Transfer files between PC and phone without WiFi

Okay so this started because my WiFi was down.

I had like 3-4 GB of stuff on my PC that I needed on my phone. Normally I'd just use the network sharing thing over WiFi, browse my PC folders from my phone, copy whatever I want. Works great. But no WiFi that day, so that option was dead.

My first instinct was USB cable. Spent five minutes looking for it, found it, plugged it in, and Windows did that thing where it detects the phone but the folders take forever to load. And then MTP transfer speed. If you know, you know. It's painfully slow for no reason.

Tried QuickShare next. It's fine for sending a few photos to someone but selecting 40+ files through a share sheet and waiting for it to do its pairing dance every time is not my idea of fun.

Then it hit me. The only reason WiFi sharing works is because both devices are on the same network. The router doesn't actually do anything special. It just puts them on the same network.

And my phone can create a network. It's called a hotspot.

Wait, that actually works?

Yeah. That's the whole trick.

Turn on your phone's hotspot, connect your PC to it, and congrats, both devices are now on the same local network. Same situation as WiFi sharing, except your phone is playing the role of the router.

I felt a bit dumb for not thinking of this earlier honestly. I've used hotspot a hundred times for internet but never thought of it as "my own personal network".

Small disclaimer before someone comments about it: hotspot runs on mobile data. The file transfer itself stays local so it barely uses any, but your PC will happily eat data in the background for Windows updates and stuff once it gets internet. If you're on a limited plan, watch out for that. If you have one of those unlimited 5G plans then whatever, doesn't matter.

Anyway here's the actual setup. Takes maybe 10 minutes the first time, 30 seconds every time after.

Setting it up

On the phone: turn on mobile hotspot. Settings > Connections > Mobile Hotspot and Tethering on Samsung. You know where this is.

On the PC: connect to the hotspot like any WiFi network.

Now the Windows part, which is where it gets slightly annoying because Windows loves hiding these settings.

Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Advanced network settings > Advanced sharing settings. You'll see Private and Public network profiles there. Hotspots usually get treated as Public networks, so turn on "Network discovery" and "File and printer sharing" for the Public profile. Or honestly just turn it on for both, I did.

Then pick the folder you want to share. Right click > Properties > Sharing tab > Share. Add "Everyone", set permission to Read/Write (important, otherwise you can only copy FROM the PC, not TO it), and hit share.

Last thing on the PC side. Open cmd and run:

ipconfig

Find the IPv4 address under your WiFi adapter. Mine was 192.168.43.105 or something like that. Note it down.

The phone side

This is the part I didn't know existed until recently, and I've been using Samsung phones for years.

Open My Files, scroll down, and there's an option called Network Storage. Might say Remote Connections on some versions. I genuinely never noticed it before because who scrolls down in a file manager.

Tap it, hit the + icon, and it asks for:

• Address: the IP from ipconfig

• Port: 445 (should already be filled in)

• Username: your Windows username

• Password: your Windows password

Connect. And your PC folder just... shows up. In your phone's file manager. Like it's a folder on your phone.

You can browse it, copy stuff out, paste stuff in, whatever. Both directions. And it's fast because it's a direct local connection, not going through the internet or some cloud server.

The one thing that WILL break

I want to save you the confusion I went through, because this got me on day two.

Set everything up, worked perfectly, went to bed happy. Next day, turned on hotspot, opened the saved connection on my phone, and it just refused to connect. No error that made sense. Nothing.

The problem: my PC got a different IP address this time. When you reconnect to a hotspot after shutting things down, the phone might hand out a new IP. Your saved connection is still pointing at the old one, which now belongs to nothing.

Fix is stupid simple once you know. Run ipconfig again, get the new IP, edit the saved connection on the phone, update the address, done. Sometimes the IP stays the same and everything works on the first try. Sometimes it doesn't. Just check the IP first whenever it stops connecting, it's basically always the IP.

Is this better than a cable?

For my use case, yes, easily. No cable to find, no MTP slowness, no picking files one by one through a share sheet. I just open My Files and my PC folder is sitting right there.

Also nothing to install. No shady "phone transfer" apps from the Play Store asking for 15 permissions. Everything used here already exists on your phone and your PC, which is kind of the best part.

Is it perfect? No. The IP thing is mildly annoying and the first-time Windows setup is more clicks than it should be. But after setup it's genuinely the fastest option I've used.

I'm also making a video walkthrough of this whole thing because some steps (especially the Windows sharing settings) are way easier to follow when you can see the screen. Will link it once it's up.

If you try this and get stuck somewhere, comment below and I'll try to help. And if you know a way to make the PC keep a fixed IP on hotspot, I'm all ears, that would solve the one annoying part of this setup.