How could I upload pictures and videos from Android phone to a remote directory on my Raspberry with Debian 10?
 

I have a Raspberry in my home network with Jellyfin installed, and I have a library for my mother's pictures and videos. I've had this constant complain from her running out of space in her phone again and again because she takes a lot of pictures and videos, and I thought of installing Jellyfin.

First problem is, the Jellyfin android app doesn't allow you to upload files to the server.

Well, I tried installing a Nextcloud server, but a Raspberry can't handle it, it's too heavy for its CPU. It runs extremely slow, so right now I've performed a complete uninstall of Nextcloud.

I've come to the conclusion I just want a simple tool for her to have an app in her phone, and just upload photos and videos to a specific directory in my raspberry, do you know any good (and lightweight if possible) way to do this?

It shouldn't be complicated, but I'm running out of ideas on which software to use.

Hi Adrian,

Will purchasing a used 4gb i3 500gb or even 250gb ssd be an option? If yes, you can install nextcloud on it. I have a Raspberry pi as well and attempted to use nextcloud; however, it ran extremely slow.

I cannot think of any other app that will allow you to do this right from your mother's phone.

Thank you

No, right now my setup is a Raspberry 4 + 2TB HDD.


I believe there are definitely options to maybe share a pictures directory in my network, and then access it with a file manager Android app that allows seeing network files. But as I cannot think of a single and specific server-client program to do this, that's why I ask here to get some ideas :/

+1 adrian-jaramillo

why not use pcmanfm and a cable to connect to her android.

have a bookmark for her DCIM dir and then she can move files from her DCIM to another bookmark for your SSD?

IMHO its as simple as an app, the cut and paste from her phone to SSD achieves the same thing.

Take a look at "AndFTP" for your Android phone---it's a freebie on the Play Store. I use it all the time to download music onto my phone and to upload photos from my phone to my Linux desktop via the wifi router on our home LAN. If your Pi can be reached from your wifi router, you should have no trouble moving files between the two devices. I've given up on trying to use USB cables to move files between the two; too many confusing/maddening restrictions.

What I typically do:: Create a subdirectory on the computer -- say: /home/myname/FOTOS -- where you want to place the files. When the phone gets connected to the computer, switch to that folder. Then press on the little icon that looks like a phone and select the local files to be uploaded. Once you've uploaded the files to your computer, I'm guessing that it'll be a snap to import them into whatever application you want. (It's easier once you get the FTP application installed on your phone and can try it out than it is to explain it here. :^) )

Hope this helps...

FTP!! How could I have forgotten about it as a solution, you are right.

What I've done is:

• On my Raspbbery: vsftpd with chroot, changing the home directory of my mother's ftp user to another location I needed
• On my mother's phone: Install Cx Explorer to access FTP server (I didn't use AndFTP primarily because It won't show pictures' thumbnails, but Cx Explorer is able to do so, and in general is more average user friendly)

By doing so, now she can upload pictures and videos to the Raspberry, awesome.

Can't the Android app in question use standard sftp instead?
I have never used vsftpd, but some users here on LQ implied that it is significantly less secure than openssh's sftp (probably because it's based on ftp).

I haven't picked out vsftpd for a specific reason in mind really, It's just the one I know. I needed an FTP server, but I didn't really care about which one.