AndFTP is one of the most popular mobile FTP clients out today, it currently has over a million downloads and the posted reviews have been positive. Please note this review is for the Free Version and is only available on Android and Blackberry. The paid version removes ads, offers additional support and advanced features such as SCP support and the ability to sync folders. It has English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Portuguese Brazilian, Serbian, Romanian, Hungarian and Turkish language support
Key Features
Features | Supported | Rating 1-5 |
Cost | Free and paid version (4.99 USD) | 5 |
Fast Transfer Speed
|
Transferred 200Mb file over decent Wifi connection and a MobileLTE connection
Wifi Download took approximately 4m05s averaging 816kbps Upload took approximately 8m15s averaging 404kbps Mobile LTE Download took approximately 10m10s averaging 327kbps Upload took approximately 18m05s averaging 185kbps
Verdict : Transfer speeds are reasonable in comparison to a desktop client on a Wifi connection. LTE did not do as well on a sustained download.
|
4 |
Ease of Upload/download | Really easy, the cloud/phone toggle makes it easy to choose your target files and folders on both the phone and cloud side.
|
5 |
Multiple Protocols
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Can configure account for FTP, SFTP, FTPS, SCP is available but only if supported by remote server | 5 |
Site Managing | Configure multiple sites for multiple protocols and individual site settings. Once set you can name your site for easy future reference. Saves up to 8 sites for easy access on the home screen in a tile format. You can name each connection and one click to activate the connection. | 4 |
Direct media file upload | Yes – An option is added to your gallery to upload your files directly from your gallery | 4 |
Search Capabilities | Yes – Can search phone directory but does not have the ability to search cloud folders | 3 |
File sharing capabilities | Not supported – All transfers are done via FTP, no direct email or media sharing options. | 0 |
Resume Support | Yes – Resumes interrupted download and overwrites previously transferred files with newer versions. | 5 |
Log | Only supported on paid version | 4 |
OS Support | Android, Blackberry | 4 |
Overall rating | The Free version is a good solid tool, while not a replacement for a desktop FTP client if you are the go and need to send an important file or some music, AndFTP will do the job nicely.
|
43/55
or 7.8/10 |
Additional features
Inbuilt Editor for text, CSV and HTML files | Not supported
|
0 |
Multiple concurrent sites | Multiple sites butonly one active connection at a time | 0 |
Lock app with password | Not supported but does have a keep awake option | 1 |
Text encoding | Not supported – Support available for paid version | 0 |
Mobile FTP account bookmark for site as well as default remote directory that you are logged into | Not supported – You must back out of previous connection to establish new one | 0 |
Additional rating | The additional features offered by AndFTP seem more beneficial to advanced users than a regular user, however features like the ability to sync folders and custom
|
43/55
or 7.8/10 |
Features
Upon first opening the AndFTP Mobile App, you are greeted with a basic black screen with a few icons across the top. Click the + add button to add your FTP server, the setup is standard and requires you to fill out the usual hostname, username and password however more advanced settings and parameters are available.
Once configured you will see your root directory and can navigate your folders, if you have ever used a desktop client like Filezilla the layout should be familiar to you. *One note that I found that added a bit to the initial setup is that by default any unspecified downloads will be saved in your phones root directory. This can be solved by creating a default local FTP folder on your phone to keep future housecleaning to a minimum.
Uploading and downloading files : This is straight forward and easily accomplished by the phone/cloud toggle which is literally a picture of a phone or of the cloud. As an example once you have selected the target file from the Cloud button interface you want to download, you can then toggle the phone button and select the target download folder location on your one, the process is repeated in reverse for uploading.
One of the nicest features is the ability to share files right from your phones gallery, this makes it very easy to share and backup all your photos and videos. AndFTP also has the ability to run custom commands if your server runs SCP, this is more for advanced users but it does add additional functionality to developers. You can also import your AndFTP settings into Filezilla for easy configuration. For a full list of all of the features available in AndFTP click here.
Critique
The biggest disappointment of using AndFTP was how often it would crash, more than I would like. I also noted that when I was using my mobile (no root) firewall, even with permissions it would not connect to my FTP site. When uploading or downloading I was required to stay on the app screen otherwise if I tried to multitask the transfer would fail, (there is a keepalive and resume option which can offset this.)
There have been reported issues from Android users before ver. 5.0 that you cannot write directly to your SD card because permissions have been removed. There are workaround solutions available online, however this adds an extra step to default users because then you would need to manually move the file to external storage later.
Summary
Overall I liked the feeling of AndFTP, it is functional and accomplishes your basic FTP tasks as 1 million downloads can attest to. It was a breeze to install and only required 1 permission and did not ask for root access. Once setup is completed, everyday use is a snap. Not a replacement for a desktop FTP client but if you are the go and need to send an important file or some music, AndFTP will do the job nicely.
References
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