Quick Tutorial: How to seamlessly integrate Android with your desktop using webdav, adb & scrcpy freeware

[Andy Burnelli]

Quick Tutorial: How to seamlessly integrate Android with your desktop

*Summary:*
This is a general purpose solution EVERYONE can run right now!
Step 1: Install & configure two WebDAV servers on your Android phone
Step 2: Install & configure adb & scrcpy mirroring on your Windows desktop
Step 3: Connect both Android & your desktop to your home Wi-Fi network

Voila!
Sharing of the Android phone as a Windows drive letter with keyboard
mirroring, mousing, clipboard, monitor & screenshot capabilities.

*Illustrations:*
<https://i.postimg.cc/D0qMxTMB/webdav09.jpg> FOSS general purpose solution
<https://i.postimg.cc/wM4Z45pN/webdav10.jpg> Free Android WebDAV servers
<https://i.postimg.cc/BQyRxCN9/webdav11.jpg> Mount sdcards read & write
<https://i.postimg.cc/yYWwgGmy/webdav12.jpg> As Windows drive letters
<https://i.postimg.cc/QtbR1GY0/webdav13.jpg> Over Wi-Fi on your home LAN

*Recommendations:*
O: => Use OliveTree for the internal sdcard (& read-only root partition)
X: => Use BestDav for the external sdcard (see reasons for that below)

Internal sdcard (plus the Android read-only file system)
C:\> net use O: \\192.168.1.4@8000\DavWWWRoot /USER:foo bar
*WebDAV Server* by The Olive Tree
Contains ads, requires GSF, rated 3.5 out of 841 reviews & 100K+ downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.webdavserver>

Notes:
Use the OliveTree WebDAV server for full access to the internal sdcard.
Do not use the OliveTree WebDAV server for the external sdcard.

Home Directory
(_) Root (/) === / (this works but does NOT access the external sdcard)
(_) sdCard === /storage/emulated/0
(_) DCIM === /storage/emulated/0/DCIM
(o) Custom folder (impossible to get to the _external_ sdcard from here!)
/ ==> almost the entire internal sdcard (including read-only parts)
/sdcard ==> the typical writeable internal sdcard including 0000
/mnt/sdcard ==> the typical writeable internal sdcard including 0000

What you can NOT do is select "/storage" which means these won't work:
/storage/emulated/0 ==> internal sdcard
/storage/0000-0001 ==> external sdcard
(_) Ext. SdCard === /storage/0000-0001/Android/data/com.theolivetree.webdavserver/files
You'd think that would work but it's too deep to be useful.

External sdcard (only)
C:\>
*WebDAV Server - BestDAV* by ZQ Software
No ads, No GSF, rated 3.5 out of 133 reviews & 10K+ downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zq.webdav.app_free>

Notes:
Use the BestDAV WebDav server for full access to the external sdcard.
Be advised the BestDav server requires knowledge of the actual Android path.

Home Directory
[SDCARD]/ ==> this is the writeable internal sdcard including 0000
/ ==> paradoxically, this is the writeable internal sdcard also
/storage ==> nothing
/storage/ ==> nothing
/storage/emulated/0 ==> internal sdcard
/storage/0000-0001 ==> external sdcard

Note these are typical Samsung file specifications; yours may differ.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to summarize Android/Desktop interoperability.

[wasbit]

Probably not quite the same thing but there are also :

Andy - https://www.andyroid.net/
Warpinator (Windows) - https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator
Warpinator (IOS) - https://github.com/williamMillington/warpinator-iOS
Winpinator (Linux) - https://winpinator.swisz.cz/index.html

--
Regards
wasbit

[Fokke Nauta]

Seems interesting.
But I have a FTP client on my Windows desk top and a SSH server on my
Samsung smartphone. Have direct contact with all file locations. Works well.

Fokke

[Andy Burnelli]

Fokke Nauta wrote:

> Seems interesting.
> But I have a FTP client on my Windows desk top and a SSH server on my
> Samsung smartphone. Have direct contact with all file locations. Works well.
>
> Fokke

Hi Fokke,

It _is_ very interesting (to me), to be able to freely connect Android to
Windows over Wi-Fi at home simply by running a few basic Windows commands.

