Local File Sharing Without Uploading to the Cloud

Transfer multi-gigabyte files between devices on the same Wi-Fi router at the router's own hardware speed, with none of the lag a cloud round trip adds.

Maximum Wi-Fi bandwidth

Transferring over traditional cloud storage is limited by your ISP's upload speed, often 10 to 50 Mbps for a typical home connection. A local WebRTC transfer between two devices on the same router instead uses that router's own 5GHz or Wi-Fi 6 bandwidth, which can run into the hundreds of megabits per second, a meaningfully different ceiling for a large file or folder.

Strict Local-Only Mode

Nearsend includes an optional Local-Only Mode in Settings. Turning it on restricts WebRTC's connection candidates exclusively to local mDNS and LAN addresses, blocking all public STUN and TURN relays outright, for anyone who specifically wants a transfer to stay entirely on their own local network rather than potentially routing through any relay at all.

Why this matters beyond raw speed

Aside from the throughput advantage, staying local means the transfer never depends on the wider internet being fast or even available at the moment, as long as both devices can reach the same router, the transfer proceeds at whatever speed that local connection supports, independent of anything happening on the broader internet connection.

What "local" actually means for a direct transfer

When two devices share the same Wi-Fi router, WebRTC's own connection negotiation typically finds the most direct path available, often a route that never leaves the local network at all, even without Local-Only Mode explicitly turned on. Local-Only Mode makes that behavior mandatory rather than just likely, specifically ruling out any relay path for situations where that stronger guarantee matters.

Why a fast router matters more here than your internet plan

For a local transfer, the practical speed ceiling is set by the router's own Wi-Fi standard and both devices' wireless hardware, a 5GHz or Wi-Fi 6 router paired with modern devices can move data far faster than most home internet connections can upload, which is exactly why a large local transfer often finishes faster than the same file would take to simply upload to a cloud service first.

When Local-Only Mode is worth turning on deliberately

For most everyday transfers, the default settings already tend to favor a direct local path automatically, without needing to think about it. Local-Only Mode is worth turning on specifically when a transfer absolutely must not have any possibility of routing through a relay, a restricted network, a specific compliance requirement, or simply wanting the strongest possible guarantee available for something sensitive moving between two devices already on the same network.

What happens if Local-Only Mode is on and no local path exists

If the two devices genuinely can't reach each other directly on the local network, different subnets, an unusually locked-down router, the connection simply won't complete with Local-Only Mode enabled, rather than silently falling back to a relay. Turning the setting off restores the normal behavior, including the relay fallback, for whenever that stronger local-only guarantee isn't specifically needed.

Local sharing for a household with several devices

A family sharing one router can pair and send between any combination of phones, laptops, and tablets in the house the same way, each transfer independent of the others; there's no shared account or central hub involved, just whichever two devices happen to be pairing at that moment.

Guides

Phone to PC Send Folders Large Files Without an App LocalSend Alternative P2P Transfer Without Shared Wi-Fi Private Sharing