From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

This is intended to be a formal team discussion of the topic:
FTP vs WebDav for Android/iOS filesystem sharing on Windows PC

This thread is intended to summarize & then discuss the practical
differences between FTP and WebDAV for Android or iOS filesystem sharing on
a Windows PC.
Protocol Network Location Drive Letter Native Needs 3rd Party
FTP Yes No Yes Yes
WebDAV Yes Yes Yes No

The goal is to clarify what Windows can do natively, versus what requires third-party tools, and what the terms share, mount, network drive, and
network location actually mean (since Windows terminology is confusing).

IMHO:
1. FTP is simple. So is WebDAV. On Windows. On Android.
2. Both are native to Windows. Both have free servers on Android.
3. There's no difference in simplicity between them (as far as I can tell).

FTP:
A. FTP is fine for ad-hoc file transfers.
B. But FTP cannot provide a native drive letter on Windows.
C. FTP requires third-party tools for filesystem integration.

WebDAV:
a. WebDAV provides native drive-letter mounting on Windows.
b. WebDAV integrates cleanly with Windows scripts, applications & tools.
c. For full filesystem interoperability between Android or iOS and Windows,
WebDAV is more capable than FTP if mapping a drive is one of your needs.

Occam's Razor says a simple solution that solves all needs is likely best.

FTP ON WINDOWS

1. Windows includes a native FTP client, but it does not include an FTP
filesystem redirector.

2. Because there is no redirector, Windows cannot mount an FTP server as a
drive letter.

3. Windows Explorer can open an FTP server as a virtual folder.
This is called a Network Location, not a Network Drive.

4. Example of a Network Location:
C:\> explorer.exe ftp://username:password@host/

5. This is not a mount. It does not create a drive letter.
It does not behave like a filesystem.
It is only Explorer acting as an FTP client.

6. To get a real drive letter for FTP, a third-party redirector
is required.

7. Example of a third-party mount:
C:\> ftpuse Z: ftp://192.168.1.2 user password

8. This works apparently, but it is not native Windows functionality.

WEBDAV ON WINDOWS

1. Windows includes a native WebDAV filesystem redirector called WebClient.

2. Because the redirector is built in, Windows can mount WebDAV as a real
network drive with a drive letter.

3. No third-party tools are required.

4. Example of a native WebDAV mount:
C:\> net use Z: \\192.168.1.2@8000\DavWWWRoot /USER:jim * /PERSISTENT:YES

5. DavWWWRoot is a Windows native keyword that has existed since the days
of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

6. This is a mapped network drive, not just a network location.

ROLES: SHARE VS MOUNT
a. A server shares a filesystem.
b. A client mounts a filesystem.
c. FTP servers on Android can share, but they cannot mount anything.
d. WebDAV servers on Android can share & Windows can mount them natively.

Occam's Razor:

i. The simplest solution is not what makes any solution likely the best.
ii. The best solution is usually the simplest one that solves all needs.

Certainly FTP is simple, but FTP is limited.
FTP cannot provide a drive letter without third-party Windows tools.

Just as certainly, WebDAV is simple too. Just as simple as FTP is, IMHO.
And WebDAV provides native drive-letter mounting on Windows.

WebDAV solves more requirements than FTP in a Windows environment.
If you don't need or want native drive-letter mapping, then FTP is fine.

But they're not equivalent.
I. FTP is less functional in that respect than WebDav is.
II. Yet, both are super simple.

KEY QUESTION FOR THIS TEAM DISCUSSION

Q: What does FTP do better than WebDAV for Android or iOS filesystem
interoperability on a Windows PC on a local LAN?

A: ?
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

WEBDAV ON WINDOWS

1. Windows includes a native WebDAV filesystem redirector called WebClient.

2. Because the redirector is built in, Windows can mount WebDAV as a real
  network drive with a drive letter.

3. No third-party tools are required.

N.B. Windows built-in webDAV client is deprecated, and I can see why.

I used to run a daily task that synchronised data from a sharepoint
library, to a PC (and then to an SFTP server via WinSCP).

The WebDAV part would find a novel way of b0rking every few months ...

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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Andy Burns wrote:

Maria Sophia wrote:

WEBDAV ON WINDOWS

1. Windows includes a native WebDAV filesystem redirector called WebClient. >>
2. Because the redirector is built in, Windows can mount WebDAV as a real
' network drive with a drive letter.

3. No third-party tools are required.

N.B. Windows built-in webDAV client is deprecated, and I can see why.

I used to run a daily task that synchronised data from a sharepoint
library, to a PC (and then to an SFTP server via WinSCP).

The WebDAV part would find a novel way of b0rking every few months ...

Andy is correct so here's my equally honest comparison of FTP v. WebDav

Windows WebDAV client:
a. The built-in WebClient service is considered legacy by Microsoft.
b. It supports only basic WebDAV features.
c. It has known reliability issues under load or long-running sync tasks.
d. Microsoft has not significantly updated it in many years.

