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Rather than messing around with wires or copying files across cloud servers, access your Android device over Wi-Fi as a Windows shared folder with Samba.
In nine simple steps, we’ll show how to make your Android phone or tablet appear as a Window shared folder, secure and customise it, and transfer files.
Please note, as with all tutorials in the Hacker Zone section of Little Green Robot, you’ll phone will need to be rooted to make this work.
This tutorial first appeared in Android Magazine’s ‘Top 10 Hacks to Boost Signal’, buy the full issue here.
Make sure you’re rooted
First of all you need to make sure that your smartphone is rooted. In addition, if it wasn’t already installed when you rooted your phone, install the Superuser app.
Install Samba
We’re going to use Samba Filesharing for Android by funkyFresh to turn your smartphone into a networked storage device you can access from your PC. Download and install the free app.
Allow Superuser access
Run Samba for the first time and the Superuser app will pop up asking if you’ll grant access for Samba to have superuser access. Click on Allow before the time limit runs out.
Set a password
It’s a good idea to set a password, otherwise anyone will be able to access files on your phone. In the Settings menu, click on Password and enter something obscure.
Enable Samba
Initially, even if Samba’s running, file sharing will be disabled. To disable it just select Enable from the menu. Sambas’s status screen will now show that it’s been enabled.
Head to your PC
Head over to your PC and open Windows Explorer. Take a look under Networks and you should see ANDROID listed. If not, check that you’ve correctly followed the steps so far.
Log in to your smartphone
Double click on ANDROID and Windows will display a dialogue box for you to log in. Enter SDCARD as the Username, enter the password you provided in Step 4 and click on OK.
Access your SD Card
You’ll now be able to navigate through the files on your smartphone’s SD card. Open them, copy them to your PC, or delete them as you would with files on your PC’s disk.
Change names
If you want to use a name other than ANDROID for your phone, or a username other than SDCARD, change them under NETBIOS Name and Username, respectively, in the Settings menu.
