Ubuntu: Getting files off your phone using bluetooth

Sometimes you just want to get a file off your phone. One of the easiest ways to do this is bluetooth. The problem is that some carriers (such as Verizon) lock their phones down so you can't transfer files from your phone to your PC over bluetooth.

The real technicality is that while the phone can't initiate the sending of the file, you can still browse the phone for files and pull them.

So far the most useful tool I found to get files off my phone (which is an LG Chocolate) is obexftp.

To get started install the package using Synaptic then open up a console and type:

$ obexftp -b

When you find a device you want you connect to it like so:

$ obexftp -b 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C -l
Browsing 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C ...
Channel: 7
Connecting...done
Receiving "(null)"...
done
Disconnecting...done

The way obexftp works is that you basically have to run the command over and over with different options to get what you want. So after running it with this "list" option I say I want to browse the folder "MyPictures".

$ obexftp -b 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C -c MyPictures -l
Browsing 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C ...
Channel: 7
Connecting...done
Sending "MyPictures"... done
Receiving "(null)"...
done
Disconnecting...done

Now that I know the location of the file I can procede to actually get the file.

$ obexftp -b 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C -c MyPictures -g 0512091207.jpg
Browsing 00:1E:75:ED:62:2C ...
Channel: 7
Connecting...done
Sending "MyPictures"... done
Receiving "0512091207.jpg"...|done
Disconnecting...done

Easy enough. Probably not the most intuitive way to do things but it gets the job done.