FTP on Windows is in a similar state in that Microsoft considers it legacy.
a. The built-in ftp.exe client is plaintext-only.
b. No FTPS or SFTP support.
c. Explorer's FTP integration is minimal and not maintained.
d. Modern Windows environments typically use SFTP (OpenSSH)
or third-party tools instead.

My summary above may not be correct, but it's my assessment (i.e., AFAIK).
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia wrote:

a. The built-in WebClient service is considered legacy by Microsoft.

Even so, it has been working for me on Windows 10 for, oh, 5 years or so.

When I want to mount the Android filesystem over the LAN as a drive, I run:

net use Z: \\192.168.1.2@8080\DavWWWRoot

Note that DavWWWRoot only has meaning on Windows as it's a Windows keyword.

When I no longer need Android as a drive letter, I unmount it from Windows.

net use Z: /delete

FTP is similar but you can't mount FTP as a drive letter (AFAIK) without
adding third-party tools (e.g., FTPUse or NetDrive) to the Windows PC.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia, 2026-01-27 18:11:

[...]

1. Windows includes a native FTP client, but it does not include an FTP
filesystem redirector.

2. Because there is no redirector, Windows cannot mount an FTP server as a
drive letter.

3. Windows Explorer can open an FTP server as a virtual folder.
This is called a Network Location, not a Network Drive.

This is called a "Shell namespace".

Also see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Shell_namespace>
--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia, 2026-01-27 21:43:

Maria Sophia wrote:

a. The built-in WebClient service is considered legacy by Microsoft.

Even so, it has been working for me on Windows 10 for, oh, 5 years or so.

Yes - but Windows 10 itself is also legacy now and for Windows 11
Microsoft did not improve anything for the WebDAV support.
--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel wrote:

Maria Sophia wrote:

a. The built-in WebClient service is considered legacy by Microsoft.

Even so, it has been working for me on Windows 10 for, oh, 5 years or so.

Yes - but Windows 10 itself is also legacy now and for Windows 11
Microsoft did not improve anything for the WebDAV support.

Yes... but... all you need is the file explorer and "net use" & that works.
<https://i.postimg.cc/BvJdKWzt/webdav06.jpg>

You can't mount the Android filesystem as a Windows drive letter with FTP (unless you add third-party software). But WebDAV needs no software.

Having the Android phone as a Windows drive has huge advantages, e.g., the Windows file explorer can save DIRECTLY from Windows to Android in 1 step.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Maria Sophia, 2026-01-28 18:51:

Arno Welzel wrote:

Maria Sophia wrote:

a. The built-in WebClient service is considered legacy by Microsoft.

Even so, it has been working for me on Windows 10 for, oh, 5 years or so. >>

Yes - but Windows 10 itself is also legacy now and for Windows 11
Microsoft did not improve anything for the WebDAV support.

Yes... but... all you need is the file explorer and "net use" & that works.
<https://i.postimg.cc/BvJdKWzt/webdav06.jpg>

You can't mount the Android filesystem as a Windows drive letter with FTP (unless you add third-party software). But WebDAV needs no software.

The issue with WebDAV in Windows is, that it does not work realiable.

Having the Android phone as a Windows drive has huge advantages, e.g., the Windows file explorer can save DIRECTLY from Windows to Android in 1 step.

Using the Windows file explorer you don't need a drive letter at all.
That's the reason, why namespaces exist in the explorer - to be able to
access locations even when they don't have a drive letter.

A drive letter is only useful if you want to access the data in *other* applications besides the Windows file explorer which *require* a drive
letter.
--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel wrote:

You can't mount the Android filesystem as a Windows drive letter with FTP
(unless you add third-party software). But WebDAV needs no software.

The issue with WebDAV in Windows is, that it does not work realiable.

Having the Android phone as a Windows drive has huge advantages, e.g., the >> Windows file explorer can save DIRECTLY from Windows to Android in 1 step.

Using the Windows file explorer you don't need a drive letter at all.
That's the reason, why namespaces exist in the explorer - to be able to access locations even when they don't have a drive letter.

A drive letter is only useful if you want to access the data in *other* applications besides the Windows file explorer which *require* a drive letter.

Hi Arno,

It is good that you are pointing out the differences between WebDAV and
FTP for connecting Windows to mobile devices. Those distinctions are real.

Regarding your comment that WebDAV in Windows is not reliable, I do not
doubt that it can fail. I am only saying that in my specific use model it
has been reliable enough to be useful. If you have concrete failure cases
it would help to list them, since the discussion here is about FTP vs
WebDAV. Without examples it is hard to understand what you mean by
unreliable in this context.

My setup is simple. I run a free WebDAV server on Android or iOS, then use
the built in Windows WebDAV client:

net use Z: \\192.168.1.2@8000\DavWWWRoot /USER:joe * /PERSISTENT:YES

No third party software on Windows, no shell extensions, no drivers.
Windows maps it as a normal filesystem. For my purposes this has been
stable, and the fact that it uses only built in components is a major advantage. Scripts that expect a persistent drive letter work fine with
this mapping.

The biggest practical benefit for me is that I can save APK files directly
from a Windows browser session to the mobile device. APKs are useless on Windows, so saving them straight to the phone is the natural workflow.
This is something FTP cannot do on Windows without third party redirectors, because Windows has no FTP filesystem provider.

