How do I mount my Android's filesystem over the network with sshfs?

Question

How do I mount my Android device over the wireless network with sshfs so I can access its files trough my file explorer or terminal?

Answer 1

First install the sshelper app on your phone, this also might work with other ssh/sshfs apps, but this one works great and is gpl licenced.

Next configure the sshelper app (choose a password etc...) and test if you can ssh into your phone. Try ssh ANDROID_IP_ADRESS -p 2222. Where ANDROID_IP_ADRESS is the ip adress of your android. You can find out your android's ip adress after clicking on the wrench icon in the sshelper app. You will be asked for the password you set in the sshelper app

If that does not work, look up a basic guide on getting started with ssh. Everything on the android's side should be configured properly with just installing the app launching it. So the problem will probably be on your linux machine. Keep in mind that you will have to take additional steps to be able to ssh into your android when you are not on the same network.

After you have managed to ssh into your phone, make a directory where you want the files of your android to appear. I just went to my home directory and ran mkdir Android, if you do this differently you will have to change the ~/Android in the following command.

With my android, the files visible in my file explorer were under /storage/emulated/0 if this is different on your phone, replace the /storage/emulated/0 with the path you want.

Finally you can run the command:

sshfs ANDROID_IP_ADRESS:/storage/emulated/0 ~/Android -p 2222

And the files of your android will be visible in the ~/Android directory.