If your router supports FTP for sharing storage that is attached to your router then it probably supports SMB (Samba / Windows file sharing) too. That would be a second option to explore.
Security comment: Having storage attached to your router is somewhat exposing yourself. It gives you fewer options to put barriers between your storage and the internet … assuming that the intention is not to share your storage with the internet.
I can’t speak for Nemo but nautilus out-of-the-box seems to offer: ftp, nfs, smb, sftp, dav. That’s on a desktop / laptop. I can only guess whether those options would exist on your phone if and when nautilus is available or whether Nemo offers those same options.
One fun option, discussed previously I think, is to enable the SSH server on the phone … and then you can use sshfs on a desktop/laptop to access files directly on the phone. You could, alternatively, use an SFTP client (like FileZilla) on the desktop/laptop if you prefer. That is a different approach though because you are pushing/pulling on the desktop/laptop. (So that is the reverse of using sftp in Nemo, if Nemo supports that.)
Honestly, Linux probably offers too many options - and yet everyone’s environment is different.
The µSD card is an alternative if you intend to use sneakernet.
You’re wrong There was no automount, but it should be there now with latest updates (and you could always mount it manually of course). USB thumb drive then works exactly the same as microSD card (which in fact is also seen in the system as a USB mass storage device).
Yeah, scp is a natural way to transfer a file to/from the phone for me, it comes to me without even thinking
For completeness then, if you enable the SSH server on the phone, and command line is acceptable / desirable, you can also use the sftp command.
Another option, not sure of its current "working" status, is to plug the phone in to the desktop/laptop via USB and it may present its storage as a USB mass storage device to the desktop/laptop. Even if it only did that for the µSD card, that could still be used to exchange files, albeit more with a focus on bulk movement since it is inherently less convenient than using the network.
No out-of-box support for that right now. A sufficiently motivated user can set it up and export µSD card as a mass storage device by configuring USB gadgets (I’ve done that and it works ;)), or even set MTP responder up to export anything on a filesystem level (haven’t tried it personally yet, but I know that Mobian got it integrated so it should be possible to replicate their setup).
This sets up a USB gadget with three functions - serial, ethernet and mass storage (with /dev/sda being exported). Make sure to unmount any SD partition before doing that though - it is a block level export (as opposed to other tech like MTP that exports things on a filesystem level), so it will be your PC that will mount these partitions on its own!
Over time, if looking to gain mainstream customers, I think MTP (or something functionally equivalent) is needed. Users of other phones have come to expect plugging in via USB as an option, and for it to work seamlessly out-of-the-box. USB has the advantage of better physical security (but watch out for “bad chargers”).
As you imply, MTP is safer than USB mass storage class because while some users will know to umount first if using mass storage class, many will not.
For me it’s rsync which comes without thinking , which means I need ssh server running in the background
What would be awesome is to have an option to activate/deactivate SSH in the settings (if installed) !
Else, I will probably have 2 shortcuts, one to disable sshd, one to activate sshd (as I have on my actual pc)
I’m planning on setting something up where whenever my home Wifi connects, mount my home server’s storage drive via NFS.
When Wifi disconnects, unmount.
I can browse the same drive via SMB on my Android but having this setup I think will be pretty slick.
Still need a good adaptive GUI file manager option though, but that is coming.
True story! A few years ago, Asus routers that had built-in USB/FTP/Samba were compromised because there was no password protection included. They’ve corrected that now. Still maybe not the best option, as you and others have pointed out.