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Wi-Fi File Sharing on the BlackBerry PlayBook

by Adam Zeis on 18 Apr 2011 03:11 PM
57
 

Video PlayBook 101: How to setup and use Wi-Fi File Sharing on the BlackBerry PlayBook

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

One of the cool features of the BlackBerry PlayBook is the ability to use Wi-Fi File Sharing. Wi-Fi File Sharing on the BlackBerry PlayBook is a setting that allows you to easily transfer files between your Mac/PC and your PlayBook over your wifi network. You get the usual drag and drop features of being connected via USB, but you are able to cut the cord so you can move files much easier. 

Being that there isn't much help documentation on the process or setup just yet, I did have a bit of trouble getting going. When you connect the PlayBook to your computer for the first time with a USB cable, it should install the necessary drivers for both standard connected file sharing and Wi-Fi File Sharing (the PlayBook doesn't just show up as a USB-styled flash drive). From there you should be able to access the PlayBook as a network drive without using a USB cable, as long as it's on the same network as your computer. I didn't have much luck with the setup, so I took a different route and added the PlayBook manually. In the video above I explain how to get the PlayBook connected as a shared drive with just a few easy steps.

From there you will be connected to the PlayBook and it will show as a shared drive on the network. Now you can drag and drop files to/from the PlayBook without ever having to connect directly to the device. When Wi-Fi File Sharing is enabled, the PlayBook will be "listening" even when the display is off. So that means when your PlayBook is in standby in your backpack or briefcase or desk drawer, you can still use Wi-Fi File Sharing without having to do anything on the PlayBook itself. This is by far one of my favorite features of the PlayBook now. Being able to get files on it without having to worry about a USB cable or even where the device is (as long as it's still on the same wifi network) is a huge bonus. While I haven't tried it on a Windows PC, it works essentially the same (anyone who has tried it please leave a comment and let us know how it worked!).

Filed Under: Help, How-To & Tips; Tags: BlackBerry Playbook, BlackBerry Playbook 101, Wifi File Sharing
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57 Comments

Posted by slant Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

/ = forwardslash
\ = backslash

 
 
Posted by Kevin Michaluk Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

That's hilarious. As soon as I watched the video I messaged Adam and told him the same thing.  I think he's gone his whole life having the concept of forward and back slashes mixed up.  Ahh well...

 
 
Posted by Adam Zeis Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

*sigh*

let's just say I won't make the same mistake again :) 

 
 
Posted by vx1 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

lol, nice it works you can swap files back and forth with out 3rd party apps :)

 
 
Posted by Xavier666 Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 402 days ago

Yup!

I setup the wi-fi sharing on the playbook and then i wandered over to my computer running windows 7.

the playbook was automatically there and ready to go! kinda nice not having to hook this thing up.

 
 
Posted by SSaywell Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

This feature will be very useful, can't wait to get my PlayBook, live in the UK so that could be a while. Get a move on RIM

 
 
Posted by sf49ers Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

The features like this is what makes the Playbook a killer machine, "welcome to the power of desktop computing in the palm of your hand"

 
 
Posted by dispatcher307 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

So far I haven't figured out how to set it up on a PC. I enabled it on the Playbook but I'm not sure what to do on my PC. It doesn't automatically show in My Computer. I went to My Network Places and couldn't find it there either.

 
 
Posted by dispatcher307 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Followup - I found the IP Address of the Playbook under settings. I tried to connect that way (the IP address seemed consistent with my network) but it couldn't resolve the proxy. No go still.

 
 
Posted by cas118 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Sounds like you need to type the address into your file browser instead of your Web Browser...

 
 
Posted by robhuddles Wednesday, May 11, 2011 380 days ago

Got it working on Win7 by simply leaving the smb: part off. If you click Start, then Run, then \\your-playbook-name it should come up.

 
 
Posted by JPSKILLZ Friday, Feb 24, 2012 91 days ago

THANK YOU!!! LoL

 
 
Posted by jrmtz85 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Any word on the transfer rate? Especially on large video files? I have 300mbs+ on my N network, so it'd be awesome if I could get speeds at least somewhat comparable to USB.

 
 
Posted by RescueCop Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

A related question... do you have the option of using a standard USB connection to transfer files in mass storage mode, or do you HAVE to use either WiFi or Desktop? I'm asking this question because I can see plenty of situations where I'd like to be able to connect a Playbook to someone else's computer, so that they could transfer a file to the device, but where they wouldn't want to install software on their computer for that purpose.

 
 
Posted by Adam Zeis Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Yup you can definitely still go standard USB.

 
 
Posted by hammers18 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

So the computer can see the files on the playbook, but can the playbook see shared files stored on the computer?

 
 
Posted by thpsrulr Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

I'd like to know the answer to this as well! Thanks.

