Freedroid

Free & open-source Android file transfer for macOS.

Freedroid lets you browse your Android phone's storage and move files to and from your Mac through a clean, native-feeling dual-pane interface — over USB or Wi-Fi. It's a community alternative to closed-source tools like MacDroid and the discontinued Android File Transfer.

Freedroid is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from MacDroid or its assets — only its functionality is reimplemented.

Features

• 📱 Dual-pane file manager — Mac on the left, Android on the right, copy either way.
• 🔌 USB transfer over ADB — fast, reliable, scriptable.
• 🔓 MTP mode — connect without enabling USB debugging (native libmtp), with the same browse/transfer experience. (optional mtp build)
• 📶 Wi-Fi mode — switch a USB-connected device to wireless, or pair directly (Android 11+ wireless debugging).
• 📂 File operations on both sides — create folders, rename, delete (local deletes go to the Trash).
• 💾 SD card & storage volumes — switch between internal storage and an SD card.
• 📊 Live transfer progress with speed + ETA, a transfer queue, and cancel.
• 🔎 Sort, filter, and multi-select (⌘-click and shift-click range).
• 👁️ Open files straight from the device (downloaded to a temp folder first).
• 🆓 MIT-licensed, no telemetry, no account, nothing extra to install.

How it works

Freedroid is a Tauri 2 app: a Rust backend drives the Android Debug Bridge (adb), and a Svelte frontend renders the UI. The adb binary is bundled as a sidecar, so there's nothing to install separately.

An optional MTP backend (Rust FFI to libmtp, behind the mtp cargo feature) lets the app talk to Android over MTP — no USB debugging required. The default build doesn't include it, so the normal app stays install-free.

Requirements

• macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon or Intel)
• For the default (ADB) mode, on your phone: Settings → Developer options → USB debugging enabled (tap Build number 7× to reveal Developer options). Approve the "Allow USB debugging?" prompt when you first connect.
• For MTP mode (the mtp build), no developer settings are needed — just set the USB connection to File Transfer / MTP.

Development

# 1. Install toolchains: Rust (rustup), Node 20+, Xcode Command Line Tools
# 2. Fetch the bundled adb sidecar
./scripts/fetch-adb.sh
# 3. Install JS deps and run
npm install
npm run tauri dev

Build a release bundle (produces .app + .dmg):

npm run tauri build
# universal (Apple Silicon + Intel):
npm run tauri build -- --target universal-apple-darwin

MTP build (connect without USB debugging)

The MTP backend needs libmtp at build time and bundles it into the .app:

brew install libmtp
./scripts/build-mtp-dmg.sh   # -> dist/Freedroid_<ver>_aarch64-mtp.dmg (self-contained)
# or just run it during development:
npm run tauri dev -- --features mtp

CI builds this self-contained DMG (Apple Silicon) and attaches it to each release.

Releases & code signing

Pushing a v* tag triggers .github/workflows/release.yml, which builds a universal macOS DMG and attaches it to a draft GitHub Release.

By default the build is unsigned — it works, but macOS Gatekeeper shows an "unidentified developer" warning and users must right-click → Open the first time. To produce a signed + notarized build that opens cleanly, add these repository secrets (requires a paid Apple Developer account):

Then uncomment the APPLE_* env block in .github/workflows/release.yml; tauri-action signs and notarizes automatically when those vars are present. (They're left commented by default — passing an empty APPLE_CERTIFICATE makes the bundler try and fail a certificate import.)

Project layout

src/                  Svelte frontend
  lib/ipc.ts          typed wrappers over the Rust commands
  lib/state.svelte.ts central app state (Svelte 5 runes)
  lib/components/      Pane, DevicePicker, WifiDialog, TransferQueue
src-tauri/src/
  adb/                adb wrapper: devices, files, transfer, wifi
  mtp/                native libmtp FFI backend (optional `mtp` feature)
  local.rs            local (Mac) filesystem listing
  commands.rs         #[tauri::command] surface

Roadmap

• Device detection (USB) with authorization states
• Dual-pane browsing of /sdcard and local files
• Push / pull with live progress
• Device file ops (mkdir / rename / delete)
• Wi-Fi mode (tcpip + wireless pairing)
• Drag-and-drop between the panes
• Folder (recursive) transfers
• Cancel transfers; speed + ETA
• Sort / filter / shift-select; open files; local-side file ops
• SD card / storage volume switching
• Code signing & notarization (config + CI ready; needs an Apple Developer ID)
• MTP mode (connect without USB debugging) — native libmtp FFI behind the mtp feature, with a USB/MTP toggle, storage switching, folder browsing, transfers (with live progress via libmtp's callback), open, and delete. Verified end-to-end against a real device.
  • Ships as a self-contained Apple-Silicon DMG (libmtp + libusb bundled into the .app, install names rewritten to @rpath): scripts/build-mtp-dmg.sh, also built in CI and attached to each release.
  • Folder (recursive) MTP transfers are still TODO — select files, not folders.

Note: dragging files in from Finder isn't supported — macOS WebViews can't expose dropped files' real paths to HTML5 drag-and-drop, and Tauri's native drop handler is mutually exclusive with the in-app pane-to-pane dragging we use. Use the → / ← buttons or pane-to-pane drag instead.

Not planned: "Mount as a disk in Finder." On macOS that requires a privileged filesystem driver (macFUSE/fuse-t) or a signed FSKit/File-Provider extension — all of which mean an extra system install or a paid Apple Developer account. Freedroid intentionally stays install-free; the dual-pane manager covers the same use cases.

License

MIT. adb is redistributed under the Apache License 2.0 as part of the Android SDK platform-tools.