Phone and computer
Getting files off a phone and onto a PC
The usual routes all have a catch. A cable needs the right cable and, on an iPhone, software that agrees to talk to it. Emailing a video to yourself hits an attachment limit. A cloud folder means uploading the whole file to somebody else's server and then downloading it again on a machine standing two feet away.
The route below skips all of that: the two devices talk to each other. Open the transfer page on both, point one camera at the other screen, and the files move. It works from an iPhone or an Android phone to a Windows PC, a Mac or a Linux machine, and it works just as well in the other direction.
The short version
Phone to computer, in three moves
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01
Open the page on the computer
Go to poftim.app in any browser on the PC or Mac. A code appears immediately — there is nothing to install, no account, and no software to leave running afterwards. The computer is the easier device to show the code from, because it has the bigger screen.
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02
Scan it with the phone
Open the phone's ordinary camera and point it at the computer screen. The transfer page opens on the phone by itself. Both devices then show the same short phrase — check that they match, which is how you know the phone connected to your computer and not to somebody else's.
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03
Pick the files and send
Choose the photos or files on the phone and send them. They arrive on the computer, where you save them the way you save any download. Either side can send, so the same connection also carries files from the computer back to the phone without starting over.
The awkward combinations
iPhone to Windows, Android to Mac
These two pairs are where the built-in tools give up, and they are the reason most people go looking in the first place.
iPhone to a Windows PC
AirDrop does not reach Windows, and the cable route asks a Windows machine to negotiate with an iPhone's photo library — which is where HEIC conversion, missing folders and half-copied albums come from. Going through the browser sidesteps the whole negotiation: the iPhone sends the file it is showing you, and Windows receives it as a download.
Android to a Mac
macOS has never had a first-class way to mount an Android phone, and the tools that once did the job have come and gone. Again, neither device has to understand the other's file system here — they only have to agree on an encrypted connection.
The same phone and computer, over and over
On the free version nothing is remembered between transfers, deliberately. Each connection is created fresh and disappears when you close it, which is also why there is nothing to set up first. If it is the same two devices several times a day, Poftim+ lets them remember each other so you tap a name instead of scanning — see pricing.
When you cannot scan
The computer is somewhere else
Scanning needs the two screens in the same room. When they are not — a work laptop at the office, a friend's PC in another country — use Share connection instead of showing the code.
That produces a one-time link you can send by message or email. When the other machine opens it, the transfer runs through an encrypted relay, so neither device needs to be reachable from the other's network and neither learns the other's network address. The link belongs to the page that made it and expires by itself if nobody opens it.
The devices do not need to share a Wi-Fi network even when they are in the same room. Being on the same network usually makes the transfer faster, because the data can take a direct path, but it has never been a requirement.
Where the files actually go
There is no upload step
This is the practical difference from a cloud folder, and it is worth being precise about.
- A copy left on a server afterwardsNone
- Waiting for an upload before the other device can startNo
- An account, an email address or a sign-inNot asked for
- An attachment size limit to work aroundNone to work around
- Software still running after you close the tabNothing
Files are encrypted on the sending device and travel directly to the receiving one whenever the network allows. When no direct route can be built, the encrypted stream passes through a relay that cannot read it. The full security architecture sets out what each part of the system can and cannot see.