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Help Connecting an Android Phone to Android Netbook

Grrrmachine

Grrrmachine

Lurker
Hi everyone. I've got a project on the go which has reached a point where I need advice from more experienced people. I hope you can help.

I've installed Android x86 on a netbook, so it works as a tablet with a 64Gb drive, wifi, bluetooth etc, but no mobile data connection. This will be installed in my car as my entertainment system. And I've got my Galaxy A5 phone, which usually carries all my music (30Gb+), plus email/net access.

I'm struggling to link them together. USB cables are completely redundant - the netbook doesn't see the phone as a USB storage device so I can't transfer files, and USB tethering doesn't seem to work either so there's no mobile data between them. If I set up a wifi hotspot for data, then I can't use wifi for file transfer, and I can't use bluetooth transfer if I'm in wifi hotspot mode...

Anyone got any tips, before I format the netbook and install Windows?
 
I'd say the simplest way would be to use Play Music (or similar) so that you can access your music on multiple devices. Then use WiFi hotspot on your phone to provide a data connection to your netbook and allow you to stream music. When you have the netbook in wifi range at home, you can also save some of your music for offline listening so that you don't always have to rely on a data connection.

The good thing about cloud streaming is that you don't have to constantly maintain and update your music on the netbook because you access it via your account. The downside is that you need a data connection and if tethering isn't an option for you, then this won't work.


Alternatively, why couldn't you just transfer your music from your phone to your pc at home, then transfer it onto the netbook before it goes in your car? Is this going to be a permanent install, or will you be able to take the netbook out of your car as you please?
 
I can't use a cloud based solution; I have a 2gb monthly data limit, so factor in GPS navigation and the regular work stuff I do, and music syncing would eat that up in no time. Besides, I can't understand why I need to send my mp3s to a cloud server hundreds or thousands of miles away and back again, when my two devices are literally touching each other.

The netbook will be permanently embedded in the car; an in-dash install, so it will neverbe in range of my home wifi, unfortunately.
 
Yes, that's what I'm using, slow as it is. Ideally I'd need a series of apps that could

a) monitor a folder on the phone for changes over a given time
b) automatically activate the wifi hotspot when the phone is plugged in via USB (purely to power the phone)
c) automatically do a bluetooth file transfer to the netbook of the changes to the monitored folder

I'm not sure how much of this can be done with IFTTT recipes, of if there's a similar programmable app.
 
From my experience with IFTTT, it wasn't as thorough as an app like Tasker. Tasker can get even more functional with a rooted device. We have a whole sub-forum here dedicated to Tasker if you need some extra information on that.

To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start with the folder monitoring; hopefully someone else smarter than myself can give you some ideas there. :)


Just found this app you might want to look at. It can transfer files via wi-fi hotspot which should be a lot faster than bluetooth, and it sounds like the pro version has some folder monitoring stuff that may be up your alley.
 
Xplore and ES file manager have a web server built in.
Enable it on one machine and use the web browser on the other to transfer the files.
 
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