You used to have to plug your Android phone directly into your PC to manage your mobile files. With one of Microsoft’s newest features, you can now wirelessly connect your Android phone and manage files.
How to View Mobile Phone Storage in File Explorer
Microsoft has steadily been adding new features you can use with your mobile device. You can alreadyuse your phone as a webcamand edit phone screenshots on your Windows PC.
Now, with the new “Show mobile devices in File Explorer” option, you can wirelessly view your phone storage and even move files like you would with a USB/disk drive.
To make use of the new feature, you’ll need an Android phone with Android Version 11 or higher, the Link to Windows app installed, and Windows 11 version 24H2 or 23H2 installed on your PC. You’ll also need both the PC and phone connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
To get started,install the Link to Windows appon your Android phone from the Play Store. Next, sign in with the same Microsoft account that you use on your PC, and grant all the permissions that the app requests to finish the mobile setup.
On your PC,open the Settings appand navigate toBluetooth and devices>Mobile Devices>Manage Devices.
ClickSign inand select the Microsoft account you signed into on your Android phone.After signing in, you should see the “Show mobile devices in File Explorer” option on the Manage mobile devices page. Toggle it on.
With setup complete, open File Explorer and find your Android Phone name above theThis PClisting. Click on it to access the phone storage folder.
You can also check the phone’s connection, sync status, and available storage space using the phone icon in the address bar. If your phone is disconnected, it will show offline.
Is This Method Worth Using?
Previewing documents and images directly from the phone storage is very handy. However, you cannot view multiple files in a sequence. Overall, the feature is sufficient for copying small files, photos, and documents, but it makes viewing a lot of files consecutively more difficult than it needs to be.
I would not recommend using it as a primary means of transferring large files, though. I tried moving over a sample 200 MB video file, and it took forever to copy it with an average speed below 1 Mbps. My phone and PC both support Wi-Fi 6 and are connected to a 300 Mbps Wi-Fi router. So, I was quite surprised by the slow transfer speed.
I also tried deleting some files, and it simply moved them to the Recycle Bin folder in the Phone Storage. However, you can permanently delete a file from the Recycle Bin.
The file transfer speed leaves a lot to be desired, even by wireless standards. I recommend using this feature as a quick access tool to move documents between your PC and Phone or to quickly check your Phone storage status. However, if you need to transfer larger files, you’ll definitely want to stick with connecting to your PC via a USB cable.