To be sure, there's more to the setup as I set up Android for a static IP
address (which makes the Windows commands more consistent) but at the same
time I've set up Android to randomize the MAC address not only with every
Wi-Fi access point (which a router can handle with prioritized
assignments), but also to uniquely randomize _every_ Wi-Fi connection
(which the home router no longer can handle where this type of privacy has
only been available to Android since Android 11 or 12 (I forget which).

Likewise, the Android debugging Tile you can see in my screenshots has only
been available since Android 11 or 12 (again, I forget which), my point
being there's also a bit of non-essential additional Android stuff going
on.

Thank you for the added technical value, as that's the whole point, for me,
of Usenet, which is sharing and learning from each other - where every one
of us has _different_ setups and capabilities.

With respect to clients and servers, you noticed that the WebDAV solution
used an Android _server_ to mount the Windows _client as a drive letter.
<https://i.postimg.cc/cJLK1wt0/webdav07.jpg> Mount the Android filesystem

And that the screen/clipboard/mouse/keyboard mirroring was over adb/scrcpy:
<https://i.postimg.cc/JhjpnRgh/webdav14.jpg> Mirroring Android on Windows

I'm not sure what "kind" of Windows client protocol was used by the Windows
"net use" command when it mounted Android as a Windows drive letter though.

Would you call "net use" a Windows "WebDAV" client? Or an "http" client?

As for your FTP setup, you used a similar client:server setup with the
Windows FTP "client" communicating with your Android SSH "server".

Based on information Frank Slootweg kindly added, we could also have used
the Windows freeware FTPUse command to "mount" the Android device over
Wi-Fi as a Windows drive letter using the FTP port 21 & port 22 I'm told.
<https://www.ferrobackup.com/map-ftp-as-disk.html>
FTPUSE devicename [ftphostname[/remotepath] [password]]
[/USER:username]
[/NOPASSIVE]
[/OWNERACCESSONLY]
[/PORT:portnumber]
[/HIDE]
[/DEBUG]
[[/DELETE]]

As for the SSH server on your Android phone, since I'm always seeking
general purpose solutions (which means _everyone_ can use them always!),
may I ask _which_ SSH server you recommend for the Android user team?

When I used the Google Play Store client to search for the best free, ad
free, gsf free, SSH Servers with a 4+ rating and 1M= downloads, none were
found on the Google Play Store repository.

But when I loosened that stringent search criteria to allow SSH servers
with fewer downloads, suddenly a bunch of SSH server apps showed up.

The top of the list in that Google Play Store search was this one.
*SSHelper* by Paul Lutus
Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 4.7 in 1.07K reviews with 100K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.arachnoid.sshelper>

But other, lower-rated, SSH server apps showed up in the official Google
Play Store repository such as these next on the list of found results.
*SimpleSSHD* by galexand
Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 4.3 in 407 reviews 50K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.galexander.sshd>

I've never installed an SSH server on Android (or Windows), so I don't have
any experience with testing out the solution that you proposed above.

Since the whole point of this tutorial being posted to Usenet is to both
learn from and disseminate our combined knowledge, can you let the team
know which SSH server you found most useful for your needs, as you see it.
<https://i.postimg.cc/9FHnnpSp/webdav15.jpg> The best Android SSH Server?

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to expound upon Fokke's use of FTP & SSH protocol.

Please improve by adding your technhical value based on your experiences.

[Your Name]

Please stop cross-posting this irrelevant garbage to the iPhone
newsgroup. Nobody here gives a crap.

[Andy Burnelli]

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> But other, lower-rated, SSH server apps showed up in the official Google
> Play Store repository such as these next on the list of found results.
> *SimpleSSHD* by galexand
> Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 4.3 in 407 reviews 50K+ Downloads
> <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.galexander.sshd>
>
> I've never installed an SSH server on Android (or Windows), so I don't have
> any experience with testing out the solution that you proposed above.
>
> Since the whole point of this tutorial being posted to Usenet is to both
> learn from and disseminate our combined knowledge, can you let the team
> know which SSH server you found most useful for your needs, as you see it.
> <https://i.postimg.cc/9FHnnpSp/webdav15.jpg> The best Android SSH Server?

