Phone side (Wear Companion) - Standard and noLegal; watch app - the Google Play version, or the full version installed from an APK
Putting FastMediaSorter on Your Watch - Installing, Pairing and the Wear Companion
Install the FastMediaSorter watch app, switch on Wear Companion on the phone, open its window, and add the watch to your resources - the first half of every watch feature.
Why You'll Love This
A watch on your wrist is closer than the phone in your pocket. With the watch app installed, you can play music, look at photos, open network folders and start the built-in programs right on the watch.
The watch app works on its own, but it gets much more useful once it knows your phone. The phone side of that link is Wear Companion - a program inside FastMediaSorter that connects to the watch and decides what the phone shares with it. This page gets both halves installed and talking to each other.
- A Wear OS watch built on Android 9 or newer - every Wear OS 3, 4 and 5 watch qualifies. Galaxy Watch 3, Galaxy Watch Active and Active 2 run Tizen, not Wear OS, and cannot install the app.
- The watch already paired with your Android phone in the watch maker's own app, such as Galaxy Wearable or Google Pixel Watch.
- FastMediaSorter on the phone in the Standard or noLegal edition. The other editions carry no Wear Companion.
- A few minutes and an internet connection on the watch or on the phone.
Pick the version of the watch app
The watch app comes in two versions, and they do not do the same things:
- Google Play version - a first, small release: Calculator, Stopwatch, the mini-game, the watch settings and the Programs tile.
- Full version - an APK you install yourself from the downloads page. It carries everything described in this section: music, photos, network folders, the phone link, every tile and the watch face complications. It is the watch counterpart of the noLegal edition, so the parts marked *Sideload version only* on these pages need it.
Both versions install under the same package name as the phone app, so the phone recognizes its watch partner either way. If Android shows a warning about the package, this page explains why and what to tap.
Install from Google Play
- On the watch, open Play Store from the apps list.
- Search for FastMediaSorter and tap Install.
- Wait until the app appears in the watch's apps list.
Typing on a small screen is awkward? Open Google Play on the phone instead, find the app and choose your watch as the device to install on - the watch downloads it by itself.
Watch Play Store, FastMediaSorter listing open, Install button visible.
Or install the full version from an APK
*Sideload version only.* A watch has no file manager to open an APK with, so the file travels from a computer over Wi-Fi with Google's free adb tool from the Android SDK Platform-Tools:
- On the watch, open Settings, then System or About watch, and tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer options.
- In Developer options, turn on ADB debugging and Wireless debugging.
- In Wireless debugging, tap Pair new device. On the computer run
adb pair :with the address and code the watch shows, thenadb connect :with the port from the main Wireless debugging screen. The two ports are different. - Run
adb install -r FastMediaSorter_wear_release.apk. The-rkeeps your app data when you update later. - Turn Wireless debugging off again when you are done.
Google explains every screen of this in Debug a Wear OS app. The computer and the watch must be on the same Wi-Fi network.
Switch on Wear Companion on the phone
The phone keeps its watch features out of sight until you say you own a watch.
- On the phone, open FastMediaSorter and go to Settings, the Management tab.
- Expand the Wear Companion group.
- Turn on the Wear Companion switch - "Show the watch companion in the programs panel and menu".
Below the switches, a line tells you whether the phone sees your watch right now: Checking the link.., then the watch's name followed by - connected, or No watch on the link. The same group holds the How to install on a watch button, which opens this documentation, and the Wear Companion button, which opens the companion window.
Phone Settings, Management tab, Wear Companion group expanded, switch on, paired watch line reads connected.
Open the Wear Companion window
Once the switch is on, Wear Companion behaves like the other built-in programs such as Calculator: it has its own entry in the programs panel and in the programs menu of the main screen. Tap Wear Companion there, or the button of the same name in Settings, and its window opens. It can also open in a new window, and you can take it off the panel like any other program.
The window has the usual title bar with a back arrow. On the right of the title bar sit the Sync settings button and a line that says when the phone and watch last agreed on their settings - Never synced on a fresh pair. Below come the Watch operations group with the things you do with the watch, then the watch settings groups, and at the very bottom two links: All about the watch and How to install on a watch.
Every group can be folded. A folded group shows a one-line summary of what is set inside it, so you can check the watch settings at a glance. On a wide screen or in landscape the buttons of Watch operations sit in two columns.
Phone, Wear Companion window, toolbar with Sync settings and Last synced line, Watch operations expanded, Media types and Screen groups folded with summaries.
Make the watch one of your resources
In Watch operations, tap Add or open the watch. The first tap adds your paired watch to the resource list as a resource of its own - "Send files to the watch and pick up what it records" - so it appears on the main screen and in the lists where you pick a destination for copying and moving. Every later tap opens that same resource in the file browser; a second copy is never created.
If the watch is not reachable at that moment, the phone says Watch not connected.
Check that both halves see each other
Open the watch app on the watch. Its home screen lists the sections Resources, Phone, Local, Streams (when that section is on), Apps, then a row with the program you opened last and Favorites at the end.
Tap Phone: in the full version it shows the files of your phone, grouped the way the phone groups them. If the phone's Wear Companion switch is off, the watch does not pretend the phone is missing - it says exactly what to do: "The Wear Companion switch is off on your phone. Turn it on in FastMediaSorter settings, then retry."
Which network folders the watch gets, and how the two keep their settings in step, is the subject of syncing the phone and the watch.
Round watch, FastMediaSorter home screen, section list Resources, Phone, Local, Streams, Apps visible.
What You Get
The watch app is on your wrist, Wear Companion is switched on and reachable from the programs panel, the phone shows the watch as connected, and the watch is a resource on the main screen that you can send files to.
Tips and Troubleshooting
- Using a screen reader? Every control of the Wear Companion window says what it is: each switch reads its name and state, the group headers announce whether they are expanded and can be opened and closed from TalkBack, and each button says what it does.
- No Wear Companion group in Settings? Your phone runs an edition without the watch link - Lite, Photos, Legacy, VR or FOSS. Install the Standard or noLegal edition to use a watch.
- The watch says the phone is not connected? Check the pairing in the watch maker's app first; the FastMediaSorter link rides on it.
- Getting around on the watch: every watch screen has a back arrow at the middle of the left edge, and a black-screen button (a phone with a dark screen) opposite it that blanks the screen. A double tap, a press and hold or the watch's own button brings the screen back.
- Want the watch face too? FastMediaSorter Watch Face is a separate, free watch face for Wear OS 6 and newer. Install it from Google Play on the watch - search for FastMediaSorter there, or use the Wear settings on the phone, which offer to open its page on the watch. Its round buttons appear together with the watch app.