ZPush Documentation

Index

Introduction

ZPush is an Android application that allows you to transfer files from your smartphone to a server on your network. Unlike other Android apps, ZPush uses the approach of transmitting new or modified files to the server only once. This allows you to move the files on the server without them being retransferred by ZPush.
ZPush is primarily designed to automatically save e.g. photos from your smartphone to your private server without manual interaction.

What can ZPush

Do you have suggestions for improvement, please contact me per email: (matthias.zartmann@gmail.com)

Security of your data

Need your help

I develop ZPush in my spare time and have released it for free. If you want to motivate me to continue working on ZPush, you can do so in 2 minutes of your time by writing a nice 5-star review in the Play Store.

Good to know

Dynamic Mac Address

Android Wifi connections can have dynamic Mac addresses. This can cause problems when changing the access point, so that the name resolution of the server does not work for a while. To avoid these problems, deactivate the dynamic assignment of the MAC address in the Wifi configuration of the connected Wifi network. Alternatively, you can also work with IP addresses in ZPush.

Problems with ZPush

You are already very close to solving the problem since you are reading this guide :-) But there are always problems where you get stuck and if you think it's ZPush because other software works, please contact me. On the "About ZPush" page there is an “Email to support” button that you can use to send me an email with all the information I need to analyze the problem. The information does not include passwords but server names and IP addresses.

Check the WiFi SSID

Many users have expressed their desire for ZPush to only run on a specific SSID. Unfortunately, after much discussion with Google, I have to say that I cannot integrate this feature because it requires extremely high permissions. I am working on an alternative, but even access to MAC addresses remains denied to ZPush. If anyone has an idea for identifying a network, please let me know.

The main page

  1. Activate the background upload.
  2. ZPush upload new files from activated jobs in an interval and only when the server is reachable.
  3. Open the Log file.
  4. Add a new job.
  5. Configure ZPush.
  6. Run all activated jobs.
  7. Open the About page.
  8. This is a Job, tab to open job configuration.
  9. Activate job for run automatic.
  10. Run a single job.

The ZPush configuration

The upload frequency defines how often ZPush check all activated jobs for new files and upload this files. The android system decides itself when ZPush is executed, and therefore the following times are ony approximate values. The left position of the slider suggests Android to start every 15 minutes, and the right position 10 hours.

The scheduler only starts if these selected conditions are all fulfilled.

  1. Start the background upload only when a Wi-Fi is connected
  2. Start the background upload only when android detect that the device is idle
  3. Start the background upload only when the device is charging

Retries

Here you specify how often ZPush attempts to repeat the failed operation before it aborts with an error. You can specify this first for all operations, that are executed during the upload. For the spinup for the Nas you can set this in the second slider and only affects the Nas spinup.

Export/Import

You can export all Job configurations to save this on your device. The import, deletes all exists jobs and restores the jobs from the export. Please note that the transfer history will also be reset at the time the export took place.

Edit Job

  1. Input here the name of the job
  2. Activate the job so that it is executed on automatic/manual start.
  3. Delete exists Job (only visible when edit a job)
  4. Clone this job and after this, the configuration shows the cloned job.
  5. The job statistics show you various statistical information.

Source

Tap here to open the directory picker and select a directory for upload.

You can set include filter, all files match the pattern will be uploaded. Input a patter like: "*.jpg,*.gif". Separate each pattern with a comma.

This is like "include filter" but exclude the files that match the patterns.

If a file uploaded successfully, ZPush delete this from the device.
Please note that the source file will be irretrievably deleted.
For your safety, only use this setting with the “compare checksum” setting.

If activated, a checksum of the target file and source file is calculated and compared. This ensures that the target file corresponds 100% to the source file.
Please note that double the amount of data is transferred when activated.

Upload all files included all subfolder, if enabled the target structure is hide.

Skips files if they are larger than specified and no Wi-Fi is connected. If the job is run again and Wi-Fi is available, the skipped files are transferred. This option is useful if you also transfer files via the mobile network when you are on the move, but prefer to transfer larger files via your Wi-Fi network

Opens the page for setting the starting point for the next transfer. This makes it possible to skip files or transfer them again.

see: Job starting point

Target

Defines the pattern how the target filename will be created. Tab in the icon on the right to open the designer.

ZPush reads exif information from your image file when copying (only .jpg and .jpeg exif data is supported) and makes the information available in different variables. If no exif data is found or if it is not a jpg file, the file system information is evaluated.

see: Filename pattern

The target structure can be used to determine the type of files to be stored. This is very useful if you want to store your images in a structured way.

Please note that the structure can only be set if the option “Include all subdirectories and files” is not activated!

