Microsoft’s Arrow Launcher for Android has slowly but surely becoming a solid launcher for Android devices. The company, through the Microsoft Garage project team, has continually been adding features, improving the stability, and the performance of the launcher.
If you are a heavy Microsoft user, you should consider Arrow Launcher for your launcher. You can read my review of it here.
Back in June, in the 3.5 update to Arrow Launcher, the introduced a new feature, Arrow Hub. Arrow Hub allows you to easily sync photos, documents, videos and anything you have in your Android device’s clipboard to the cloud which you can then get to via the web or OneDrive. It is brilliantly simple and is an effective way to get files from your phone to your PC, Mac or Chromebook.
So how does it work and how do you get to your files? In this How To I will outline how the feature works on your Android device and how to get to those files.
Prerequisite: This How To assumes that you are running Arrow Launcher on your Android phone. If you are not, you can download it free from the Play Store. It also assumes that you have a Microsoft account that you can use with Arrow Launcher, OneDrive, etc.
The Arrow Hub in Arrow Launcher
Within Arrow Launcher, one of the widgets that you can add to the Utility page is Arrow Hub. This serves as the central point on your phone for files that you have synced between your phone and OneDrive. To add the Arrow Hub to your utility page, tap the Edit button on the bottom of the Utility page and then select Arrow Hub. It will then be added to your Utility page.
At the bottom of the Arrow Hub widget you will not an Upload link which you can tap and then select the type of file you want to upload to the Hub. This can be a photo, a video, a document or something that you have saved in the clipboard feature of Android. Select the type of file you want to sync and you will be brought to Android’s file finder to locate the file you want to share. Select it and it will automatically be uploaded to your Hub.
Microsoft, wisely, took this a step further and took advantage Android’s sharing system. That means from any share menu within Android you can select Arrow Hub as the destination to share that item. It also means that you don’t necessarily have to use the Arrow Hub widget to sync files which can be a bit of a process if you are in a hurry.
The Arrow Hub integration with OneDrive
The underpinnings of Arrow Hub is OneDrive. That is where your files are stored when you sync them up. They are stored in the OneDrive>ArrowLauncher>Hub directory. Once you upload the item from your Android phone, they will appear in OneDrive online or in your file directory if you are syncing OneDrive with your PC or Mac.
It may seem obvious but I will note that if you remove a file from this folder then it will not be sync’d with your OneDrive (if you remove it completely) or with Arrow Hub if you move it to another directory within your OneDrive files.
Equally, you do not have to keep files in the Hub directory. I often use the feature to move screenshots from my Google Pixel to my Mac or PC.
The Arrow Hub Files Site
Microsoft also made getting to these files easy through a dedicated site, https://arrowlauncher.com/files. Signing in with the same Microsoft ID that you use in Arrow Launcher itself, you are taken directly to the folder on OneDrive where your files are being sync’d. More-or-less, this is simply a web wrapper for the OneDrive directory. But if you want to get to the files quickly and without having to navigate your OneDrive directory, this is the way to go.
Also, if you want to upload files to your Arrow Hub, you can do it from this site by tapping the “+” icon at the bottom of the page. Then these files will be sync’d with OneDrive and the Hub on your Android phone. I personally use the Arrow Hub site when I’m on my Chromebook to move files to and fro.
Conclusion
Arrow Hub inside of Arrow Launcher is a hugely useful tool that probably hasn’t gotten the praise it should. It is a quick and easy way to sync files – and later move them – between your phone & PC without having to do a lot of fussing about on your phone.
It’s gone in Microsoft Launcher 4.1.x.
I guess they’ve decided it’s no longer needed now you can use Continue on PC with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Even though that only sends Links to your PC and isn’t a Cloud Storage area.