How do I transfer files over hotspot or pairdrop hasn't implemented it yet?

[GitFlzy]

For some reason, the quality of my wifi was not good enough to transfer large files, so I was trying to create a hotspot(on debian13+xfce) and ran the pairdrop container, then it return me "you are offline" and my phone couldn't see it, did I do something wrong?

[Sigmabrogz]

When using a mobile hotspot, PairDrop needs both devices to be on the same network AND able to establish WebRTC peer connections.

The issue: When you create a hotspot, your phone acts as a router. The container running PairDrop sees your laptop's local IP, but your phone (connected to its own hotspot) may not be able to reach that IP directly due to NAT/firewall rules on the hotspot.

Solutions:

1. Run PairDrop directly on your laptop (not in Docker) - this avoids the extra network layer:

   npx pairdrop

   Then access it at http://localhost:3000 on your laptop and http://<laptop-ip>:3000 on your phone.

2. Use Docker with host networking:

   docker run -d --network host -e PUID=1000 -e PGID=1000 lscr.io/linuxserver/pairdrop

3. Check your hotspot settings - some mobile hotspots have "AP isolation" enabled by default which prevents devices from seeing each other. On Android, this is sometimes called "Wi-Fi Direct" or "Client isolation".

4. Verify connectivity - from your phone, try to ping your laptop's IP. If that fails, the hotspot is blocking device-to-device communication.

The "you are offline" message typically means the WebSocket connection to the PairDrop server failed, which points to a network/firewall issue rather than a PairDrop bug.