My pixel phone has meager storage. Could I use an old phone with bountiful SD space to serve up media via Bluetooth?

Any ideas if this would work practically speaking?

Edit: Looking for a functional equivalent of on-device storage space, i.e., for offline media consumption

USB phone jack is often used for power, so it’s unlikely available for OTG storage

Battery life in the server phone should be ok since it will be running in airplane mode with only Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth, and display off mostly

    • golli@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Downside might be that this requires a good internet connection, which depending on where OP travels might not always be available.

  • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    Bluetooth is probably too slow for what you want, but you could use your old phone as a Wifi hotspot and even install various server software on it via Termux.

  • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    GL.iNet’s travel routers have a USB port and support plugging in a EHDD to share over the network they create.

  • beeng@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 months ago

    Get MaterialFiles and turn on sftp server to share all your files via network.

    Then same network whether its hotspot or home WiFi.

  • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    That’s a neat idea of using an extra phone as a file server. I’ve only thought of phones as consumers, not providers.

  • olafurp@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Maybe be more specific?

    For traveling I would suggest a laptop to behave as a server but the IP address changes a lot when traveling.

    I’d personally opt for something hosted at home if possible like Nextcloud and Jellyfin with static IP and port forwarding to access on the go.

    Tbh though, if you just want storage on the go buying a portable 1-4TB drive that connects via USB-C is enough.

  • golli@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    This seems a bit impractical. 2 phones to keep charged and manage.

    Depending in your use case can’t you just get some external USB storage?

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzB
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    6 months ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    IP Internet Protocol
    NAS Network-Attached Storage
    SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
    VPN Virtual Private Network

    4 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 6 acronyms.

    [Thread #680 for this sub, first seen 15th Apr 2024, 08:55] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

  • poncho@lemmynsfw.com
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    6 months ago

    Just saw the edit and if you don’t want to go the router route + LAN for some reason guess another option would be a ucb c dock that allows power pass through. I have an anker one that I use on occasion and recommend it. You can then either get an external drive or a SD card.