 
 
Posted by robertdusa Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

I would love to know whether or not you can do the reverse on a Windows or Novell network.

If it does (and it should if it's a professional grade tablet, professionals use Windows/Novell file shares), this will add even more reason for schools to ditch iPad and go PlayBook.

 
 
Posted by mikegcox Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

This is the question that has been burning for me the most. I have all my media on a server in the basement, music, tv, photos, movies. If the playbook could access and play that stuff just like my little network tv device or a game console, we would have a winner for sure. Synchronizing media is so yesterday now that we live on networks.

 
 
Posted by rafman1992 Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011 401 days ago

I have just spent some time playing around with the wifi file sharing, and as far as i know, It doesn't look like you can browse through your PC/Mac's files from the playbook.

I could be wrong, I am a little stupid sometimes :).

 
 
Posted by jsn204 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

very good feature
geez i feel like RIM is bad at marketing some important features that would definitely peak my interest
oh well at least i got crackberry and crew for that

is there any sort of network media streaming present?
im sure it should be possible in the future

 
 
Posted by ibcnul8ter Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

if its "mirroring" the phone, can it be used to answer phone calls?

 
 
Posted by andrewmcwhirter Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Sweet! Again, RIM is above the rest for using standards, including SMB, which all computers support (Windows, Mac, and Linux). This basically turns the playbook into a mini file server.

 
 
Posted by enzo07i Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

i feel like an individual/company/organization is driving reviewers/blogers to write BAD things about playbook everyday. I guess budget are distributed to those writers. As if they don't want to stop. Come on people, wake up, write article/blog/review in balance form.

 
 
Posted by mahen915 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Anyone here using Linux? I'm already starting to look for work arounds.

 
 
Posted by andrewmcwhirter Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

The same method Adam used to connect on a Mac should work on Linux. just type smb://Playbook in the file manager address bar (Nautilus in Ubuntu).

 
 
Posted by mahen915 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Ah, you're right. Thanks!

 
 
Posted by M1L2 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

Here is a HowTo with Win7 http://bit.ly/h5vgms

 
 
Posted by oddboy Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

I didn't see an answer... can the playbook access files on a remote "server" (or share)? i.e. if i want to stream a video off my desktop computer, is there a way to browse a remote share *from* the playbook?

 
 
Posted by BlackberryBlake Monday, Apr 25, 2011 396 days ago

I'm wondering the same thing. Haven't found a way yet thru bluetooth. Would rather not have to py for a vpn.

 
 
Posted by cas118 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

This is great news!

The PlayBook is going to act as a SMB server over wireless! For us Linux users this is great news.

The more and more I see of the PB now, the more I get excited. I was a little down after some of the negative interviews but there are so many treats and delights this bad boy offers that I just simply cannot wait for my developer PB to arrive.

 
 
Posted by mahen915 Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 402 days ago

It works like a charm on Linux. I couldn't be happier!

 
 
Posted by edwardagyeman Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

DROPBOX...DUUH!!!

 
 
Posted by QueXiaQuanton Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

"No usb here, no cords here". No offence Adam but I'm pretty sure the followers on Crackberry respect your word enough for you to not be needing to remind us you weren't connected. I am loving this playbook 101 series.

 
 
Posted by heateris Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

that's awesome! another selling point for the playbook.

 
 
Posted by Jimcmf Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

I hope all these things are in the 1250 page manual. There must be a zillion things that I can do with this PlayBook. I may never leave my house again !

 
 
Posted by dispatcher307 Monday, Apr 18, 2011 403 days ago

I got mine working with my PC finally. I transferred about 20 songs to my Playbook in about 4 minutes. It said it was doing about 1.7-2 MBps across my wireless network. It was decent and faster than I expected.

 
 
Posted by andrew101884 Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 402 days ago

Howd you do it? I am having no friggen luck having mine work

 
 
Posted by gec721 Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011 401 days ago

No luck here either. It sets up under networks each time I connect the USB and I can even use it for a short while after disconnecting the USB. Then, for some unknown reason, my Playbook continues to show under the network but cannot be accessed. Maybe an update....

 
 
Posted by kb1885 Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 402 days ago

My desktop is mac os x 10.4.11. This is the only way to share files between it and my playbook since there is no desktop software for 10.4.11

 
 
Posted by bjw408h Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011 402 days ago

This rocks! It works effortlessly with my i-Tunes library, home movies and pictures. TAT apps to view and play are nicely simple.

Thank you RIM and Adam.

Must sleep...

