Your Android phone, in Finder.
Plug the phone in and it appears as a volume. Drag files both ways, run rsync, open a photo in place. No Android File Transfer, and nothing to install on the phone.
How it works
A real volume, not a file browser.
SideMount is a file system extension, so the phone is a volume that every program on your Mac can use. Finder, the terminal, rsync, Photoshop, whatever opens a file.
Turn on USB debugging, once
It is the switch Android gives a computer permission to read the storage properly. The app shows you where it is, and the phone asks you to allow this Mac the first time.
Plug the phone in
SideMount speaks to it over the cable directly. There is no adb to install, no server running in the background, and nothing to sideload onto the phone.
Open it in Finder
Internal storage is the root. An SD card, if there is one, is a folder at the top. Eject it when you are done, the same as any drive.
Cable or Wi-Fi
Every phone on one panel.
The cable is the fast way, and it needs nothing set up beyond USB debugging. A phone on Android 11 or later can also be paired over Wi-Fi with Android's own wireless debugging, once, and after that it appears whenever it is on the same network as your Mac.
Wi-Fi is much slower than the cable. In our measurements a copy ran at roughly a twenty-eighth of the cable's speed, so it suits documents and a handful of photos, not a video library. When a phone is on both, SideMount uses the cable.
Speed
As fast as the cable, near enough.
MTP, which is what Android File Transfer uses, is the reason copying to a phone has always felt broken. SideMount does not use it. These are measured numbers, 256 MiB each way on a USB 3 phone, against what the bare wire does on the same cable.
| 256 MiB | SideMount | The bare wire | Share of the wire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing to the phone | 147 MB/s | 160 MB/s | 92% |
| Reading from the phone | 111 MB/s | 135 MB/s | 82% |
On an older USB 2 phone the cable is the limit and SideMount matches the wire exactly, at about 21 MB/s. If a copy feels slow, check the cable and the port first: a charging cable has no data lines at all.
What you get
The things that were missing.
Several phones at once
Plug in two and both mount, each with its own volume. Copy between them through Finder if you like.
Everything works on it
rsync, cp, Finder copy, Quick Look, tags. It is a volume, so a program does not need to know the phone is a phone.
No litter on the phone
Extended attributes stay on the Mac, so macOS never leaves its dot-underscore files scattered through your camera roll.
SD cards included
A mounted card shows up as a folder at the top of the volume, named for the card, so it is one place for everything on the phone.
Nothing goes to a cloud
Your files go from the phone to your Mac, over the cable or your own network, and nowhere else. No account, no cloud, no telemetry about what you copied.
Updates that ask first
SideMount checks for updates once a day and never installs one behind your back.
Pricing
Try it for a week. Then pick a shape.
Every plan is the whole app, on up to 3 Macs. The trial is seven days and does not ask for a card.
Monthly
For a job that ends, or for trying it properly before you commit.
Choose monthly- Up to 3 Macs
- Cancel any time
Lifetime
About ten months of the monthly plan, and then it never asks again.
Buy once- Up to 3 Macs
- Every update, for good
- No renewal, ever
Not what you hoped for? Ask for a refund within 14 days and you will get one.
Questions
The things people ask first.
Why does it need USB debugging?
It is the only way macOS can get at Android storage properly. The alternative is MTP, which is the slow, fragile path Android File Transfer uses, and it cannot present a phone as a real volume.
Turning it on does not open your phone to anyone else. Android still asks you to allow each computer by its key, and you can revoke this Mac from the same settings screen at any time. How to turn it on, phone by phone.
Do I have to install adb?
No. SideMount speaks the protocol itself over the cable. Nothing is installed on the phone, and no adb server runs on your Mac.
If you already have adb running for other work, quit it before mounting. A phone offers one connection and only one program can hold it.
Which phones work?
Any Android phone that can turn on USB debugging, which is effectively all of them. It has been tested on Android 8 through 15, on phones from several makers.
Does it work over Wi-Fi?
Yes, on Android 11 or later. Pair the phone once from the panel with Android's wireless debugging: turn it on in Developer options, tap Pair device with pairing code, and type the six digits into SideMount. After that the phone appears whenever it is on the same network as your Mac.
It is much slower than the cable, roughly a twenty-eighth of its speed in our measurements, so it is good for small transfers. For anything large, plug the cable in; when a phone is on both, SideMount uses the cable.
Why macOS 26?
SideMount is built on FSKit, Apple's supported way for an app to provide a file system. The piece it needs arrived in macOS 26. The alternative would be a kernel extension, which is the thing that breaks on every macOS update and asks you to lower your Mac's security.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. Files move between the phone and your Mac, over the cable or your own Wi-Fi network, and nowhere else. The app talks to the internet for exactly two things: checking your licence, and asking whether there is an update.
What if it does not work for me?
The trial is seven days and asks for no card, so you can find out before paying anything. If you have already paid, ask within 14 days and you get your money back.
Stop emailing yourself photos.
Plug the phone in. Drag the folder. Eject.