Only protocols with filesystem redirectors can be mapped as drives:
1. SMB has one.
2. WebDAV has one.
3. FTP does not.

That is a critical difference when the goal is full read write access to
the visible mobile filesystem through normal Windows applications.

You are correct that a drive letter is not required for basic file copying. Explorer namespaces work fine for that, and adb does not need a drive
letter either. So yes, we can live without mapping the device.

But the question remains. How do you directly save an APK obtained during a Windows web browsing session to the mobile device? That is the specific workflow where a mapped drive letter matters, and where WebDAV provides something that FTP cannot provide on Windows without extra software.

If we arbitrarily toss SMB into the mix, this is my assessment:
a. Can a web browser save an APK directly to Android with SMB?
b. Can a web browser save an APK directly to Android with WebDav?
c. Can a web browser save an APK directly to Android with FTP?

The answer, when we tackle iOS & SMB, is surprisingly unintuitive!

1. SMB
A Windows browser can save directly to an SMB share, but only if the non-rooted/non-jailbroken mobile device is running an SMB server.

A. Android
Non-rooted Android cannot bind to privileged ports, which includes the
standard SMB ports. Because of that, Android SMB servers must run on
high ports. So SMB can work, but it is not useful on Android IMHO.

B. iOS
Shockingly, iOS is the only common consumer operating system that allows
apps to bind to privileged ports, so an SMB server on iOS can run on the standard SMB ports and behave more like a normal SMB server.

In practice this makes SMB on iOS more useful than on Android.

In both cases, if the SMB server is reachable and writable, a Windows
browser can save directly to it because SMB is a real filesystem
provider in Windows.

2. WebDAV
A Windows browser can save directly to a mapped WebDAV drive letter.
WebDAV has a filesystem redirector in Windows, so the mobile device appears
as a normal drive. We can save an APK directly to Android during a Windows
web browsing session (without needing to save it and then copy it over).

3. FTP
Unfortunately a Windows browser cannot save directly to an FTP location. Windows has no FTP filesystem provider, so FTP cannot be mapped, cannot be assigned a drive letter, and cannot appear in Save dialogs. Explorer can
browse FTP, but only inside Explorer itself.

Having said those distinctions between SMB/WebDAV/FTP I certainly agree
with you that FTP/WebDAV are no longer being worked on my Microsoft.
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From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

Arno Welzel wrote:

Maria Sophia, 2026-01-27 18:11:

[...]

1. Windows includes a native FTP client, but it does not include an FTP
filesystem redirector.

2. Because there is no redirector, Windows cannot mount an FTP server as a >> drive letter.

3. Windows Explorer can open an FTP server as a virtual folder.
This is called a Network Location, not a Network Drive.

This is called a "Shell namespace".

Also see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Shell_namespace>

Hi Arno,

This is a great discussion because if these varying names have confused me
over the decades, it's perhaps likely others like me are also confused.

So I happily thank you for the clear explanation about Windows namespaces.

Your point that Windows File Explorer exposes FTP only as a Shell
namespace, is exactly right. That distinction is important, and it actually ties directly into why WebDAV behaves so differently from FTP.

As you noted, FTP in Windows is handled as a Shell namespace. That is why Explorer can browse FTP, but Windows cannot mount FTP as a drive letter,
cannot assign it a UNC share, and cannot expose it to Save dialogs.

That's because there is no redirector behind it.

WebDAV is different because Windows includes a WebDAV filesystem
redirector. Since WebDAV has a redirector, Windows can treat it like a
real filesystem. That is the perhaps the main reason net use works with
WebDAV but not with FTP.

What's extremely interesting to this distinction is that this is also apparently where the (case-insensitive) DavWWWRoot comes in.

net use Z: \\192.168.1.2@8000\DavWWWRoot /USER:joe * /PERSISTENT:YES
net use Z: /delete

Apparently davwwwroot is a Microsoft-invented "synthetic share name".

Contrary to what seems intuitive, DavWWWRoot is not an Android folder.
Android (or iOS) has no idea what DavWWWRoot is, in and of itself.

DavWWWRoot is a Windows namespace shim that exists apparently only because WebDAV has a redirector and Windows needs a fake share name to satisfy the
UNC parser.

SMB has real shares, but WebDAV does not, so Microsoft invented DavWWWRoot
to stand in as the share name. Apparently it simply tells Windows to treat
the root of the WebDAV server as the root of the mapped drive.

Who knew?
Not me.
Now I do.

Since this naming topic is drifting into the internal workings of the
Windows WebDAV redirector, I will open a separate thread focused only on DavWWWRoot, what it is, and why Windows uses it & how it applies to mobile device file system sharing in a way that almost nobody knows how to do.

Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.comp.os.windows-11,comp.mobile.android
Subject: What is DavWWWRoot & why does Microsoft use it for WebDAV mappings?
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:05:50 -0500
Message-ID: <10lg41e$a9d$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

It's sheer genius how Microsoft allowed mounting of mobile devices!
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