Raspberry Pi: Transfer Files Between Raspberry Pi & Computer

Pisound Tutorials
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Goal: Easily browse, copy and edit files on your Raspberry Pi with your computer using SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

Difficulty: Easy

Required Hardware:

  • Network-Enabled Raspberry Pi w/ power supply and micro SD card
  • Network-Enabled Windows, macOS or Linux computer

Required Software:

Step 01: Enable SSH on your Pi

  1. Follow this tutorial https://community.blokas.io/t/raspberry-pi-remote-control-raspberry-pi-via-ssh/597 to enable SSH on your Raspberry Pi

Step 02: Connect to your Pi using FileZilla client

  1. Download and install FileZilla client on your computer via https://filezilla-project.org/
  2. Connect both your computer and Raspberry Pi to the same Network
  3. Find out the IP address of your Raspberry Pi following this guide - https://community.blokas.io/t/find-raspberry-pis-ip-address/596
  4. Launch FileZilla and go to File > Site manager
  5. Fill in the IP address from the previous step, your Pi’s username and password
  6. Click Connect and you will see the home folder of the Pi’s user.

Note: the default Rasbian username is pi and the default password is raspberry and for MODEP image the default username is modep and the default password is blokaslabs

Step 03: Manage file and folder permissions

In some cases when working with files directly or over SFTP you will face the permission denied issue. The easiest way to grant the necessary permissions is to use chmod command. To grand the read/write/execute permissions follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal window on your Raspberry Pi directly using monitor and keyboard or connect to it via SSH (https://community.blokas.io/t/raspberry-pi-remote-control-raspberry-pi-via-ssh/597)
  2. Type sudo chmod -R 777 full-file-path (Change full-file-path with the exact path of the file/folder you want to apply the permissions to)

Note: Granting 777 permissions isn’t the most secure approach. You can read more about dealing with file permissions here -http://www.dummies.com/computers/raspberry-pi/working-with-file-permissions-on-your-raspberry-pi/