Wifi direct problems

/e/OS Devices Samsung
,
1

I’m trying to connect to older Samsung phones via wifi direct.

Nr. one is a S7 with the latest version of e/os
Nr. two is a A5 with a new version of Lineage on it.

It all seems very vague how to make a connection. Some of the tips I came across:

  • Bluetooth has to be ON (why?)
  • Bluetooth + NFC has to be ON
  • Location has to be ON
  • For e/os, in advanced privacy you shouldn’t block location (seems logical, but can easily be overseen.

Which of these things is really necessary?

I found out that Always-on-VPN should be OFF

Anyway, I finally managed to make a connection and both phones say that they are connected to the other one,

but

When I try to ‘share’ or ‘send to’ a file I see no mention of Wifi direct, I only see people form my contacts and various apps, so I can’t send a file via wifi direct.

This is the same on both phones.

I used 3 different apps to test:

  1. Amaze filer
  2. Ghost commander
  3. Gallery pro

Any guidance on this is highly appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the deGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

2

Hi, sorry can’t help with wifi direct

but maybe localsend is for you,
requires only being in the same wifi-network,
does not at all depend on settings of BT, NFC, location etc.

3

Thanks for suggesting this, but LocalSend depends on connecting to a Wifi network, and does NOT make a connection between two phones directly.

It works, (I tried), but is very cumbersome, because I also need to disable my VPN, which you don’t want to do when you’re connected to the internet.

I started looking into Wifi direct because Bluetooth also didn’t work for some unclear reason.
Maybe e/os and/or Lineage have drifted too far of Android standards to make these things possible?

I keep on searching…

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4

Seen, that’s a huge difference…

I just checked in my S7
Wifidirect can be activated only if location is enabled
But I have no phone or else at hand to try to connect to…

5

Yes, I think I used Location enable indeed.

The strange point is that I now can connect, both phones confirm this, but I don’t see a ‘Wife Direct’ button when I try to share/send something!
I saw a mention of exactly this on the XDA forums as well, (about Lineage OS), dating from 2021, but no answer :frowning:

6

Will this one do? [LIST] Recommended FOSS Applications - #110 by smu44

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7

Thanks, that looks like it will fit the bill.
I’ll try tomorrow and come back with the results :slight_smile: :smile:

8

Yes!
This worked. I find the interface, although apparently simple, a bit cumbersome, but I won’t need it daily.

Thanks for the tip.

I find it quite remarkable that a custom program has to made for this although the Wifi Direct functionality should be working straight out of the box, anyway. Problem solved sofar, and I can use it also on my Linux machines.

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