Show HN: DroidDock – A sleek macOS app for browsing Android device files via ADB

https://rajivm1991.github.io/DroidDock/

78•rajivm1991•2mo ago

Hi HN,

I’m Rajiv, a software engineer turned Math teacher living in the mountains, where I like to slow down life while still building useful software.

I recently built DroidDock, a lightweight and modern macOS desktop app that lets you browse and manage files on your Android device via ADB. After 12 years in software development, I wanted a free, clean, and efficient tool because existing solutions were either paid, clunky, or bloated.

Features include multiple view modes, thumbnail previews for images/videos, intuitive file search, file upload/download, and keyboard shortcuts. The backend uses Rust and Tauri for performance.

You can download the latest .dmg from the landing page here: https://rajivm1991.github.io/DroidDock/ Source code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/rajivm1991/DroidDock

I’d appreciate your feedback on usability, missing features, or bugs. Thanks for checking it out!

— Rajiv

Comments

dcreater•2mo ago

Looks vibe coded?

hackyhacky•2mo ago

Why do you say that?

rvz•2mo ago

Because it is true. Claude did almost all of it.

brainless•2mo ago

The CLAUDE.md file is right there, so they are probably using agentic coding.

But why does it matter? Does the app not work? I don't have a Mac, can't check.

dinkelberg•2mo ago

Counter question: How do you know it works?

A file manager better be rock solid, I don't want a bug to delete any files or do other shenanigans.

brainless•2mo ago

That is a valid question.

But that would apply to any app that deals with files like this one does.

This one is open source and we can run some code analysis on it, compile locally, etc. I am not well versed in security checks but I guess you get the idea.

wiredpancake•2mo ago

It appears very "vibe coded", the application makes use of the stereotypical AI gradient in the top bar of the application.

The README.md uses a ton of Emojis in the feature Setting.

100% AI.

sunaookami•2mo ago

Don't know why this comment was flagged, this is exactly what is going on here. AI is famous for these purple gradients and the website reeks "vibe-coded", this is 100% how Claude makes websites, including the already mentioned gradients, emojis, style, etc.

And of course every commit is Co-Authored by Claude Code with excessive commit descriptions also created by Claude. Is this really something we want to see on Hacker News? I wouldn't trust such an application.

Nothing against AI coding but letting AI take the wheel 100% of the time and not even mention it (like he coded it himself) is very dishonest.

rvz•2mo ago

Of course it is.

As usual, it is low quality and has zero tests.

jeron•2mo ago

agents should agentically create high quality unit tests

Egor3f•2mo ago

Agents are really good at writing unit tests, but only if you clarify exactly WHAT should be tested. Otherwise they generate slop which passes, but don't catch any bugs nor regression.

tonyedgecombe•2mo ago

This situation reminds me of the Visual Basic apps in the nineties. It was possible to write good quality software with VB and some people did. Nonetheless the majority was dross and the fact that an app was written in VB was a strong indicator of poor quality.

VerifiedReports•2mo ago

Ugh. This term can't die fast enough.

mhuffman•2mo ago

What term would you suggest instead? Agent-assisted slop?

VerifiedReports•2mo ago

Not bad; anything that actually mentions "AI" would be better than "vibe." That doesn't tell you anything.

ulfw•2mo ago

Especially the 'design' which couldn't be less Mac-native if it tried

mhuffman•2mo ago

You can see that it is[0].

[0] https://github.com/rajivm1991/DroidDock/commits/main/

tgma•2mo ago

Don't wanna be killjoy, but specifically since "sleek" and "native" is mentioned many times, I'd say that's not what one expects from a sleek macOS application to say the least.

I'd expect something like Cyberduck quality UI, as an example. The author should aim to mimic system UI in my opinion as closely as possible (or integrate inside Finder).

manmal•2mo ago

Indeed, at first glance I thought the UI is a preliminary Electron one (there are nicer Electron apps for sure).