Follow target structures are availabel:

Flat
All files are store under the given path.
Example: /myPicture.jpg
Create year/month directories
With this structure, ZPush automatically creates subdirectories with the year and month when the image was photographed or where the file was changed.
Example: /2025/05/myPicture.jpg
Create year/month/day directories
With this structure, ZPush automatically creates subdirectories with the year, month and day when the image was photographed or where the file was changed.
Example: /2025/05/03/myPicture.jpg
Create year-month directory
With this structure, ZPush automatically creates one subdirectory with the year and month when the image was photographed or where the file was changed.
Example: /2025-05/myPicture.jpg

Select the driver depend on your target server.

  1. Tap here to select the driver.
  2. Tap here to configure the driver.
Follow driver are available:

Samba
This driver can you use if you want to upload to a Linux samba share. This driver support the SMB protocol SMB 2.0, SMB 2.1 and SMB 3.0. Since Microsoft has changed its company policy, I no longer officially support Windows. I no longer have Windows on my personal computers either and recommend Linux.
WebDAV
This is an http/https protocol to transfer files over a web server. ZPush supports streaming for big uploads. I have tested this with Apache2 under Debian 13. Supported http/https authentications are: Basic and Digest
Nextcloud
This protocol is equal like the WebDAV protocol but support big files and implement the protocol extensions from Nextcloud.
PhotoPrism
For upload in PhotoPrism.
SFtp (Secure File Transfer Protocol)
This protocol is special for Linux server and use the ssh to transfer files.

Configure Samba driver

  • Host ip or hostname

    Input here the server name or the IPv4 or IPv6 address and if the port deviating from the standard you can append it by double point. If you have problems with the Name resolution, please use the Ip address or deactivate the dynamic Mac address on your device. On the right-hand side, you can open the server picker and browse available servers in your local network.

    Samples:
    • Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu:443
    • 192:168:178:55
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]:443

  • Username

    Input the username if you need an authentication. Leave empty for anonymous access.

  • Password

    Input the right password for the given username.

  • Target Path

    Input here the samba path like \Share\directory1\directory2 or only \ . On the right-hand side, you can open the directory picker and select the destination path.

  • Resume upload on retry

    This new feature allows uploads to resume from where they left off in the event of a connection interruption. This is very helpful for very large uploads, but for security reasons should only be used with the checksum function enabled.

  • Test access

    This button test your setting and check if the server reachable and can access the selected directory.
    Please test always your settings!

Configure WebDav driver

  • Host ip or hostname

    Input here the server name or the IPv4 or IPv6 address and if the port deviating from the standard you can append it by double point. If you have problems with the Name resolution, please use the Ip address or deactivate the dynamic Mac address on your device. On the right-hand side, you can open the server picker and browse available servers in your local network.

    Samples:
    • Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu:443
    • 192:168:178:55
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]:443

  • Enable SSL (HTTPS)

    You can enable SSL to communicate over https. Self singed certificates are accepted!

  • Username

    Input the username if you need an authentication. Leave empty for anonymous access.

  • Password

    Input the right password for the given username.

  • Target Path

    Input here the WebDav path like /directory1/directory2/ if your Url is https://zpushl1/directory1/directory2/. On the right-hand side, you can open the directory picker and select the destination path, but please first enter the root directory in the input field.

  • Test Access

    This button test your setting and check if the server reachable and can access the selected directory.
    Please test always your settings!

Configure Nextcloud driver

  • Host ip or hostname

    Input here the server name or the IPv4 or IPv6 address and if the port deviating from the standard you can append it by double point. If you have problems with the Name resolution, please use the Ip address or deactivate the dynamic Mac address on your device. On the right-hand side, you can open the server picker and browse available servers in your local network.

    Samples:
    • Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu:443
    • 192:168:178:55
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]:443

  • Enable SSL (HTTPS)

    You can enable SSL to communicate over https. Self singed certificates are accepted!

  • Username

    Input the username from your nextcloud login.

  • Password

    Input the password from yournextcloud login.

  • Target Path

    Input here the Nextcloud upload API Path, the standard is /remote.php/dav/files/[User username]/. On the right-hand side, you can open the directory picker and select the destination path, but please first enter the root directory in the input field.
  • Tap here to generate the standard path with your username.

  • Chunked upload

    Enable this feature to use Nextcloud's special function for larger uploads > 50MB. This allows you to split the upload into chunks and thus handle even very large files.

  • Resume uploads on retry

    This new feature allows uploads to resume from where they left off in the event of a connection interruption. This is very helpful for very large uploads, but for security reasons should only be used with the checksum function enabled.

  • Test access

    This button test your setting and check if the server reachable and can access the selected directory.
    Please test always your settings!

