SSHelper

Paul Lutus

About this app

SSHelper is an advanced, multi-protocol, secure server for the Android platform.

SSHelper works just fine with a normal, unrooted Android device — i.e. your device. It also offers special features on rooted devices.

SSHelper works as an application and as a service. As a service it runs in the background, providing secure communications protocols without requiring user attention.

SSHelper supports interactive Secure Shell (hereafter SSH) sessions and various kinds of transfers including scp, sftp, and rsync, on all common platforms:

On Windows, SSHelper works with WinSCP, PuTTY and similar programs.

On Linux, apart from normal SSH shell session activities, SSHelper can be used directly with file browsers for seamless filesystem browsing and transfers by specifying the "sftp:" protocol.

On the Mac, SSHelper works with Cyberduck and similar programs.

SSHelper versions >= 7.8 accepts any network type that Android recognizes -- it's no longer limited to wireless networks.

SSHelper announces itself on your network by way of Zeroconf/Bonjour, an efficient way to configure a local network.

SSHelper includes a log monitor Web server showing an activity log on local network browsers.

SSHelper also includes a clipboard Web server that permits read/write access to the Android clipboard from local network browsers.

SSHelper is free, open-source and there are no ads. It's licensed under the GPL and the source is freely available.

The SSHelper Home Page is located at http://arachnoid.com/android/SSHelper -- visit for more information and configuration tips.

Ratings and reviews

This is the definitive ssh server app. It sets up a usable home directory on the server, complete with keys. And it comes with the rsync executable which is what I really needed to sync my music collection to my phone. Writing to an external SD card is problematic on android, not the fault of this app, but the author provides comprehensive documentation on how to work around these constraints. This app brings my android phone a huge step forward toward looking like just another linux server to deal with, ie, I can use the same tools now to manage all my machines instead of having specialized ways to deal with the phone. If this were a paid app, I would happily pay for it.

With the latest version 11.7 I'm getting "The server is not running. To fix this, click the "Restart" menu item." which just brings up the popup again. I was getting "libandroid-support.so not found" error. (Android 6.0) Rebooted my phone multiple times and reinstalled the app multiple times too, but no effect. I reverted to 11.4, but as your website lacked any official way to download older versions I had to use sketchy websites, so please provide an official way to download older versions. BTW great app when it works : ) Paul Lutus: I tried updating with the painful method too: "Erase program data, then fully uninstall, shut down your device (not just reboot), restart the device and reinstall." with both 11.7 and 12.4 and neither of them worked after the update so I disabled auto update and will stick with 11.4 on this phone. I hope you'll be able to fix this by the time I'll upgrade to a new phone : ) (Also this is super painful when it's not possible to give the app access to the SD Card unless I create the Android/media/com.arachnoid.sshelper folder on the SD Card (in which case it at least have access to that folder) and Android deletes it when I uninstall the app.)

I use SSHelper primarily to transfer files to and from my unrooted phones over SFTP and SSHFS, both of which work smoothly. Most phones mount the internal storage on /storage/emulated/0, which isn't traversable on unrooted devices but fortunately still accessible. The app itself is very easy to set up. Everything you can configure is in the Configuration tab. However, the terminal tab is useless. The soft keyboard will close after pressing a single character for some reason.

What's new

Sorry -- this app cannot be updated to full compliance with Android 10 (API 29) (but it works correctly with Android 10). This means SSHelper will disappear from Google Play within 60 days at most. Please visit the SSHelper Home Page (https://arachnoid.com/android/SSHelper/) for full details and future updates.