, much faster that the above FFS sync file transfer speed of 2.75mb/sec
Hope this information is helpful,
Beverly Howard
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- Joined: 15 Nov 2023
Thank you so much for this info! I was struggling with extremely slow transfer from my Android device, and your comment about CX file explorer (which I happen to use) was a life saver.
I'll just comment that the port number was different. At first it simply didn't work, but when I connected to the FTP from the file explorer it gave a port number, which I then used in the FTP settings.
I'll just comment that the port number was different. At first it simply didn't work, but when I connected to the FTP from the file explorer it gave a port number, which I then used in the FTP settings.
