QR Data Transfer

QR Data Transfer sends a small file from one device to another with nothing in common between them — no shared Wi-Fi, no cable, no cloud account, no app to install. One screen displays the file as a stream of animated QR codes; a second device's camera scans that stream and rebuilds the file. Everything happens in your browser on both ends — the file is never uploaded anywhere.

How to use it

On the sending device:

1. Switch to Send and choose a file (up to 2 MB).
2. The QR code starts animating automatically — hold the screen steady where the other device's camera can see it. Use the Speed and Frame size sliders to trade off transfer speed against how easy the code is to scan — a bigger frame with more error tolerance is more forgiving for a shaky camera or a larger file.

On the receiving device:

1. Switch to Receive and tap Start camera.
2. Point the camera at the sending screen. A progress bar fills in as chunks arrive.
3. Once every chunk is received and its checksum verifies, the rebuilt file appears with a Download button.

The sender loops the whole sequence continuously, so timing doesn't matter — start scanning whenever you're ready, and if a frame gets missed (blur, a hand shake, a slow camera), it comes back around on the next pass.

Why this instead of AirDrop, a cable, or a shared drive?

Those all need something in common between the two devices — the same OS ecosystem, a physical port, or both being online at once. QR codes only need line of sight, which makes this useful for moving a Wi-Fi password, a TOTP/2FA secret, a config file, or a small document onto a device that has no network access at all — an offline machine, a guest's phone, a fresh device mid-setup.

What size files does it handle?

Up to 2 MB — comfortably enough for text, JSON/config files, documents, and most compressed photos. It isn't built for video or uncompressed images; for those, use a direct transfer method both devices actually support. Bigger files mean more QR frames to loop through, so the frame counter shows an estimated time per loop before you start — a file near the 2 MB cap can take several minutes at the default speed (turn the Speed slider up to shorten it).

Is it secure?

The file is encoded as plain (unencrypted) QR data — anyone with a camera pointed at the sending screen during the transfer can capture it, same as reading a note held up in the same room. Treat it like showing someone a physical piece of paper: fine for most files, but don't rely on it alone for something highly sensitive.

The receiver shows the wrong filename

The rebuilt file is downloaded as transfer.<ext> (the extension is guessed from the file's type) rather than its original name — data URLs don't carry filenames, so the original name isn't available to reconstruct. Rename it after downloading if that matters.

Need to read what's inside a QR code you already have as an image, rather than transfer a file? Use the QR Code Decoder. To generate a single static QR code for a link or text, see the QR Code Generator.