Klonoar•2mo ago

UI-wise it’s effectively the same, just built with the macOS specific webview underneath.

jaimehrubiks•2mo ago

Ah it would be awesome to have an adb explorer within Cyberduck

rajivm1991•2mo ago

Appreciate your feedback! I hear you on the importance of a truly native macOS experience, improving the macOS native look and feel is definitely on my priority

coldtrait•2mo ago

That would require building this in Swift.

dinkelberg•2mo ago

For those who want to use Google's Android File Transfer app for Mac, which for some reason isn't regularly available from Google anymore, it's still available by direct download: https://dl.google.com/dl/androidjumper/mtp/current/AndroidFi...

cosmotic•2mo ago

Does the app itself still work?

dinkelberg•2mo ago

I have used it a year ago with macOS 14 or 15 and it worked. I've had problems copying too many files at once (don't remember the problem exactly), that's why I only copy about 100 at a time.

Your mileage may vary.

seam_carver•2mo ago

What really grinds my gears is that I have devices that only work with AFT and not OpenMTP. Like my Hisense A9. Because AFT will crash if you try to transfer hundreds of files. I wish I could get rid of AFT but I can't

I also have a usb-c flash drive for copying as well.

Amazon has a great MTP app but it only works with Kindles.

oneandonley1•2mo ago

Thank you, i've been looking for this for years

jeroenhd•2mo ago

I must admit I haven't really tried it, but what's wrong with hooking up an Android phone to a Mac? Can't you browse files like you can on other computers?

I don't think using ADB is the right way to go about it. Normalizing elevated shell permissions just to copy files just feels like going the wrong way about it. Unless that's the only way to get decent Android file management done on Mac, of course.

seam_carver•2mo ago

No, you can't. You need a special app to browse a recent android phone or kindle on a mac

jeroenhd•2mo ago

That's pretty annoying. I swear you used to be able to, what changed?

Edit: I thought Apple supported MTP but I guess they never did? That's a weird limitation for an OS to have.

Crestwave•2mo ago

It makes a lot more sense when you consider that Apple's business model relies heavily on keeping customers locked into their ecosystem.

Clearly a Mac user should also have an iPhone, or face the repurcussions for using a non-Apple device.

jaimehrubiks•2mo ago

MTP is slower than adb in my experience

rajivm1991•2mo ago

macOS has limited support for MTP.. native browsing of Android devices is very limited or broken. Using ADB is admittedly a workaround, but it provides broader device compatibility and control, especially on newer Android versions

rand17•2mo ago

I wouldn't dare to call an app with a webview approach (be that tauri or electron), react, typescript and the whole frontend Pandora's box "sleek", but each to his own. I find using the adb bridge for such operation a bit of an overkill, but fortunately I don't own Apple made devices this year so I don't face such problems; maybe drastic times call for drastic measures: Apple's and Google's hatred towards end users is palpable these days. I took a quick look at the source and the naming convention is not "conventional" and the lack of eslint/prettier made me raise my eyebrows (raised it high enough to not want to touch this project with a ten foot pole), just like the 2452 line main App.tsx and the rampant useEffect abuse in it - but again, I'm not the target audience, maybe this is super useful for the poster and aesthetics have always been subjective.

rajivm1991•2mo ago

Appreciate the code review eyes and honesty . Yeah the current App.tsx is admittedly dense.. refactoring and adding linting/prettier is next on the list. The choice of React and Tauri was pragmatic to move fast with technologies I’m comfortable with, but I’m open to suggestions to improve code quality and maintainability.

rand17•2mo ago

The general consensus around here is that web and sleek/native will not mix, Swift probably is the way to go if we are talking about modern, appealing MacOS applications, but that may be outside your comfort zone with or without the help of AI tools.

luckydata•2mo ago

Not exactly what beautiful looks like on a Mac.

rajivm1991•2mo ago

appreciate your honest comments.. I want DroidDock to be both beautiful and functional, balancing modern design trends with macOS idioms. yes, feedback like this helps me iterate toward a better experience

zmmmmm•2mo ago

What we really need is someone to implement this using FUSE so we can just mount the phone directly and treat its file system like .... a file system.

EDIT: ok - it exists

https://github.com/JasonFerrara/jmtpfs

coldtrait•2mo ago

For those who want a simpler way to do this wirelessly, PlainApp has been great for me:

https://github.com/ismartcoding/plain-app

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Show HN: DroidDock – A sleek macOS app for browsing Android device files via ADB

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