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
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Get a NAS for home, and VPN in as needed. Store all your media on the NAS, and also use it as a phone backup target.
This. Tailscale is a VPN solution for this that’s free for personal use.
Thanks but looking for offline solutions
Some travel routers have a USB socket for media.
They’re usually used to make connecting to hotel Wi-Fi easier (you connect your devices to its ssid, then connect to its admin page and connect it to the wifi, or just plug it in to the lan).
Tp-link ac750, for example
GL.iNet’s travel routers have a USB port and support plugging in a EHDD to share over the network they create.
That’s a neat idea of using an extra phone as a file server. I’ve only thought of phones as consumers, not providers.
If you’re looking for something you can carry about and use to store data on, why not just a USB-C thumb drive or external SSD?
Edit; this is intended for photographers, but you can get external SSDs that create their own WiFi network so you can transfer files wiressly to and from them: https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/portable-drives/wd-my-passport-wireless-ssd?sku=WDBAMJ2500AGY-EESN
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.