Web Server for Chrome is an open source (MIT) HTTP server for Chrome. Many web developers use this free tool for basic web development. Since it turns your PC or Mac into a local web server, thus it is also handy for sharing files over a local network between computers, or even on the internet. Today, we will show you the quick steps to use Web Server for Chrome to turn your computer into a local server, then use your mobile devices, iPhone, Android, phone or tablets to access your desktop or laptop, thus download files from the computer to the mobile device over Wi-Fi.
Note that it works with computers that has the Chrome browser installed. On the mobile phones, you don’t need to download Chrome for mobile. Launch the Chrome for desktop on your PC or Mac, then add this free browser extension, app from Chrome Web Store. You can get it from previous linked page in the first paragraph above.
Transfer files from PC to mobile using Web Server for Chrome
Launch Web Server for Chrome on your computer. Click to enable ‘Accessible on local network’ option. Stop, then start Web Server for Chrome. Now you should find two or more Web Sever URL(s), the first URL link is for local access on your computer, the rest are for network access from other computers or mobile devices in the same local network. See below screenshot.
On your mobile phone, fire up a web browser to access your local HTTP server on the computer. Browse to the files you like to send from computer to phone, long press on a file to pop up the contextual menu and choose Download link. The selected file will be downloaded from PC or Mac to your mobile phone over Wi-Fi. Since it is data transfer within your local network, the transfer speed should be very fast. Open the file manager app on your phone, you can find the received files from the Downloads category in the file manager app on your mobile device.