I updated my iPhone 16 Plus recently and now when I plug it into my Linux workstation via USB, half the files are missing. Latest videos and photos just don’t show up. It’s probably some new iCloud nonsense or file format change. In the past even when the files did appear, copying them was painfully slow and sometimes stalled completely. Total hassle.
I got fed up and went back to LocalSend! My go-to sovereign replacement for AirDrop.
It’s dead simple: open the app on my phone and on my Linux machine, they find each other on the local Wi-Fi, I select the file, tap send, and it arrives instantly. No internet, no cloud, no accounts, no metadata leaks
Installation on My Setup
On my Artix Linux (or any Arch based distro) it’s available inside AUR:
yay -S localsend-binFor other distros, check the official site: https://localsend.org/download?os=linux
On phone:
- Android: Get the APK or install via F-Droid or Play Store
- iPhone: App Store
How I Actually Use It
Open LocalSend on both devices (same Wi-Fi).
Select the file on the phone, tap my workstation, accept on the desktop. Done.
Works great for photos, videos, documents, trading notes, whatever I need to move. Fast, encrypted, and no quality loss.
Tactical Tips
- I enable PIN protection on my workstation for anything sensitive.
- It handles large video files way better than USB ever did on my iPhone.
This one small change removed a lot of daily friction. No more fighting Apple’s updates or routing files through the cloud just to move something across the room.