I’ve been using Warpinator to move files to my Steam Deck, but the experience feels pretty slow and clunky. I wish I could just connect my Steam Deck directly to my PC with a USB cable and transfer files faster and directly to the folders they belong in. What tools or methods do you all use to transfer files to your Steam Deck efficiently?
4 Answers
If you have the Steam Deck dock, I recommend using it with an Ethernet cable for a fast wired connection. Then you can just use SCP or SFTP to transfer files over your local network. Alternatively, you can remove the SD card from the deck and put it into your PC to copy files directly, or plug in a USB flash drive into the dock to quickly move files.
The most reliable method I’ve found is using SFTP with FileZilla. You just need to enable the SSH service on your Steam Deck with commands like ‘systemctl enable sshd.service’ and ‘systemctl start sshd.service’. Then you can connect through FileZilla using the deck’s IP and your login credentials to transfer files directly. It’s pretty fast and you don’t need extra hardware.
Thanks! That sounds promising—I wasn’t sure if SSH was enabled by default or not. Setting it up myself should speed things up.
Have you tried Syncthing? It’s awesome for syncing folders between your PC and the Steam Deck wirelessly or wired. It’s especially handy if you’re managing ROMs or other large collections because it keeps everything in sync automatically, but you can use it for any files really.
Honestly, if your file sizes aren’t huge, an external USB 3.1 hard drive is super easy. Just plug it into the Deck (using the dock or a USB-C adapter), transfer your files, and you’re done. No network setup required and decent speed as long as you have good USB hardware.
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Removing the SD card sounds like a handy workaround, though a bit inconvenient. Ethernet transfer with the dock seems like the fastest way though.