Can I do this: Remote file access of tablet from PC over internet?

Jeff510

Member
Jan 23, 2012
2
0
A little more explanation is in order. Here's what I am looking to do:

My mother-in-law, who is NOT tech savvy at all, just moved into a retirement home. She has never owned a computer. She is intimidated by technology.

But what I was thinking was that we could give her a tablet for a couple very specific purposes that she would appreciate. If I can make it as simple as possible, it's something she might actually use. The place she is at offers wifi connectivity, and a wifi tablet might allow for this, but I'm not sure.

I want to set up a tablet for her to view pictures on, mainly. A portable screen to view pictures on and show them to others would be great for her. But the killer app for me is that I want to be able to push new photos to the gallery without her having to take any action. Basically, I want to be able to push files remotely from my home to her tablet.

Now, I know that I can set her up with a Picasa account, and sync albums to the account I set up for her and she can see those. But I want to see if there's a way to get even simpler (for her the user). I'm just concerned that if the wifi connection glitches, or she uses it in a place where it drops out, that photos would be inaccessible. If I can push the pics right to the device so that there is no sync time, no loading, that would be perfect. All she would have to do is tap the Gallery Icon on the desktop, and the albums are local.

So I guess the main question is, is there an app that would allow me to remotely access...to copy files to and from the device, without any end user action required? I need to be able to update her device without anything else other than the thing being turned on and connected to her wifi.

As a side benefit, any other functionality that would allow me to remotely administer the device would be helpful, but I'm starting by trying to make sure I could achieve this particular functionality.

Anybody out there do something like this?
 

Tom T

Senior Member
Feb 18, 2011
1,632
191
You might want to take a look at Team Viewer, a free app suite. Possibly also something like Dropbox that syncs folders between devices.

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Jeff510

Member
Jan 23, 2012
2
0
I do use both Dropbox and Teamviewer on my Galaxy Nexus. Teamviewer is great for mobile device to PC control, but it doesn't go the other way, as far as I know.

And Dropbox is great too, but I don't think it will do anything automatically on the mobile device end. Unless it works differently on the tablet. The key is that it needs to work with no user action on the device end.
 

Tom T

Senior Member
Feb 18, 2011
1,632
191
According to the dropbox description of its Android app you can set a sync folder that automatically syncs all your devices. I use dropbox on my tablets but access it through ES File Explorer so I can't verify it.

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J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
Android isn't really setup the way you want to use it (at least to my knowledge). It will allow you to do these things on a pc but not on another tablet since at the moment it wouldn't really accomplish much to have a remote session on a tablet :(

I know it isn't the answer you are looking for but honestly setting up a bookmark or syncing the gallery to a photo repository on the web is the cleanest solution. There has to be a minimal amount of interaction by the user but not much. Like launch the gallery app or the browser with a home page set to the online repository you are sharing.
 

Charley2

Senior Member
Nov 27, 2012
1
0
I have the same problem as Jeff. Did anyone ever find an answer?'

J515OP - Can you tell me how to sync the photo gallery to a photo repository on the web. I would need it to be secure.
 

J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
I would say use Picasa. It uses your google account, I would assume this is secure enough.

Yes, Picasa works well for syncing to Android tablets. There are also several apps that allow things like using a Picasa gallery to rotate the pictures on a live wallpaper or lock screen. Basically you set up the gallery to sync with certain Picasa folders and then whatever pictures are placed in that folder you can view in the gallery as long as the tablet has a wifi connection and is able to sync.
 
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