SendXa / Articles
Android and macOS
Transfer files from Android to a macOS computer without a cable
Updated 2026-08-22 · 6 minutes read
Short answer
Open sendxa.app in Chrome on the Android phone and in Safari or Chrome on the macOS machine. Pick the files on the phone, then type the 8-character code on the macOS machine. No cable, no Android File Transfer, and no USB mode to fiddle with. On the same Wi-Fi the two browsers connect directly and the files never leave the building.
Plug an Android phone into a macOS machine and nothing happens. macOS does not speak MTP, the protocol Android uses, so the phone never turns into a drive the way it does on Windows. Google's Android File Transfer used to paper over that, but it has been discontinued and on recent macOS versions it tends to hang.
AirDrop is Apple to Apple. Quick Share is Android to Android and Android to Windows. Android on one end and a macOS machine on the other is exactly the pairing nobody's ecosystem covers.
How to do it
On the sending device, open sendxa.app and drop the file onto the page. Several files at once is fine.
The page shows an 8-character code. There is also a QR code and a Copy link button if the other person is not in the room with you.
On the receiving device, open the same address, type the 8-character code into the box and hit Receive. Or just open the link and skip the typing.
The file list appears. Hit Download on the file you want, or Download all.
Keep the sending page open until the transfer finishes. That is the one rule; everything else takes care of itself.
One page, open on both devices. The sender picks the files and gets an 8-character code; the receiver types that code and hits Receive. With the link there is nothing to type at all.
On Android, tapping the file area opens the system picker. Pick from Photos, from Files, or from anywhere else the picker offers. Several files at once is fine; for a whole folder, drag it onto the page instead.
What you get to skip
- No cable, no USB-C to USB-A adapter.
- No pulling down the notification shade to switch USB mode from Charging to File Transfer, a step plenty of people do not know exists.
- No Android File Transfer, no OpenMTP, no third-party software at all.
- No Google account, and no turning on Google Photos backup.
Photos and videos arrive intact
This is the real difference from what many people do instead, which is messaging the file to themselves. Messaging apps recompress photos. On a phone screen you will not notice. On a 27-inch macOS display, or in print, you will.
Here the file arrives byte for byte identical. 4K video shot on the phone is still 4K on the macOS machine: same bitrate, no dropped frames.
Where the files land on the macOS machine
| Browser on the macOS machine | How it saves |
|---|
| Chrome, Edge | You pick a location first, then it writes straight to disk as data arrives. The limit is free space. |
| Safari, files under 512 MB | Buffered in memory and then saved to Downloads, with a progress bar the whole way. |
| Safari, files over 512 MB | Falls back to an ordinary Safari download. The file still arrives; you lose the in-page progress bar. |
If a very large file is coming, open the macOS machine side in Chrome. On the Android side the browser makes no difference.
On the same Wi-Fi it goes direct
The two browsers try a direct connection before falling back to the relay. Phone and macOS on the same Wi-Fi will connect, and the file never leaves the building. Measured on a 6 MB file: 3.6 seconds direct against 42.2 seconds relayed.
Both bars are drawn to the times actually measured on this service. The direct route is nearly twelve times faster, and the gap widens as files get bigger.
The page says which path it is on while the transfer runs, so there is nothing to guess at.
Big files on a flaky connection
Android phones hop between Wi-Fi and mobile data on their own, and the system throttles background tabs when you switch apps. Either one interrupts a transfer.
- An interruption resumes from the exact byte it stopped at, not from zero.
- The page reconnects on its own up to 30 times, backing off from 2 seconds to 20.
- Stop means pause. What arrived stays, and the button turns into Resume.
- While sending, keep the screen on and stay in that tab. Do not switch to another app.
A drop never sends you back to zero. The receiving side remembers how many bytes it holds and asks only for what is missing; the page reconnects up to 30 times, backing off from 2 to 20 seconds.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need Android File Transfer?
No. Google discontinued it, and this route does not touch it.
Do I need a cable?
No cable, and no switching USB modes on the phone.
Can I go the other way, macOS to Android?
Yes, the same way. Pick the file on the macOS machine, type the code on the phone or open the link.
Does 4K video get recompressed?
No. The file arrives byte for byte identical, unlike sending it through a messaging app.
Can I send a whole folder?
Yes. Drag the folder onto the page and the tree survives, so the receiving side sees the same structure.
What if the phone switches from Wi-Fi to mobile data mid-transfer?
It drops, reconnects on its own, and resumes where it stopped. Nothing to redo.
Will this work on an older macOS?
Yes. The only requirement is a browser that still gets updates; the macOS version does not matter.
Try it with the file you are stuck on right now
Open the page on both devices, pick the file, read out the 8-character code. Nothing to install, no account, and the file never rests on our server.
Send a file now →