SendIT

Goal

Build and ship a self-hosted file transfer app that makes sending files from a Mac to an Android phone feel instant and native — no third-party cloud, no size limits, just tap and it’s there. Eventually open-source and available on the Play Store.

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Overview

SendIT is a two-part system: a Mac menubar app (Python server, py2app bundle) and an Android app (Capacitor + Java). Files are sent from the Mac via a web interface or Finder Quick Action, and the phone receives a push notification, taps it, and gets a download prompt — no hunting, no copying links.

The server runs locally on the MacMini and is accessible over the local network or remotely via Tailscale. The LMBP runs in client_only mode, connecting to the MacMini server at 100.83.193.91:8765.

GitHub: VLCHALWELL/sendit-app (private) — current release v1.0.33

What makes it unique — no other tool has all of this:

• Finder Quick Action (right-click → Send to Phone)
• File dashboard with live WebSocket updates
• FCM push notifications (works in background, Samsung-compatible)
• Cross-device clipboard sync (Mac ↔ Phone, on-demand)
• Android share sheet → send text/URLs directly to Mac
• QR code pairing — scan to connect any device instantly
• Self-hosted (no cloud middleman)
• Off-network via Tailscale

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Tech Stack

Layer	Tech
Mac server	Python 3.9, py2app bundle, FastAPI/WebSocket
Android app	Capacitor, Java, Firebase FCM
Sync	WebSocket (live file list) + HTTP (upload/download)
Notifications	Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
Off-network	Tailscale
Build	Gradle, build.sh, deploy_server.sh

Key paths on MacMini:

• Source: _Tools/sendit/
• App bundle: /Applications/SendIT.app
• Server log: /tmp/sendit-server.log
• Dev server: running directly via nohup python3 server.py
• Android SDK / adb: ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb
• Device serial (Fold7): RFCY61FPBWK

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What’s Been Built ✅

Core Features

• Mac menubar app with system tray icon and “Send to Phone…” action
• File dashboard — drag & drop uploads, live file list via WebSocket
• Finder Quick Action — right-click any file to send directly
• Android app with share sheet support (onNewIntent + appStateChange)
• Password-authenticated server
• URL history (up to 5 saved server URLs) on setup screen
• Single-use download tokens (/api/dl/{token}) for secure transfers
• Multi-file send from Mac and mobile
• Thumbnail previews for images (with ngrok header fix)
• “Show [filename] in Finder” menu item as notification click workaround

Clipboard Sync (shipped 2026-04-17)

On-demand clipboard sharing between Mac and phone, triggered by button:

• Mac → Phone: “Copy to Phone” menubar item reads macOS clipboard via pbpaste, POSTs to /api/clipboard with source: mac; FCM fires a notification on Fold7; Android app shows a clipboard section with a “Paste to Device” button
• Phone → Mac: ”📋 → Mac” button in the Android app opens a paste sheet (long-press → paste → Send); server broadcasts clipboard_received event; all connected Macs write the text via pbcopy and show a notification
• Both Macs (MacMini + LMBP) receive simultaneously — no device targeting needed
• Paste sheet workaround avoids need for @capacitor/clipboard plugin (navigator.clipboard.readText() fails in Capacitor WebView)

Android Share Target (shipped 2026-04-17)

SendIT now appears in the Android share sheet for text and URLs:

• ShareTargetPlugin.java updated to extract EXTRA_TEXT + EXTRA_SUBJECT from share intents (in addition to existing file handling)
• JS checkPendingShares() detects text shares and pre-fills the paste sheet modal
• User reviews, taps Send → text arrives on Mac clipboard via the clipboard sync endpoint
• File sharing flow unchanged — purely additive change

QR Code Pairing (shipped 2026-04-17)

Connect a new device without typing a URL or password:

• Mac: menubar “Show Pairing QR” opens /qr in the browser — shows tabbed QR codes for all available addresses (Local Wi-Fi, Tailscale, ngrok); switch tabs to show the right one for the current network
• Android: ”📷 Scan QR instead” button on setup screen uses rear camera + bundled jsQR to decode — auto-fills URL + password and connects immediately
• QR encodes {"url": "...", "password": "..."} — works across all network types
• jsQR bundled locally (not CDN) for reliable offline loading in Capacitor WebView

Push Notifications (Samsung fix)

Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 was suppressing Firebase’s default background notification display. Fixed with a custom SendITMessagingService.java:

• Extends FirebaseMessagingService, displays notification directly via NotificationCompat
• Server sends data-only FCM messages (no notification: payload) so onMessageReceived always fires
• Service registered in AndroidManifest.xml with android:priority="1"
• Plugin’s MessagingService suppressed via tools:node="replace"
• FCM fires on every upload (not just “Send to Phone” — all paths: drag & drop, web, quick share)
• Stale FCM token cleanup handled (multiple error types)

Infrastructure

• install.sh — unified installer (server + client options)
• README.md — full open source README with competitor matrix
• GitHub repo + SSH key + gh CLI set up on MacMini
• LMBP configured as client_only via Tailscale
• deploy_server.sh — server-only deploys without full rebuild
• JDK 21 installed via Homebrew (temurin@21)

Version History

Version	What changed
v1.0.1	Fixed adaptive icon (rocket); dark navy background
v1.0.2	Fixed share sheet: onNewIntent() + appStateChange listener
v1.0.3	File list retry on slow connections; refresh after upload
v1.0.4	URL history dropdown on setup screen (up to 5 URLs)
v1.0.5	Password pre-filled on setup (was blank → 401 on file list)
v1.0.6	File list pushed over WebSocket on connect
v1.0.7	Guard ws.onmessage against non-JSON frames
v1.0.8	Fixed broken thumbnails on ngrok (skip-browser-warning header)
v1.0.13	Notifications working (last known good)
v1.0.17	FCM Samsung fix + data-only messages + stale token cleanup
v1.0.25-debug	Java onResume() tap handling (partially working — see below)
v1.0.26–v1.0.29	Clipboard sync (Mac ↔ Phone) + FCM notification on clipboard send
v1.0.30	Android share target — share text/URLs from any app directly to Mac
v1.0.31–v1.0.33	QR code pairing — tabbed Local/Tailscale/ngrok codes; Scan QR on setup screen

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Roadmap / What’s Left 📋

Immediate

• Rebuild .app bundle — bake all recent changes into /Applications/SendIT.app via bash build.sh
• Push v1.0.33 to GitHub
• LMBP SSH access set up — MacMini can now push menubar updates directly (lchalwell@100.116.60.79)

Play Store

• Upload screenshots
• Generate signed AAB
• Fill out content rating
• Submit for review

Future / Nice-to-have

• Clipboard history — last N items stored on the server, browsable from the Android app or dashboard
• Clipboard image support — currently text-only; extend to send images via clipboard (Base64 or temp file)
• Quick text snippets — save frequently-sent snippets (URLs, addresses, etc.) to the dashboard for one-tap send
• Per-device targeting — currently clipboard broadcasts to all connected clients; allow sending to a specific device
• Auto-start server on Mac login — add as a LaunchAgent so the dev server doesn’t need a manual start
• Progress bar for large file transfers — stream progress via WebSocket
• File expiry / auto-cleanup — auto-delete files from server after N days or on download
• iOS PWA — Android-native app exists; iOS could work as a PWA for dashboard access + clipboard sync
• QR code pairing — scan a QR from the dashboard to set up a new device without typing URL/password
• Make GitHub repo public + open source release

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Competitor Landscape

Full breakdown in SendIT Competitor Comparison.

App	Self-hosted	Off-network	Push notif	Finder QA	Dashboard
SendIT	✅	✅ (Tailscale)	✅	✅	✅
Blip	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌
LocalSend	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
KDE Connect	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
PairDrop	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Quick Share	❌	✅	✅	❌	❌

Note: Blip breaks on MacMini (Unix socket path length bug with external home folder) but works on LMBP.

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Key Debugging Notes

• Old server still running: pkill -f "python3 server.py" doesn’t always work. Use: lsof -nP -i :8765 | awk '/LISTEN/{print $2}' | xargs kill -9
• Deploy server changes: Never copy .py alone. Use deploy_server.sh — it recompiles server.pyc inside lib/python39.zip in the app bundle
• Full rebuild: bash build.sh then manually copy _cffi_backend.so after
• Static assets: Always sync before Android build: cp -r static/. android/app/src/main/assets/public/
• FCM silently fails: Wrap _send_fcm with prints; the outer except: pass hides all errors
• Signing conflict: Uninstall APK before switching debug ↔ release signing configs

Notes