Samba file sharing for your Android phone

More and more, our phones are becoming little computers that we carry around with us everywhere.  And we store more and more files on these little electronic brains of ours.  But what happens when you can’t find that USB cable to connect your phone?  There is no use in having all of that storage space on your phone if you can’t access the contents.

That’s where Samba Filesharing for Android comes in.  For those that aren’t familar with Samba, it is the file sharing software most used to let your Windows computers connect to Linux.  And now that extends to your Android phone.

Note:  This only works on a rooted phone.  For more information on rooting your phone, check out http://forum.xda-developers.com/.

This program couldn’t be easier to set up and use.

• From your phone, go to the Market and download Samba Filesharing
• Once installed, run the program (make sure you grant su access).
• Click Menu > Settings > Password.
• Enter a password (you can change the Username while you’re in the Settings too).
• Click back, Menu > Disable > OK, Menu > Enable (don’t worry, you only have to go through these steps the first time you run the program).
• And your up and running!!

Now go to your nearest PC.  If running Windows (you poor thing…):

• Start > Run > \\ANDROID > OK

If you’re on Ubuntu:

• Places > Connect to a server > Service type: Windows Share > Server: ANDROID.

A window should pop up with the contents of your sdcard.

Other than the normal file management that is now available, I’ve found this is a great way to play music stored on my phone using my PC speaker system.

Unfortunately, this only grants access to the contents of the sdcard, and not the entire filesystem on the phone.  But that shouldn’t be an issue for the vast majority of files that you would want access to.

Just remember to shut off the Samba Filesharing on your phone(Menu > Disable), as it will keep your phone awake while active.  Otherwise, you could wake up to a dead phone battery.