Feb 26, 2021

Nearby Share, I wish... 😢

As I ramble through this litany of failure to connect, I hope to keep you at least amused.

Over the last few years I've gone from vaguely sceptical to wildly evangelical about Chromebooks. I could no longer code anywhere else, nor would I choose to. So I've become a zealot, scolding those who would try to develop in "lesser old" environments  

(just kidding folks).

But while I projected public Nirvana, I knew privately things weren't quite as delightful.
Like a dirty politician,  my beautiful Chromebook had a few things I needed to "forget" were there...

Well, I won't do the whole list for fear of offending this audience, but I'd like to mention two that bothered me more than most. Since one still is an issue (for me). 

😇 Wacom, to sit here finally able to use an out of the box, pressure sensitive intuos, is nothing short of bliss - 5 years of  frustration and rage; I can move on now, even if there's still no tablet controls 🤔

​-----

​😈 Unable to share  files with my Android phone (yes Nearby Share I mean you)??
You have to admit this was weird from the start; it became downright incongruous from the day we got Android. 

How could I explain, mid "Zealotting", to a willing disciple or convert, that i needed a USB cable to file transfer. Or that I just needed to hop on and off of Google drive, to connect two Google devices, sharing (most) of an OS, on the same wifi...ie as connected as they could be - yet not connected at all to each other.

yes the arrival of messaging was nice,
yes to instant tethering,
yes even to proxy calling.
And thank whichever Google Executive finally got around to solving Wacom...

But I still couldn't send as much as a text file between my two most important of devices, unless I wanted things to get properly out warranty.

​-----

You'll understand then, that for me this ⤵️ had been a very long time coming. 

Except.

It's been a week of failure so far. 
I've tried 3 Android devices
Every wifi trick and monitor I can think of

In fact the only thing I haven't done is force connect my phone via bluetooth to the chromebook. (if you don't know why you shouldn't ask, just don't).
Try as hard as I could, I got

Nada
nowt
nothing

But worse, nothing on the forums, nothing here where people should most understand.  Not even Stack Overflow has a hint of a whiff of "Nearby Sharing" isn't working.
Can it be that everyone except me can make this darn thing work without blinking?????

So give me an answer fellow CBookers. Is there a problem, did it get solved, am I the only poor soul without a functional nearby to share???

sincerely and hopefully yours to answer with solutions, I share
nearby
​ 
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All Replies (5)
Have you read this article about Nearby share.
"Android devices running 6.0 or better now have a “Nearby Share” feature that’s functionally identical to Apple’s AirDrop for iOS and macOS. With it, you can wirelessly share files and photos between two devices".
The problem may be your phone can't do it.
I did a google search and got a lot of hits about getting it set up. You'll probably want to reset your flags before you try any of it.
Feb 27, 2021
Hi M4rk
 
Lol. Thanks for your entertaining post :-)
 
For me, in all the years using Chromebooks and Android phones I can count on the fingers of half a hand the amount of times I have needed to transfer files from the phone to the Chromebook. Drive was fine for that rare event. 
 
The Google search that Brandon posted brings up a link the s useful CU article that should be followed first - direct link here:
 
However, the feature is clearly experimental and may involve a backend switch to make it available to all.
 
You could try switching channels to Beta to see if it works there for you.
 
- Mike
 
 
Feb 27, 2021
Hi M4rk

For techie fun I went through the CU instructions and  everything appeared to work fine - with only a few rough edges. I am running the latest Beta 89 with the Nearby Sharing and Sharesheet flags enabled.

One caveat, I only use WiFi hotspots and my (Pixel 3 XL) phone requred WiFi to be enabled to enable Nearby Sharing so I was unable to fully test it but it appears that it would have worked had I had WiFi.

- Mike
Feb 27, 2021
@Brandon Hatfield I do appreciate the speediness of your response young Brandon, but while my phone may be a little dusty, it's not dated and is perfectly adequate in that regard thank you. It is now however going into counselling about not being able to do it at such young an age. Though Tick below has perked it up slightly.

@Tickmc oh really? Maybe it's me but I constantly go back and forth. Thank the Googles chrome solved link-sharing, at least now that's easier. I have a lot of parent type use cases too, but I'm perfectly willing to believe I'm unusual  in wanting a feature to work. It sounds almost demanding now I look at it!

Sadly I had looked at Chrome Unboxed prior to posting here, I even left them a slightly skeptical had they actually tried it response. As for Beta, also done. and Canary, and regular, pus wifi enabled no hotspots.

So
a) thank you for going to the effort of testing it
b) I may take this up with Samsung now I have at least one competitive use case.

Much obliged.
I would like to express my deepest apologies to your phone. I can be a bit insensitive at times. 
I did a little more searching and didn't come up with any ideas that weren't at the top of a simple search of "nearby share issues samsung" Sorry. Let us know if you get it working.
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