Like many Android users, I have both PC and Mac systems in my office. Plug an Android device into a PC and it’s a breeze to work with, but plug it into a Mac and… nothing happens. How do you get to your Android file system from a Mac? That’s what MacDroid solves…
The Android development team used to have a rather buggy but functional program called Android File Transfer but if you go to the landing page nowadays, it’s empty, with no information about the program or download link. You can grab a copy through a third-party download site, but is it a viable solution if it’s not maintained and was buggy in the first place?
Instead, I’ve tended to use Dropbox as an intermediary, uploading photos and screenshots from my Android devices to the cloud, and then downloading them on my MacBook Pro. Clumsy, though reasonably effective. Still, plugging in my phone and being able to grab everything with one action would be delightful.
Fortunately, the developer community has responded. There are a couple of free options, notably including an open source utility called OpenMTP. If you’re a DIYer and like digging around with source code, it appears to be a solid option and a definite improvement over AFT. Learn more at OpenMTP on Github.
For people who just want to install and go, there are at least a dozen paid options available, both from commercial software development organizations and individual programmers. One of the better options is called MacDroid and when the MacDroid team asked if I wanted to try out its app, I figured I’d give it a try. Here’s how it went…
INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING MACDROID
Let’s start with the bad news: There are lots of permissions that need to be granted for MacDroid to work, settings both on the Mac system and on the Android device you plan on using. On the Android side, your easiest move is to enable debugging and then enable debug USB access.
But let’s start at the beginning. The easiest way to grab a copy of MacDroid is to look in the Apple App Store (Apple Menu > App Store):
I’m not sure what the deal is with McDroid, but it’s MacDroid you want. A click on “Get“, a few App Store hoops to jump through and you’ll have it downloaded onto your computer. On first launch, it will require you to allow file system access: The program is going to make your Android devices accessible within the Mac Finder, so it needs permission to grant that access.
Meanwhile, on your Android phone you need to enable developer mode, typically done by going to Settings > About Phone > Build Number, and tapping ten times in a row. I’m not kidding, that’s how you enable it. Once you’ve done so, here are the options you want to set:
Enable “Use developer options” then enable “USB debugging”. You can ignore everything else, and you shouldn’t have to fiddle with any other settings on the phone.
With that setup and the phone plugged directly into the Mac, I see this on the MacDroid main screen:
If you can’t get it to mount properly, MacDroid has some helpful information that will appear so you can get it all fixed up and proceed. Hopefully, though, you’re ready to go.
I should note here that there are three ways you can access your Android device from MacDroid: Via USB debugging (known as ADB mode), via USB to the “MTP” file system directly, and via Wi-Fi. I recommend you start with the developer option (ADB) since I found it easiest to get configured.
USING MACDROID TO ACCESS FILES
Now the entire Android file system appears in the Finder. It’s a bit convoluted to navigate, but I’ll show you the folder paths as we go… For example, click on the “Show in Finder” button (above) and it drops you in a fairly barren folder. Go down this path: storage > emulated > 0 and you’ll find:
The Android file system is laid out for the needs of Android, of course, not us mere humans who want to poke around, so there’s a bit of exploration required. Putting on your fedora and humming the theme from the Indiana Jones movies seems to help.
I mostly want to pull photos off my Android phone – in this case, a Google Pixel 6a – and those can be found through a couple of paths, but I opted for the DCIM > Camera path from the main view. In total, that path is storage > emulated > 0 > DCIM > Camera:
From this point it’s easy to manipulate them as you would any other images in the Finder. Drag ’em to the Desktop to copy them onto your Mac. Double click to open them in your favorite photo editor. You can even drag them to the Trash to remove them from the Android device too (beware! they really are removed!).
I also take a lot of screenshots, so it’s quite helpful to be able to go to storage > emulated > 0 > Pictures > Screenshots and find them all, neatly organized and ready to preview, edit, or copy onto my Mac system:
Simple and straightforward, though the file organization is a bit confusing at first glance.
THE MACDROID MENUBAR ICON
MacDroid can start up on boot and run in the background until you plug in an Android device which is quite helpful. You will see an icon on the menubar for the program, but once you do have your device connected via Wi-Fi or cable, that menu proves quite helpful:
In particular, it’s how you access the settings like “Open and system logon” and, far more useful in my opinion, “Show mounted drives on the desktop“. With this enabled, my Android phone appears as an icon on the Desktop whenever I connect:
That’s pretty darn cool. In fact, once you get over the configuration hump, MacDroid is my favorite type of program: Set and forget. If you aren’t plugging in your Android phone for a few weeks, you can completely ignore MacDroid, but once you do connect it, the icon just magically appears on the Mac Desktop and you’re ready to go.
BUT IT ISN’T FREE
It is worth noting that while MacDroid has a 7-day free trial period, it’s not a free program like OpenMTP. The current pricing model is $19.99 annually or $34.99 for a lifetime subscription to the program. To be candid, these prices seem a bit high, certainly if you’re a once-in-a-blue-moon user, but if you work with Android devices from your Mac, this might be the easiest software investment you’ve made in years.
You can learn more about MacDroid at macdroid.app if you want to read about the full featureset.
Disclaimer: MacDroid set me up with a subscription for the purposes of this review. I did not figure out how to enter the subscription code, however, so all examples were done with the 7-day free trial access.