UPDATE:

<https://i.postimg.cc/D0qMxTMB/webdav09.jpg> FOSS general purpose solution
<https://i.postimg.cc/wM4Z45pN/webdav10.jpg> Free Android WebDAV servers
<https://i.postimg.cc/BQyRxCN9/webdav11.jpg> Mount sdcards read & write
<https://i.postimg.cc/yYWwgGmy/webdav12.jpg> As Windows drive letters
<https://i.postimg.cc/QtbR1GY0/webdav13.jpg> Over Wi-Fi on your home LAN

<https://i.postimg.cc/JhjpnRgh/webdav14.jpg> Mirroring Android on Windows

<https://i.postimg.cc/9FHnnpSp/webdav15.jpg> The best Android SSH Server?

<https://i.postimg.cc/gcKXV6F7/webdav16.jpg> A third free WebDAV server

I noticed the iPhone group (instead of Android) so I fixed that given this
"could" have been about integrating iOS but you always do Android first.

It's in the permanent Usenet archive for all Windows operating systems:
*Quick Tutorial: How to seamlessly integrate Android with your desktop using webdav, adb & scrcpy freeware*
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.microsoft.windows/c/M4QMk2u6k2c>
That way we can leverage the hours of kind testing each post entails.


Sometimes when you look for one thing, you find a gold mine in another.
While I really don't know what the difference is between a WebDAV and HTTP
server, when I was looking for good SSL servers to test Fokke Nauta's
kind and helpful SSL/FTP suggestion for mounting Android onto Windows,
a joint HTTP/WebDAV:SSL server came up, which is tested in detail below.

Since all my tutorials are general purpose solutions everyone can use, when
I searched for a free SSL server for my unrooted phone, this came up.
*HTTP File Server (+WebDAV)* by slowscript, with In-app purchases
Free, ad free, gsf free, rated 3.7 in 188 reviews with 10K+ Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=slowscript.httpfileserver>

I don't know (yet) what requires "in app purchases", but this free ad free
WebDAV server allowed read/write access to the sd card _without_ the user
needing to know the full filespec (which, unfortunately BestDAV required).

Hence, since I'm always seeking the simplest general purpose solutions,
I may recommend, in the future, this free ad free WebDAV server over
either the simple-to-use "Olive Tree" WebDAV server (but with ads!),
or the harder-to-use (but sans those ads!) "BestDAV" WebDAV server.

*WebDAV Server* by The Olive Tree  

Free, has ads, requires GSF, rated 3.5 in 841 reviews & 100K+ downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.webdavserver>

*WebDAV Server - BestDAV* by ZQ Software
No ads, No GSF, rated 3.5 out of 133 reviews & 10K+ downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zq.webdav.app_free>

Note that if you do not need to mount _both sdcards_ at the same time,
you only need to use one WebDAV server (although maybe a more powerful
WebDAV server will be found which can serve two ports at the same time).

Also note Windows seems to gracefully handle when you _switch_ the
underlying mount on Android which, thankfully, is surprising behavior.
a. Start Android WebDAV server & connect to the Wi-Fi network
b. Run Windows "net use" to mount the Android internal sdcard as a drive
c. Stop the Android WebDAV server & restart using the external sdcard
d. When you restart the Android WebDAV server, Windows switches over

However, it's still "more graceful" to issue a Windows unmount command:
C:\> net use J: /delete /yes
Before issuing a new mount command.
C:\> net use J: \\192.168.1.4@7000\DavWWWRoot /USER:foo bar
Following these five steps to switch the mount point gracefully.
A. Unmount the Windows mount point (net use * /delete /y)
B. Stop the Android WebDAV server [STOP]
C. Change the Android WebDAV server DavWWWRoot HOME directory
D. Restart the Android WebDAV server [START]
E. Re-mount the Windows mount point (net use)

Using that process to test this previously unknown-to-me "slowscript"
server, these are my results when using various preset root paths.
WebDAV server root directory
/storage/emulated/0 === Windows mounts the user internal sdcard r/w
/storage/emulated === Windows mounts "something" but it's read-only empty
/storage/ === Windows mounts "something" but it's empty & read only
/storage/0000-0001/ === Windows mounts the entire external sdcard r/w
/ === failed
Then I used the "custom editing" option to test a few mount points:
/mnt/ === Windows mounted a lot (but not all) of Android root read only
/mnt/sdcard/ === failed
/mnt/storage/ === failednet

In summary, this new ad-free free combination webdav/http/ssl server may
replace the olive tree ad-supported free webdav server so that you can
mount both sdcards without seeing any ads.

