Plug an Android phone into a Mac running macOS 27 and nothing useful happens. No Finder window, no AutoPlay prompt, no built-in way to browse the phone's files. This has been true for years, but it keeps catching people off guard, most recently in a thread highlighting Piko, a new native file manager built specifically for this gap.

Why plugging in an Android phone does nothing

Android phones expose their storage over a protocol called MTP, Media Transfer Protocol, originally built by Microsoft and later adopted as Android's default. Windows understands MTP natively. macOS has never supported MTP out of the box. That gap used to be covered by Google's own app, Android File Transfer, which has not been meaningfully updated in years and is listed by Google as unsupported since May 2024.

At the same time, Google merged its old Nearby Share feature into a new cross-platform system called Quick Share. Quick Share shipped for Windows. It did not ship for macOS, and there is still no official Google client for Mac. That leaves Mac users with two separate, unresolved gaps: no native MTP support, and no first-party Quick Share app.

Everything below exists because third-party developers filled both gaps in different ways.

Quick comparison

OptionConnectionDirectionSetup
NearDrop (Quick Share)Wi-FiAndroid/Windows → Mac onlyInstall app, accept pairing PIN
AirDrop to Pixel 9/10, Galaxy S26Wi-Fi/BluetoothPhone → MacBuilt into Finder's AirDrop, no install
LocalSendSame Wi-Fi networkBoth waysInstall on both devices
Piko / Android File Transfer (open source) / MTP File TransferUSB cableBoth ways, browse like FinderInstall app, enable File Transfer mode on phone
AirDroidWi-Fi, has a web client tooBoth waysAccount + app on both devices

Wireless options that work today

NearDrop is a free, open-source macOS menu bar app that implements Google's Quick Share protocol from the Mac side. It works one direction only: Android or Windows devices can push files to your Mac, but you cannot send from Mac to Android with it.

  1. Install NearDrop on your Mac and leave it running in the menu bar.
  2. On the Android phone, select a file, tap Share, then Quick Share.
  3. Your Mac's name appears as a target. Tap it.
  4. Accept the pairing PIN notification on the Mac.
  5. The file lands in your Downloads folder.

AirDrop, if you have a recent Pixel or Galaxy. As of late 2025, Quick Share added limited AirDrop support on Android, starting with the Pixel 10 series, and this has since extended to the Galaxy S26. If you own one of these phones and your iPhone is on iOS 26 or later, your Mac can appear directly as an AirDrop target from the phone's share sheet. No extra app required on the Mac side at all.

  1. On the Mac, open Finder, click AirDrop in the sidebar, and set visibility to Everyone or Everyone for 10 Minutes.
  2. On the Android phone, open the file, tap Share, then Quick Share.
  3. Your Mac appears in the device list as an AirDrop recipient. Select it.

LocalSend is a free, open-source app available for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux. Both devices need the app installed and connected to the same Wi-Fi network, after which each one shows up as a transfer target on the other. It also shares clipboard text between devices, which covers quick links and snippets without needing a file at all.

Cable options that work today

Cable transfer is usually faster and more reliable for large batches of files, and does not depend on both devices being on the same network.

MacDroid connects via both USB and Wi-Fi and is actively maintained, unlike the original Android File Transfer app.

OpenMTP is a free, open-source alternative that implements the MTP protocol directly, without relying on Google's abandoned app. It supports split-pane browsing, drag and drop, and files larger than 4 GB, which Android File Transfer could not reliably handle.

  1. Connect the Android phone with a USB cable.
  2. On the phone, set the USB connection mode to File Transfer or MTP mode, from the USB notification that appears after connecting.
  3. Open the chosen app on the Mac and select the device from its source list.
  4. Browse and drag files in either direction.

Piko: a new native option

Piko is a newer entry built specifically to replace Google's discontinued app with something native to macOS. It is written in SwiftUI, speaks the MTP protocol directly over Apple's own USB host framework rather than relying on the older libmtp library most alternatives use, and adds features the original Android File Transfer never had:

  • Live sync. The file list updates the instant something changes on the phone, with no manual refresh.
  • File promises. Dragging a file out of the window completes instantly, and the download happens in the background to wherever you drop it, instead of freezing the interface while the whole file copies.
  • Multi-file drag for moving several files out at once.
  • Support for both USB and Wi-Fi (ADB) connections.

Requires macOS 26 or later. If you build it from source, it also needs Xcode 26 or later.

Which one to pick

  • Occasional single file, same Wi-Fi network: NearDrop or LocalSend. No cable, minimal setup.
  • Recent Pixel or Galaxy phone: try AirDrop first. It needs nothing extra on the Mac.
  • Large batches, photos, or anything over a few hundred megabytes: a cable app. Piko, OpenMTP, or MacDroid will all be faster and more reliable than any wireless option.
  • You want something that feels like Finder: Piko and OpenMTP both aim for a Finder-style, multi-column browsing experience rather than a basic file list.

Whichever app you install, it is worth a quick check that it is what it claims to be before you grant it access to a phone full of personal data. See our guide on how to verify an app is genuine if you are downloading from outside the Mac App Store.

A few more questions

Will Google ever ship an official Quick Share app for Mac? Nothing has been announced. Quick Share has existed for Windows for a while now; Mac has been left out of every update so far, which is why the community options above exist.

Can I use Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi? Some AirDrop interoperability on newer Pixel and Galaxy phones uses Bluetooth for discovery alongside Wi-Fi for the actual transfer, but none of the wireless options here work over Bluetooth alone the way classic Bluetooth file sharing once did.

Is there any risk in installing a third-party MTP app? Any app that reads your phone's full storage is worth vetting before installing, the same as any other download from outside the App Store. Favor open-source options like OpenMTP and LocalSend where you or the community can inspect what the code does.

The short version

  • Android File Transfer is discontinued, and macOS has no built-in MTP support, so a plugged-in Android phone still does nothing on its own.
  • For wireless transfers: NearDrop (Android/Windows to Mac only), AirDrop on newer Pixel and Galaxy phones, or LocalSend for two-way transfers.
  • For cable transfers, especially large batches: Piko, OpenMTP, or MacDroid.
  • Set the phone to File Transfer or MTP mode over USB before the Mac app can see it.