If you are using an Android smartphone and you take pictures on it, there is a good chance at some point, you want the images taken on that device to be stored or used somewhere else.
Now we may store them on our smartphone, then upload to twitter or Facebook or email to a friend but then what. Do you delete them, keep them?!
My question is once you have taken a picture on your phone what do you normally do with it and how do you handle this migration of content or backing up photos?
If you are like me, you probably take the photo and have it automatically stored on the SD card within your device which in itself is a better backup than the phones internal memory should something go wrong.
I would then upload some to Facebook, twitter etc. – email others and then have a few others that I have for simple keep sake reasons. Thus I end up with some that are backed up or I have copies of on social networks and others that are on the memory card only.
Some wont, but I like to keep a copy of ALL photos I have taken.
In the past from time to time I would copy them from the SD and back them up to a PC using a cable connection. However this probably happened only once a month or so (very few reasons to make a physical connection to the PC).
More recently I started using doubleTwist and its airsync option to backup to a specific folder wirelessly when I am at home. This is all well and good and the images got backed up more frequently than they would by me doing a simply copy and paste but I need for my home PC to be on…and with a powerful smartphone that may only be once or twice a week.
I then thought is there something better than this I can use to backup almost instantly. The answer is yes there is but what was the right option.
The likes of Google+ can offer an instant upload/backup of all photos taken on the device, which principally is great but you could easily forget about the fact that it does this and very easily have embarrassing photos uploaded for public viewing minutes after they have been taken. On top of this you have the data charges and speed to worry about. If you take a lot of photos then this could have a hugely adverse affect.
I too didn’t want all photos uploaded to Facebook. I want the control of which social networks I uploaded my photos to and which ones anyone other than me got to see, but at the end of the day I still wanted them backed up more regularly than I am already doing so.
There are various solutions I am sure, but here is mine and why I like it.
The solution:
A 3G or WiFi only online backup solution that I could be assured of an instant upload and online access too.
The application – PhotoCloud.
This application once installed on your Android handset can automatically back up your photos to Google’s Picasa and Facebook…but I selected it to upload only to Google Picasa.
Now any Android handset user is going to have a Gmail account and Picasa is a free Google service so this is a free online backup solution. The app is free too.
All you need do is input your Picasa login details and it will backup any photo in a given location on your phone.
In my case I gave it the path of the DCIM folder on the SD card.
The great thing about this little app is that you can too tell it to upload the images when connected to either 3G and WiFi. I have selected WiFi. As I am normally connected to a wireless network at home or in the office, I know that as soon as I am within range, any new images will be automatically backed up. Plus I do not have to worry about it eating up 3G data and battery life when I am out and about.
The images to Picasa will be uploaded only to one folder, but they are done so almost instantly. I recommend making the folder visible only to yourself (make it private) unless you want the whole world to see your photos.
So I now have all my photos backup up instantly (subject to a WiFi connection) to the web, which I can access anywhere and then do as I please with.
I still use doubletwist too, so I end up with copies on my PC at home and online with Picasa but I can occasionally (at a time that suits me) delete or re-organise the photos online and manage them better but I am safe in the knowledge that I always have a backup.
Pros
- Instant backup
- Can select over WiFi or 3G
- Peace of mind
- Can easily share from online
- Accessible from anywhere
- No limit of how many photos can be uploaded (small fee for upgrade going over 1GB)
Cons
- Duplicates of photos – having to spend time managing
- Uploads everything from the selected folder
- Costs of upgrading online storage
- Still have to share individual images to social networks
All in all I am really pleased with the solution I have.
So that is how I do it, what do you do and why? I would love to know!
About Jon
I try to upload good photos to Picasa, sometimes to Twitpic. Anyway, thanks for a good article!
I use ES File Explorer as the software engine on the Android phone as it has connections for Local, LAN, FTP and Net.
Local ~ This covers everything on the Phone and the external MicroSD card.
LAN ~ Ideal when I wish to transfer items wirelessly between the phone and my Laptop.
FTP ~ well, it speaks for itself. Ideal for networked hard drives attached to an ftp network.
Net ~ This is defaulted to my Dropbox account.
Basically, when out and about if I wish items to be sent back home straight away I upload them to my Dropbox account where then others who are on my Shared List can access the files.
Mostly though I transfer them over LAN to the Laptop for backup.
On the hardware front I have the camera in my Samsung Galaxy SII set to store photo’s by default straight to the external MicroSD card.
That way nothing is left laying directly on the phone should there be an issue.
I keep all photos ive taken on a mini sd card and as i change phones that card goes with the new phone
I have pictures taken from 5 years ago in my minisd on my latest phone with the file sizes from my n8 though im going to be needing to upgrade the size of the card