How To Transfer Files at Warp Speed with TeamViewer 12 File Transfer

Esther
Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager
edited April 2023 in Blog

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Thought your file transfers were already fast? You haven’t seen anything yet! File Transfer has had a major upgrade in TeamViewer 12, meaning you can transfer files at warp speed between devices on almost all platforms.

Whether we’re at work transferring a Virtual Machine image to a new server, or at home trying to move vacation videos to your mum’s PC – we need it to happen quickly.

Time spent watching a progress bar is time we could better spend getting on with our day.

We’ve got a million things to do, and we just want to get on with it.

Massive File Transfer Speed Improvements in TeamViewer 12

With every new release of TeamViewer, we pay particular attention to performance improvements. Because we know how important speed is to all of us.

With TeamViewer 12 you can now transfer files up to 20 times faster than before, with transfer speeds up to 200 MB/s with UDP only.

That’s some serious speed improvements. Gained by optimizing various technical properties of files such as their potential compression ratios.

Then we tested the performance by comparing the file transfer speeds of the same file, with TeamViewer 12 and the previous version.

The exact performance increase you will experience depends on a few factors of your current set up and situation. For example:

  • Your local network speed
  • Computer performance
  • Internet connection

You’ll notice a huge difference. To take advantage of these improvements, all you need to do is install TeamViewer 12 on both sides of the connection and start transferring files.

How to use File Transfer

You can choose between three different options to use the TeamViewer File Transfer function, depending on what suits you best:

The File Transfer Window

1. On the Remote Control tab, select the File transfer option before starting the connection.

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2. Alternatively, after establishing a remote control session, click Files & Extras | Open file transfer in the tool bar of the session window.


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Transferring Files Using Drag and Drop in Windows

1. On Windows computers, files or folders can be dragged and dropped from either of the connected computers to the other. This is not a distinct feature of the File Transfer mode, but can be performed in the Remote Control mode.

a. Connect to the remote computer.
b. Drag the file to transfer from the computer that has the file on it.
c. Move it to either the local screen or the window displaying the remote computer.
d. Drop the file. It will now be transferred.

File Transfer Via the Windows Context Menu

Another option for transferring files between your computer and the remote one is to send them via the Windows context menu.

In this case, you can send files with TeamViewer using the Windows context menu to computers or contacts from your Computers & Contacts list.

1. Select the file in Windows Explorer.
2. Right-click the file. The Windows Context Menu will open.
3. Select Send to | Teamviewer. The TeamViewer Send file to … dialogue box will open.

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4. Select the computer or contact that should receive the file.

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 5.  Click the “OK” button.

6. The computer or contact must confirm the request.

screenshot5.pngThe file is saved on the computer or on the contact’s device in the Download folder under

C:\Users\%username%\Downloads

Note: Files cannot be sent or received without the confirmation of the recipient.

Transfer Files Even Faster with These Best Practices

When it comes to your daily routine of working with larger files, there are several parameters you can fine-tune to get the best file transfer possible:

Make Sure Your Environment Is Up to Speed

This is especially for working on files large of size and a little less about just transferring them. Nevertheless, these both come hand in hand most of the time.

  • Add more RAM if necessary
  • Make sure your CPU can get the best out of your RAM
  • Make sure your LAN/WAN devices have great connection and can handle high speeds

Minimize File Size

Since smaller files don’t need as much time to be transferred, you should ensure you only transfer exactly what you need.

There’s no point sending a folder full of images and videos if you only need a handful on the remote device.

What About Compression and File Splitting?

Since TeamViewer automatically compresses and decompresses files during the transfer, there is no need to compress to an archive beforehand.

In fact, it’s better not to. This is because pre-compressed files cannot be compressed any further – which results in slower transfer speeds.

For a similar reason, there is no need to archive and split files into smaller pieces – as each piece will have the same pre-compression issue.

Instead, reduce the file size manually by only transferring exactly what is needed, and then use Secure File Transfer with the file uncompressed.

Now It’s Your Turn

Ready to test out TeamViewer 12’s File Transfer speed?

What kinds of files do you often need to transfer to another device? Let me know in the discussion below! 

 

Former Community Manager

Comments

  • zbjren
    zbjren Posts: 1

    The two PCs are on the same network (behind router), the file transfer speed is only 16k/s

  • Uisng Teamviewer 13  on a local network I can transfer files ok.