 
 
Posted by Gamesdmc3 Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011 401 days ago

nice feature,this will be real useful when i cant find me usb cable

 
 
Posted by gibsea Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011 401 days ago

For some assistance accessing the playbook's password protected share from a window 7 machine joined to a domain:

http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?p=6249194#post6249194

 
 
Posted by chammer101 Sunday, Apr 24, 2011 397 days ago

Wireless is horribly slow on the PB. Can't get any more than 3 megs transferred. Running ping tests with -t playbook name it will ping with 100+ms ping times from my desktop machine that is connected via ethernet cable. Lots of time outs etc. I can ping my Dell D630 laptop sitting next to playbook over wireless network and its 1 - 2ms. So I am confident it isn't the wireless router.
Will test at work on another wireless network tomorrow.

Could be newest OS that was loaded but man its slow. barely breaks 300k/sec when xfers are working.

 
 
Posted by jbabbage Tuesday, May 10, 2011 381 days ago

Update:

I used the PB's IP address and it now works. You always figure things out AFTER you pose the question. lol

---
I followed the directions completely but the connection still fails on my MackBook Pro. Any reason why this would NOT work?

Thanks in advance.

 
 
Posted by wbbady Tuesday, Jan 03, 2012 143 days ago

it works

 
 
Posted by Moikejay Friday, May 27, 2011 365 days ago

I cannot get this to work. I bought a playbook a month ago and i run a macbook pro and still have not successfully been able to transfer anything to it via usb or wifi network sharing. I have tried all these things and I'm getting frustrated

 
 
Posted by edwolfgang Monday, May 30, 2011 361 days ago

Works perfectly on my old outdated XP SP2. Bought myself the PlayBook while in the US and brought it back home to Australia. Could not be happier with this purchase! I just mapped the drive using the search facility in the Windows browser using the same work group and user name on both the PB and my laptop.
What I now need is the reverse where I can access my Windows media server files from the PB - guess I am not the only one hoping for this to come.
Anybody with tagging experience using wav format. It all works with Windows Media Player and my slimserver, but the tags are not visible on the PB.

 
 
Posted by pittsy12 Monday, Jun 06, 2011 354 days ago

PC users, the below will help you. Took me all of 2 minutes after reading it...

http://forums.crackberry.com/showthread.php?t=607558

 
 
Posted by garm Sunday, Aug 07, 2011 292 days ago

My file sharing password is different from my device password. And I never gave a password for my file sharing. So now when I try to log into it, I cannot because I don't have that original password.

Anyone else having the same issue?

 
 
Posted by Denus Wednesday, Mar 07, 2012 79 days ago

Same issue here, but I don't use even use passwords on my Mac.
Then I started looking for a solution in Google, and found out so many issues with SMB connections that I left the idea to use it.
A USB cable is just fine: these days, everything should be more or less plug & play...

 
 
Posted by obsessive_compulsive Sunday, Nov 20, 2011 187 days ago

I just tried this and the posted instructions two above helped me greatly, thanks.

 
 
Posted by helpwifi Monday, Dec 26, 2011 151 days ago

I am using a xp machine. I can connect to my tablet using wifi. I can transfer files from my PC to the tablet and I can see them in the tablet folder. The problem I have is any pictures or videos made with the tablet does not show up in the folder on my PC. Why is it that I cannot see over wifi pictures or videos created by the tablet on my pc. I would like to transfer the pictures/videos I created with the tablet to my PC over wifi.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

 
 
Posted by BgDog999 Sunday, Feb 19, 2012 96 days ago

I have a Mac G5 running OS 10.5. I can't get it to connect to the Wifi or by usb
"installation cannot proceed, as not all OS requirements were met. Please upgrade to 10.5.7 or higher." So I'm at my wits end!! When I type in EVERY combo I can think of for the PB server address, I get told it doesn't exist or may not be working. FRUSTRATING!!!!! I have sharing on and followed the instructions in the vid. Do I need to buy a $2,000 new computer to work with my $199 tablet? Please help. I'm hoping that there is a simple solution that I'm not seeing. Because of the age of my mac I'm guessing, I also can't use Box, as it won't allow me to upload. SO close to frisbying my PB!!

 
 
Posted by saahilj Sunday, Mar 25, 2012 61 days ago

it dosent show up in network so i have to run it every time...
any solutions???
Thanks,
Saahil Jaffer

 
 
Posted by robmack15 Sunday, Apr 15, 2012 40 days ago

How do you get the Playbook to connect to a network location such as a NAS device I have on my home network. It's great that I can connect to my playbook from various Operating Systems via WIFI but I'd like to connect from my Playbook to network locations as well.

Thanks

 
 
Posted by BlazorBoy Saturday, May 19, 2012 6 days ago

I'm a PC guy so hated the thought of having to do this on my wife's iMac (she insisted on getting that @#&$^).

It worked just fine after viewing the video, many thanks. It is even easier on a PC (as are most things).