How do you make Ubuntu accept files sent over bluetooth

I have a problem when I send my files from phone to ubuntu 12.04 via bluetooth as the phone prompts with the message "the file not sent"! I can send any files from ubuntu 12.04 to my android phone.

Solution 1:

Go to Dash Home search for personal file sharing. If you don't have Unity installed, you can open the program from a terminal with typing gnome-file-share-properties in it.

At the bottom of the box enable Receive files in downloads folder over bluetooth also enable Notify about received file then you're good to go :)

Solution 2:

[Updated answer tested on Ubuntu 16.04]

I have found that simply installing blueman and using the blueman applet works well:

1. Install blueman:

   sudo apt-get install blueman
   

2. Run the applet:

   /usr/bin/blueman-applet
   

3. Pair your device using the applet

Sharing from your phone should "just work".

NOTE: If the phone tries to send, but immediately fails, it may be a folder-permissions issue. Files sent via bluetooth are downloaded temporarily to ~/.cache/obexd, and if the owner/permissions of this folder aren't set correctly, the files can't be downloaded there and the transfer fails. Changing the folder's ownership and/or permissions so that your non-root account has read/write access to it should fix the problem.

[Original answer:]

For non-gnome/unity desktop-environments (Xmonad, XFCE, LXDE, etc.), the following works (tested on 15.04):

1. Make sure you have the necessary dependencies installed:

   sudo apt-get install obex-data-server gnome-user-share
   

2. Run gnome-file-share-properties from the command-line, and make sure Receive files in downloads folder over bluetooth and Notify about received file are enabled.

3. Create a file ~/bin/start-bluetooth-listener which contains the following (the order is important):

   #!/bin/sh
   /usr/bin/obex-data-server
   /usr/lib/gnome-user-share/gnome-user-share &
   

   (create the~/bin directory first if it doesn't already exist)

4. Make the file executable:

   chmod +x ~/bin/start-bluetooth-listener
   

5. Either manually run the ~/bin/start-bluetooth-listener script, or set up your desktop-environment to automatically run the script when you log-in (e.g. in XFCE, via the xfce4-session-settings tool).

Now if you try to send a file from your phone to your paired computer via bluetooth, it should work, and pop up a notification window after the file has been received.