Access folders on android

How to Access Shared Win­dows Fold­ers On Android Over WiFi

Ashish Mundhra

20 Apr 2012

While talking about the AirDroid for Android the other day, we discussed how you can use the application to manage your phone’s data and files from your PC using a WiFi connection. But what if you want it the other way? What if you wanted to access a folder on your Windows PC on your phone and edit the files present in it?

Of course using an online backup tool is an option but you might not want to put a folder there just because of the purpose of sharing on your phone. You should be able to access it directly through WiFi, right?

You all probably know about file sharing in Windows and how it can be used to work on files hosted on different computers using a network connection (LAN or WiFi). Today we will see to use the same principle of file sharing and access files shared on your Windows PC on your Android.

Let me first show you how you can share a particular folder on Windows. And then we will move to the Android part of the process.

Sharing folders on Windows 7

Step 1: Right-click on the folder you want to share on your Windows and click on Properties to open the folder properties. Navigate to the Sharing tab and click on the Share button to open the File Sharing window.

Step 2: On the File Sharing window, you will be asked to enter the name of the group you want to share the folder with. Write Everyone and click on the Add button. You may give Read or Read/Write permission to the share access depending on your needs. Once you are done, click on the Share button.

Step 3: Now you can opt for two types of sharing, either password protected or open. If you are on a secure home network, I would recommend you go for the open file sharing as it makes things a bit easier. But if you are on an unsecured WiFi network, you must go for the password protected sharing.

To change these settings, navigate to Control Panel —> Network and Sharing Center. Here click on the link Change advanced settings on the left hand sidebar to open Advance sharing settings. Scroll down to the end of the page to find the Password protected sharing option, choose a password and save the settings.

Cool Tip: To see list of all the folders you have shared on your computer, right click on the Computer icon in the start menu and click on Manage. Having done that, click on the Shared Folders—>Shares to list all the folders shared on your computer.

You may share any number of folders you want to access on your Android.

So that was all we needed on the Windows side of the equation. Now let us configure settings on the Android.

Accessing Shared Folders on Android

Step 1: Download and install ES File Explorer on your Android device. It’s an amazing and one of the most acclaimed file managers for Android. It works on all the devices running on Android version 1.6 and above. One of the features of ES File Explorer is that it allows you to access your Home PC on WiFI via Server Message Block (SMB).

Step 2: Once you have downloaded the app, launch it. The home screen will display all the files and folders that are on your SD card. Swipe your finger to the left on the screen to move to navigate to the right to the LAN share screen. Also make sure both your computer and your Android phones are connected to the same network.

Step 3: Touch the button New on the top bar to add a new server (your computer in this case).

Step 4: Here leave the Domain field empty and do one of the following tasks depending upon your sharing security.

a) If you have opted for non-password protected sharing, enter the IP address of your computer (use the command ipconfig on the command prompt of your computer to know your IP) and check the anonymous option. Give your server an alias to identify if (it’s useful when you are using the app to access shared folders on different computer) and press the OK button to add the server.

b) For those who have enabled the password protected sharing option, do not check the anonymous option, instead provide the username and password you use to login to Windows and add the server.

That’s all, you can now browse through all the files and folders that are shared on the computer on your Android. That’s not all, depending upon the type of sharing privileges you have granted on Windows, you can do tasks such as:

• Viewing images and streaming live video. Though in the past, we have covered a dedicated app for this, I prefer ES File Explorer now because it’s ad-free and smooth.
• Open and edit text files, documents and save the changes directly without downloading the files on your phone.
• Copy a file from your computer to your phone easily. You can also modify and delete the files on your computer from your Android.
• You can view almost all the files on your Android provided you have a supported viewer for the specific file type.
• If you have write access to the shared folder on Windows, you can copy files and folders from Android to computer as well.

Video

Here’s our video on this entire process. Watch it to learn exactly how it is done.

My Verdict

This feature of ES File Explorer has made me fall in love with it. Now I can work on my computer while roaming in the house or while having a cup of coffee on the balcony… I just need the phone. So do try it out and mobilize your work.

Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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The Kindle ebook reader was initially, codenamed Fiona.

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How to Access Shared Windows Folders on Android, iPad, and iPhone

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

Share a folder with Windows’ built-in sharing options and you can access it on an Android device, iPad, or iPhone. This is a convenient way to stream videos from your PC or access other files wirelessly.

You can access folders shared from Mac or Linux in the exact same ways. You’ll just need to share the folders so they’re accessible from Windows PCs. They’ll appear alongside your available Windows PCs.

How to Share the Folder

As with accessing a shared Windows folder from Linux or Mac OS X, you can’t use a homegroup for this. You’ll need to make your folder available the old-fashioned way. Open the Control Panel, click Choose homegroup and sharing options under Network and Internet, and click Change advanced sharing settings. Enable the file and printer sharing feature.

You may also want to configure the other advanced sharing settings here. For example, you could enable access to your files without a password if you trust all the devices on your local network.

Once file and printer sharing is enabled, you can open File Explorer or Windows Explorer, right-click a folder you want to share, and select Properties. Click the Share button and make the folder available on the network.

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This feature makes files available on the local network, so your PC and mobile devices have to be on the same local network. You can’t access a shared Windows folder over the Internet or when your smartphone is connected to its mobile data — it has to be connected to Wi-Fi.

Access a Shared Folder on Android

Android doesn’t have a built-in file manager app, so there’s no built-in way to access Windows shared folders just like there’s no built-in way to browse the files on an SD card.

There are many different file managers available for Android, and quite a few of them include this feature. We like the ES File Explorer app, which is free and allows you to access files on a wide variety of systems.

Update: ES File Explorer is no longer available. If you’re looking for a replacement, we like Solid Explorer. It can also connect to Windows network shares using the SMB protocol.

Install ES File Explorer, launch it, tap the menu button (it looks a bit like a phone in front of a globe), tap Network, and tap LAN.

Tap the Scan button and ES File Explorer will scan your network for Windows computers sharing files. It lists your computers by their local IP addresses, so tap the IP address of your Windows PC. You may need to enter a username and password, depending on how you set up file sharing.

Android is pretty flexible, so you can open files from your Windows share in other apps or easily copy them to your device’s local storage for later use. You can also stream videos directly from your network share, using your PC as a media server without requiring any special software.

Access a Shared Folder on iOS

You’ll need a third-party file management app to access and browse Windows shares or any other file systems. There are quite a few of these available on the App Store. We tested FileExplorer Free — it’s polished, free, and works well.

Launch the app, tap the + button, and tap Windows to add a Windows network share.

FileExplorer will scan your local network for Windows computers sharing files and display them in a list. Tap one of these computers to view its shared files. You’ll be asked to provide a username and password or attempt to log in as a guest.

iOS is less flexible when it comes to file management and file associations, so there’s less you can do with these files. However, you can still open a video file directly from your shared folder and play it on your device or access other media files in a similar way. You could also use the “Open In” feature to open a file in a specific app.

The Windows network file sharing protocol is known as CIFS, which is an implementation of the SMB protocol. if you’re looking for another Android or iOS app that can access these types of files, search Google Play or Apple’s App Store for “SMB” or “CIFS.”

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