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rsync-for-android

Transfer files over USB at the speed of lightning with rsync (needs Termux).

Overview

Transfer files to and from your Android device much faster than over MTP (the default) or even ADB pull/push using rsync.

Why?

Quite simply put, libmtp and adb provide terrible performance. Windows' implementation of MTP is better but it still keeps overwriting files unnecessarily and can't detect changes.

We need a better solution. Luckily there's already rsync which gives us delta-compression. Only problem is that it's a client-server program, needing an rsync server running on the phone.

For copying a large number of files like a Music library or Photo gallery, rsync provides massive performance gains especially when only a few files have changed.

Requirements

  1. Termux app installed and initialised (run at least once)
  2. ADB command in $PATH
  3. USB debugging enabled on your phone
  4. An rsync client on your PC (GRsync recommended for GUI)

Usage

  1. Run adb devices to ensure that your phone shows up in the list. Authorize on the phone if necessary.

  2. Run the script with ./start-rsync-android. This will perform the one-time-setup (if necessary) and forward the port 8873 on your phone to localhost:8873, enabling you to access your phone's rsync server at localhost:8873.

Example

Backup all your photos to your Backup HDD:

rsync --avPh --info=progress2 rsync://localhost:8873/sdcard/DCIM /media/Backup/Phone/DCIM