PC-Phone USB Sync

quixotely

About this app

Welcome to PC-Phone USB Sync — a free and ad-free app that provides private backup and sync for content folders on both Android phones and Windows, macOS, and Linux PCs.


FEATURES

- Fast backup/sync with local drives
- Runs on both phones and PCs
- Full, free, and ad-free everywhere
- Private and cloud-free by design
- Updates folders just for changes
- On demand to avoid battery drain
- Automatic rollback of sync changes
- In-app and online help resources
- Configurable form and function
- Open-source code for transparency


WHY THIS APP

This app makes content folders the same on your PCs, phones, and removable drives, with an offline-first design that keeps your content private. Compared to other content-management tools, this app offers some crucial advantages:

- Because it updates content folders only for changes, it's quicker and gentler on your drives than full copies in file explorers and other apps.

- Because it uses your local drives to transfer content, it's faster and more private than clouds and other tools that use networks and servers.

- Because it runs on demand, it's less of a drain on your battery and more stable than syncs that run constantly in the background.

- Because it syncs in one direction at a time, it's immune to change conflicts that require extra manual steps in some tools.

- Because it works the same on your phones and PCs, it provides a cross-device solution that single-platform apps cannot.

In practical terms, this app brings PC-level tools to all your devices. The content it manages isn't just contacts, calendars, and a few stray photos. It's an entire folder of your choice, including all its subfolders, photos, documents, music, and other media you value.

By using this app with a removable drive, you can both back up this content on your phone or PC to save it, and sync (a.k.a. mirror) it between your devices in any direction to make it match: from PC to phone, from phone to PC, and any other way you find useful. Among its roles, this lets you:

- Use your phone as a storage device on which you can view and modify saved content

- Switch your content-creation tasks to a different PC or phone with a fast sync

- Sync your camera's new photos to your PC or phone over a direct USB connection

- Mirror your music libraries between phones, PCs, and standalone players by USB

- Ensure that your content copies are valid by verifying them with this app

- Or simply back up your phone or PC content to a removable drive for safekeeping

Perhaps best of all, though, this app uses your USB ports and removable drives for its backups and syncs to avoid the privacy perils of cloud storage. With this app, your stuff remains your stuff, not someone else's point of control.


USAGE BASICS

All versions of this app are full, free, and ad-free. Get its Android version at the Play store and its Windows, macOS, and Linux versions at quixotely.com. For most roles, you'll also need a removable drive to store and transfer content. An SSD or thumb drive attached by USB is common, but microSD cards, cameras, media players, and other devices work in this app too.

To run syncs, this app uses a simple on-demand model to transfer changes between your devices: you'll push changes to your removable drive on one device and pull them from the drive on another. This makes folders on your devices and removable drive the same both quickly and securely. You'll also find tools to roll back sync changes, copy folders in full, and compare content copies.

For detailed information on how to use this app to sync your content, please see the in-app help in the app's Help tab or the online user guide at https://quixotely.com/PC-Phone%20USB%20Sync

Ratings and reviews

It does just one thing and does it well! For some reason, there are precious few Android apps for local file syncing. Most of the others either require cloud involvement or they recopy unnecessarily. This app is fast, thorough, and intuitive. $ well spent. I just wish it could recognize the volumes mounted through ZUGate or Microsoft exFAT/NTFS for USB by Paragon Soft

I don't normally leave reviews, but this is such a brilliant app. I use it to sync mp3 files between my pc and phone. It does the job perfectly. It has a lot of options & you can roll back the sync if change your mind. It keeps a log, so you can see what it has altered. The first time I ran it it took quite a while (I have many Gb of files), but now it its very quick at finding what has changed and syncing them. It has made managing the files between my PC and phone seamless.

excellent work in progress: press watch to restart - just keep showing the file transfer in real time. erik

What’s new

1.6.1 continues 1.6's quality improvements. It handles unlikely 6-hour timeouts on Android 15+; avoids rare invalid error indicators in SHOW after SYNC; caps Logs TAIL size lower to save memory; presets number-backups lower to save storage; and avoids notification delays on Android 12+. See https://quixotely.com/PC-Phone%20USB%20Sync/News.html#1.6.1