Configure Sftp driver

  • Host ip or hostname

    Input here the server name or the IPv4 or IPv6 address and if the port deviating from the standard you can append it by double point. If you have problems with the Name resolution, please use the Ip address or deactivate the dynamic Mac address on your device. On the right-hand side, you can open the server picker and browse available servers in your local network.

    Samples:
    • Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu:443
    • 192:168:178:55
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]:443

  • Username

    The username from the ssh login.

  • Certificate

    If you want to log in using a certificate, you can select and save the private key here. ZPush uses this private key and the user name to connect to the server. This function has been tested with ed25519 and RSA keys. The X icon on the right-hand side, clear the uploaded certificate and the medal icon open the filebrowser to assing a new private key.

  • Password/Certificate passphrase

    If you have not specified a certificate, you can enter the user's password here. If you are working with a certificate, you can enter the passphrase used to encrypt the certificate.

  • Server Fingerprint

    ZPush can verify the server's fingerprint during connection. If it does not match, ZPush terminates. If the fingerprint is empty, no fingerprint verification is performed. The X icon on the right-hand side, clear the server fingerprint and the fingerprint icon determine the fingerprint of the server. Please note that all connection data must be specified.

  • Target Path

    Input here the filesystem path from the root like /directory1/directory2/. On the right-hand side, you can open the directory picker and select the destination path.

  • Resume uploads on retry

    This new feature allows uploads to resume from where they left off in the event of a connection interruption. This is very helpful for very large uploads, but for security reasons should only be used with the checksum function enabled.

  • Test access

    This button test your setting and check if the server reachable and can access the selected directory.
    Please test always your settings!

Generate certificate for use with ZPush

For these examples, you need a Linux computer with an OpenSSH client installed. If it is not installed, you can install it for Debian systems, for example, with `sudo apt install openssh-client`.

Create certificate with ed25519 encryption

zpush@trixie: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f zpush_certificate_key
zpush@trixie: ssh-copy-id -i zpush_certificate_key.pub [your-username]@[your server]

Create certificate with RSA encryption

zpush@trixie: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f zpush_certificate_key
zpush@trixie: ssh-copy-id -i zpush_certificate_key.pub [your-username]@[your server]
After that, copy the zpush_certificate_key file (private certificate key) to your phone and import this in the Sftp driver configuration.

Configure PhotoPrism®

  • Host ip or hostname

    Input here the server name or the IPv4 or IPv6 address and if the port deviating from the standard you can append it by double point. If you have problems with the Name resolution, please use the Ip address or deactivate the dynamic Mac address on your device. On the right-hand side, you can open the server picker and browse available servers in your local network.

    Samples:
    • Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu:443
    • 192:168:178:55
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]
    • [2003:de:d71d:4600:20c:aaff:fe42:dde2]:443

  • Enable SSL (HTTPS)

    You can enable SSL to communicate over https. Self singed certificates are accepted!

  • Username

    Input the PhotoPrism username.

  • Password

    Input the PhotoPrism password for the given username.

  • Target Path

    PhotoPrism has a standardized upload path, which may vary depending on your installation.

    Syntax: [Root path to installation]/orginals/

    For a standard installation, the following should be entered here: “/orginals/”

  • Test Access

    This button test your setting and check if the server reachable and can access the selected directory.
    Please test always your settings!

Server Picker

The server picker helps you find specific servers in your local network. This picker only works if WiFi is turned on and you are connected to the network where your desired server is located. ZPush searches for servers in the DNS and checks whether they have a standard port open. Unfortunately, pinging is blocked by Android.

Green means the server is available and a standard TCP port is open (ZPush checks the following ports: 22, 445, 80, 443, 3389).

Red means the server is not responding to the standard ports and it cannot be determined whether it is running or still on the network.

After selecting a server and tapping “Use,” a selection will appear with host name, IPv4, and IPv6 ULA. Please select what you would like to use in the host field. Please note that IP addresses are permanently assigned to the server. If this is the case, IP addresses are preferable.

Job Starting point

In this dialog, you can specify the starting point for the next upload. You can also set the starting point to a date in the past to transfer files again. Once you have selected the date, ZPush will only transfer files that are equal to or newer than the selected date during the next upload. The dialog also shows you which file ZPush will start with and how much data will be transferred.

Job Starting point

ZPush reads exif information from your image file when copying (only .jpg and .jpeg exif data is supported) and makes the information available in different variables. If no exif data is found or if it is not a jpg file, the file system information is evaluated.

You can customize the file name here to suit your needs, but the original file name must always be included, otherwise ambiguities may arise.

ZPush by Matthias Zartmann
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