    Now tryng to  send to a remote site I can select etc, but when pressing send  The Job Queue just sits on Calculating and does not end. 

    I can open files on the remote Pi and edit them but i can seem to send  a 300kb zip file.

  • Xcell1
    Xcell1 Posts: 2

    Server: DL: 25 MB, UL: 5MB

    REMOTE: DL: 3MB

    max. 200KB/s: TeamViewer 13.0 for Mac OSX 10.12

  • Mantis2k
    Mantis2k Posts: 5

    Slowest file transfer I have ever experienced.  This blog post makes no sense and has no basis in reality. 

  • peten
    peten Posts: 3
    I agree that the transfer is VERY slow (< 200KB/sec) for remote connections. Are you folks throttling transfers? At my end, I'm measuring 3.29MB/sec and my box shows only 5%-6% network utilization.
  • Drag and drop used to work perfectly between me and my non-teckie friend (free account).  I got a new computer, registered it with TeamViewer, but now drag and drop doesn't work anymore. It drags to the edge of one connected screen, but not onto the other connected screen.  How come?  Customer support says it SHOULD work, as does this article; but it doesn't.  At this point, we have to email files and documents to each other.  WAY inconvenient!  (But Team Viewer is still GREAT!!)

    Anybody have an answer or solution?  L[personal information removed by mod]

    Do I presume the tool bar at the top of team viewer is for paid accounts only, because neither my friend nor I have a tool bar at the top.

  • gcb
    gcb Posts: 1

    Transferring large files is a major headache. I have been trying to transfer a 1.3GB file for days! It always fails sometime during the lengthy (2+ hour) transfer, and I have no option to resume. I have yet to make it all the way through! Why can't it pick up where it left off??

  • kaseyl
    kaseyl Posts: 1

    I need to transfer 343GB of video. I'm on a Mac, my "partner" is on a PC. Has anyone ever tried to transfer this much? How did it go?

  • This article is nuts.  For the last couple of TV upgrades, file transfers have  been dog-slow.   It can take 30 minutes to transfer a GB file.

  • Ver 15, free. Drag & drop doesn't work between remote computers.  Context menu "Send to TV" does, but only for files.  No folders. Argh!

  • JohnSS
    JohnSS Posts: 2

    I'm sure drag and drop used to work, at least on the free version. It doesn't now, on the paid version. 

    The right-click method sounded easy, but it does not show the computer I am using as a target.

    The file transfer is a complicated last resort method, but it did not work either. For some reason, the remote window would not show all of the files in the folder, just a few that were not needed.

    As someone else noted, it usually comes to emailing the files, or in today's case, putting them on Google Drive.

    Please improve this.

    John

     

     

  • Hi my brother I believe is using TeamViewer 12 to spy on my computer. These webpages were in the deleted history which I recovered. How can I tell if he has installed it on my computer without me knowing. He has full access to my computer and did know my router password at the time. Please help me I don't want to have to take my computer the police but that might be my only optionidk what this is but it has router12teamviewer.com

     

    Screenshot_20200616-190944_Photos.jpg

     

  • Just used the current version of TV to transfer 11GB of data from one computer to another winthing the same town.  I used the file transfer connection method, not remote desktop drag and drop, nor VPN/SMB.  Both on cable brodband.  Took about 1.5HRs to do so.

     

    My only gripe, whay can the recipient not see a progress bar?

  • JohnSS
    JohnSS Posts: 2

    I've been using Cntrl-C on the remote and Cntrl-V on my local computer. It works pretty well, even allowing multiple selections. It doesn't work for running two transfers at once. I've done up to several MB.

    I would like to have drag and drop, but actually, with a laggy connection the copy/paste method is more deliberate and I'm less likely to start a large transfer in error.

    I did notice that the remove PC showed a transfer complete message.

  • Broffrey
    Broffrey Posts: 3 ✭✭

    I've been using TeamViewer since version 6 or 7, and version 12 is still shockingly slow. Big big disappointment!

  • Esther
    Esther Posts: 4,052 Former Community Manager

    Hi @Broffrey

    TeamViewer 12 has been released in 2016, but meanwhile, our current version is TeamViewer 15. Did you test out TeamViewer 15 yet?

    I highly recommend it 👍

    Former Community Manager