One question I have for Fokke Nauta is what's teh difference between a
webdav & http server and also how to use his SSL server suggestion.

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to test out Fokke Nauta's suggestion if possible.

[Your Name]

On 2022-11-26 10:13:47 +0000, wasbit said:

> On 25/11/2022 21:16, Your Name wrote:
>> On 2022-11-25 10:05:21 +0000, wasbit said:
>>

>> Please stop cross-posting this irrelevant garbage to the iPhone
>> newsgroup. Nobody here gives a crap.
>

> Apologies.
> Forgot to remove the cross posts.

My comment was meant to be aimed at the moronic braindead troll Andy
Burnelli (and his numerous name changes). Can everyone else in the
Android and Windows newsgroups pleases put that idiot back in his
rubber cell!

[Big Al]

I too can ftp to the phone, my file manager will become a ftp server.
I also use pushbullet to send/recv text messages and notifications on my phone.

[Frank Slootweg]

Your Name <Your...@yourisp.com> wrote:
> On 2022-11-25 10:05:21 +0000, wasbit said:

[...]

> > Probably not quite the same thing but there are also :
> >
> > Andy - https://www.andyroid.net/
> > Warpinator (Windows) - https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator
> > Warpinator (IOS) - https://github.com/williamMillington/warpinator-iOS
> > Winpinator (Linux) - https://winpinator.swisz.cz/index.html
>
> Please stop cross-posting this irrelevant garbage to the iPhone
> newsgroup. Nobody here gives a crap.

As I hinted at in another thread ((cross)posted in/to
comp.mobile.android), why don't you filter these crossposts and live
happily ever after?

Or do you want non-crap, which is crossposted between the iPhone and
Windows groups?

[Andy Burnelli]

Frank Slootweg wrote:

> As I hinted at in another thread ((cross)posted in/to
> comp.mobile.android), why don't you filter these crossposts and live
> happily ever after?

Frank is correct that I errantly cross posted to the iOS instead of Android
newsgroup, and, the instant I realized that faux pas, I corrected it.

Note that the cross post was by accident and that I said so the moment I
noticed it and I removed it and replaced it with android at that time.

We "could" write up a similar thread for iOS as I've already done most of
it anyway with my iPads, but I've _already_ written how to do it for iOS.

Mirroring of iOS keyboard, mouse, clipboard & screen on the desktop):
<https://i.postimg.cc/Kz7pW9mL/vysor22.jpg> Installing Apple drivers
<https://i.postimg.cc/tCvS8nGr/vysor23.jpg> iPad is connected to Win10
<https://i.postimg.cc/k5gv0yw8/vysor34.jpg> Apple iOS & Android mirroring

Integration of file systems (iOS, Windows, Android & Linux simultaneously):
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios000.jpg> Ubuntu before iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios010.jpg> Trust This Computer?
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios020.jpg> Allow device access?
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios030.jpg> iOS mounts on Ubuntu
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios040.jpg> View iOS filesystem
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios050.jpg> Including DCIM folder
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios060.jpg> For both read & write
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios070.jpg> If you know a trick
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios080.jpg> This is the trick!
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios090.jpg> Which nobody knows!
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios100.jpg> iFuse is Ubuntu native
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios110.jpg> iFuse mounts Windows
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios120.jpg> iFuse mounts iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios130.jpg> iFuse mounts all!
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios140.jpg> read and write iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios150.jpg> Copy Win10 to iOS
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios160.jpg> Any file you want
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios170.jpg> Anywhere you want
<http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=18_ios180.jpg> Read & write all!

I think the only thing that we did for Android that I haven't tried yet
for iOS is using WebDAV to mount the iOS filesystem onto Windows.

While this already is a skill that only one in a million possess (IMHO),
if someone else has already mounted the entire iOS file system read/write
on Windows as a drive letter (much as I did above without it being a drive),
then _that_ would be a useful skill that one in ten million may have (IMHO).