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Android Beam...am I missing something?

lightsleeper23

lightsleeper23

Android Enthusiast
I am trying to send files between a nexus 4 and 7. It chimes as if it's done it successfully, but all it does is open that app on the other device. NO files will actually transfer. I've tried everything, from a tiny picture, to a movie. App open on both, app only open on sender, from menu list to individual file open and paused, nothing. That's IF I can even get it to turn on. 9 times out of ten when I touch them it does nothing. Finding the exact position they need to be in is a nightmare.

The only time it did what it was supposed to was on a YouTube video. It opened up YouTube right to the same video on the phone. Twice (out of dozens of supposedly successful chimes) I got a notification saying incoming beam, which sat there forever and did nothing. It just said failed. It did strangely turn on Bluetooth by itself though, although it didn't use it. What am I missing here?
 
Yep. Totally useless if this is the experience. It would have actually been faster if I'd just used Bluetooth from the start.
 
I transferred a tonne of pics between my N4 & One X via Beam, likewise between my tab too.

If I'm on an app screen on Play, it will transfer that page to the other device, as it does with Youtube videos. Even if I have Beam active and I'm sitting on a home screen, if I touch devices together and tap, it will open the Play store page for whatever Launcher I'm using.

Granted, it doesn't work all of the time, but I reckon I have about a 75% success rate.

:o

NFC is cool. Much to Mrs Presidente's chagrin, I have an NFC tag elegantly sellotaped to the front door frame which turns off WiFi and opens a music app
 
We like to share ebooks, no way on that. It's easy enough to just fetch them independently through Moon+ Reader but I would far prefer to simply tap and be done with it. I tried every way I could think of, no soap. It simply launched whatever app I was using rather than transfer the file.

We already share each other's Dropbox photo folders so I didn't think to try it with photos. IOWA told me that he had success with transferring contacts if I understood him correctly, but I didn't have need of that so I didn't try it.

Electrically, both of our phones always responded to the contact. For what I wanted, file transfer of any sort, I stuck with EStrongs File Explorer and SwiFTP for a client / server pair and called it a day.
 
Android beam? I use S-Beam allot with my Galaxy S3, but then I know allot of people with the same phone.

It works great and transfer speeds are very fast, never tried it with anything but another S3.
 
Oh just a word to the wise if you upgrade your s3 or other compatible phones with qi wireless charging ad I have, nfc may not work. It does not with mine.

I can say I can't get file transfer to work using nfc using AOSP roms on my s3 either, so it must be the sbeam add on that makes it tick
 
S-beam is better than Android Beam in that it does more. It's proprietary nature limits its full features to Samsung devices.

Depending on your crowd, it's either a blessing or a curse.
 
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