Connecting SMB/Windows Shares

The app can only see a folder that Windows has already offered to the network. On the PC, right-click the folder, open Properties, go to the Sharing tab and share it with a specific user or with everyone on the network. Microsoft's own walk-through covers every version of Windows: File sharing over a network in Windows.

A NAS box shares folders the same way, from its own web interface instead of Windows - the wording differs by brand, but the idea (pick a folder, give it a name, decide who may open it) is identical.

On the main screen tap Add, then Network Folder - "Add SMB network shares". On the Create Network Resource (SMB) screen tap Scan Network: the app scans your network subnet for SMB, FTP and SFTP hosts while "Scanning local subnet.." shows, then "Scan complete" and a list of the devices it found. Tap yours.

With the Server IP field filled in (or typed by hand, for example 192.168.1.100), enter Username and Password, then tap Scan host. The app lists the shared folders under "Shares on " - tick the one you want. If nothing turns up, "No shares found on this server. Close this message and enter the share name manually." tells you exactly what to do next; if the scan itself fails, "Couldn't scan the shares. Try again." means just that - no shares were read yet, nothing is wrong with the folder itself.

Scanning needs the phone and computer on the same network segment, and it is not offered in the FOSS edition, where every field is filled in yourself. Either way the fields are the same:

• Server IP - the computer's address, for example 192.168.1.100.
• Username and Password of the shared folder, and Domain (optional) only if your network uses one ("Leave empty if not needed").
• Port - leave it at its default (445) unless you were told otherwise.
• ShareName/subfolder - the exact name Windows gave the share, for example Common or Photos.
• Resource Name - what the folder is called on your main screen; leave it empty and the app names it for you.

Test connection checks the address, user name and password without adding anything, and answers in a moment - it does not just say "yes" or "no". A wrong password reports "authentication failed", a wrong or missing share name reports "share not found", and a computer that simply cannot be reached reports a timeout - three different problems, three different fixes, instead of one flat error.

When everything checks out, tap Add This Resource to add it to the list below, or add several shares from the same computer before tapping Add to Resources once for all of them.

Right after a network folder is added, the app quietly measures how fast it can read and write to it and picks the number of parallel transfer threads and the buffer size that suit that particular computer - nothing to watch, nothing to tap. A fast NAS on a good connection gets more parallel threads; a slow or congested one gets fewer, so copying does not choke it. You can still set the number of threads by hand in Settings, but there is normally no need to.

Opening a file from a resource that has gone offline no longer stops you with a raw error. It shows Resource unavailable: " is on a resource that is not responding right now. Check the connection and try again." with Retry and Cancel - the computer is probably asleep or the phone left the home Wi-Fi. If the server itself says the file no longer exists, the dialog says File is gone instead, with an option to remove it from favorites - the app never offers to remove a resource just because it is temporarily unreachable.

A share whose name contains a space, for example My Photos, opens and closes cleanly too, the same as one without.

SMB is what Windows and most NAS boxes speak natively - you share a folder, and any computer or phone on the same network can browse it, no server address to remember beyond the computer's own name or IP. It only works on your local network, though: point it at a server on the internet and it will not connect.

FTP and SFTP reach a server by its address instead of a share name, and they work just as well over the internet as on a home network - useful for a server that lives outside your house, or a NAS with FTP turned on instead of SMB. SFTP encrypts everything it sends; plain FTP does not, so use it only where SFTP is not offered. The full walk-through, including signing in with an SSH key, is in Connecting SFTP and FTP servers.