Transfer Photos from Android to PC Wirelessly

October 8, 2026

You can move photos from an Android phone to a computer with a USB cable, a cloud service, or an app, and each of them has a catch. The cable needs the right connector and the right USB mode, the cloud needs an upload and an account, and apps need installing on both sides. If you just want to transfer photos from Android to a PC wirelessly, the browser on each device is enough. This guide covers the steps and the problems people hit.

What you need

An Android phone with Chrome or another modern browser, a Windows PC, Mac or Linux computer with a modern browser, and an internet connection on each. They do not need to share a Wi-Fi network. Nothing is installed and no account is needed.

Step 1: Open Nearsend on both devices

Open nearsend.app on the computer and on the phone. Keep both pages open until the transfer ends, since closing or refreshing either one ends the connection.

Step 2: Pair them

On the computer, click Pair device. Then either type the six-digit PIN into the pairing window on the phone, or scan the QR code with the scanner inside Nearsend on the phone. Allow camera access if the browser asks, or use the PIN instead. The code lasts about three minutes. Accept the pairing on the computer.

Step 3: Select the photos

On the phone, tap Browse files and choose your photos. Android shows its own picker, where you can select several pictures at once or open a folder such as Camera or Screenshots. Selecting a few hundred at a time works well.

Step 4: Accept and save on the computer

The computer asks you to accept the incoming files, then shows progress with speed and time remaining. Keep the phone screen on and the browser open in the foreground until it finishes. The files are saved through the browser, normally to the Downloads folder, with their original format and quality, because nothing recompresses them on the way.

Photos, videos and other files

The same steps work for videos, screenshots, documents and whole folders. Photos from recent phones can be several megabytes each, so a large batch takes a while on a slow connection. The limit is the slower of the two connections, not a cap set by Nearsend.

How this compares with other ways

A USB cable is the most reliable choice for a huge amount of data in the same room, but it needs the right cable and for the phone to be set to transfer files. Cloud services work when the other person is not around, but they upload every photo first and keep a copy online. Quick Share can be convenient between compatible devices, and its availability depends on your phone and computer. A browser transfer sits in between: no cable, no account, nothing stored, and it works across operating systems.

If something goes wrong

If the computer does not see the phone, check both are online, turn off any VPN, and make a new PIN. If the transfer stalls, make sure the phone has not locked and the browser is still in the foreground. If some files fail, use Retry Failed Files. On a strict work or school network, try a mobile hotspot, because direct connections are sometimes blocked.