Access Android phone/tablet from Windows Explorer

simple0 · 30 May 2017

According to Google search, if one turns on Remote Manager in ES File Explorer on an Android device, one could access it from Windows Explorer, by creating a new Network Location (example: https://www.maketecheasier.com/acces...-from-windows/).
Nevertheless, after I create the ftp network location for my Android phone, and I try to access it from Windows Explorer, I get this error message:

Access Android phone/tablet from Windows Explorer-error.jpg

However from any browser, if I enter ftp://192.168.155.104:3721, I am asked (the first time) the credentials setup in ES File Explorer for the phone, then the tree of the root established in Remote Manager (sdcard for example) is displayed. In Firefox and IE, I can even download files from the phone (Chrome gives an error when trying to download, saying it is not logged in to the server).
The advantage for using Windows Explorer, supposedly, should be that files can be both downloaded and uploaded from/to the phone. That would be nice, except it does not work from any of my Windows 10 (or Windows 8.1) computers. I must add that accessing the Windows computers from the phone, for any file operations, works fine.
I've already searched this forum, but I could not find a solution. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

lvgandhi · 31 May 2017

You can do it by connecting otg cable between phone and pc, you will get options screen in phone. select file transfer. You will see your phone in explorer.
Or use asus file manager. When phone and pc are connected to same wifi, you will get a ip address in phone. use it on pc browser. Then you can upload to or download from phone using browser.

simple0 · 31 May 2017

@Ivgandi
Thank you for your reply. I must not have expressed myself very clearly. I'm sorry for that. I was not looking for ways to transfer files from Windows computers to Android phones. I've been doing that for at least five years using ES File Manager on Android (and OTG cables before that). I was trying to find out WHY Windows Explorer, which is supposed to be a full FTP client (at least in the web pages like that I've pointed to), does not connect to the FTP server created on the Android phone by ES File Explorer. Thus while the ftp clients from IE and Firefox can access the same FTP server fine. Even more, FireFTP addon makes Firefox a full FTP client, being able to perform file operations in both directions, not only downloads from the Android phone/tablet.

Regarding Asus File Manager. I've just installed it on my phone. It does have "Network Places" under "Network Storage" where it discovers all the Windows computers on the same local network. Unlike ES File Explorer though, it shows only the existing visible shares on those computers. Since Windows 10, unlike previous versions of Windows, doesn't share anything by default, there is nothing to access. On previous versions of Windows, only the default Users share and any other visible shares are available and any installed printer shares.
By contrast, ES File Explorer shows not only the visible shares, but ALSO the default hidden shares (ADMIN$, IPC$, C$, D$, etc..), if the connected user has admin rights on those computers. Consequently, unlike with Asus File Manager, with ES File Explorer, somebody with admin rights on the Windows computer(s), can access everything and perform any file operations between Android phone/tablet and PC.

ONLY the first time I run the Asus File Manager on my phone, a new location showed on my Windows 10 laptop. For whatever reason, it was named cingular_us. However, it didn't work (double clicking it didn't do anything). After rebooting the phone, the cingular_us, or any other location related to my Android phone, does not show anymore when Asus File Manager is running.

simple0 · 04 Jun 2017

I think I figured out what's going on. It seems Windows Explorer supports only the FTP protocol (unencrypted). The FTP server created by ES File Explorer on the Android phone, is a SFTP server (FTP + SSH). There is a free extension for Windows Explorer named Swish. It should add SFTP capabilities to WE. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work in Windows 10 (at least for me). No matter what I enter in the Path field (the path to the folder where to first connect, like /mnt/sdcard for example), I get an access error:

Access Android phone/tablet from Windows Explorer-swish.error.jpg

Swish is in alpha stage and development seems to have stopped at Windows 7.There are two commercial options, NetDrive and WebDrive, but I'm not going to spend money for software, when the free FireFTP for Firefox works fine.