Getting Pictures and Videos Off iOS Devices

Even if you do not have an iPad or iPhone, it is good to be aware of possible ways to transfer pictures and videos off iOS devices.

Google Drive – My preferred option is to upload to Google Drive and then either share them with others from there or use my computer to download and access them. If there are only a few videos, I recommend making a folder, dragging in the desired videos, and sharing the folder with Anyone with the link can view. Here are directions on how to get your photos and videos into Google Drive. Your school account has 30 GB space to store everything from emails, files, pictures, and videos. 

Wifi Photo Transfer – Install this app on your iOS device to be able to transfer both photos and videos from your device to your laptop (Mac or PC). It requires the device and laptop to be on the same wifi connection such as facstaff or guest, not one on each. Once in the app, it will give you an address to type into a web browser on your computer in order to facilitate the process. (Free w/ ads)

Other Options

Photos App - Pictures can easily be emailed to yourself and others. Videos tend to be too large to email and will require the use of another method.

AirDrop – This feature allows one to send photos and videos from one iOS device directly to another but not to your computer.

My Photo Stream – Photos (not videos) can be synced between devices using an iCloud account.

Plug it in to your computer – Use the charging cable to plug your device into your computer. You do not need to sync it with iTunes, but you can use a built-in program on Macs called Image Capture to view and download any photos and videos. On PCs access your connected device in a similar fashion as a USB drive.

Dropbox – If you have an account with this service, you can also upload your photos and videos here as a way of transferring them. With the free version, you will not be able to put many videos in there due to the small storage space of the accounts. (Free for up to 2GB)

World Backup Day

World Backup Day has come and gone for this year, but we do not need to celebrate it only once a year. Accidents and data loss can happen at anytime. It is a good idea to create an automatic plan to backup or to get on a schedule to do it manually. Files that should be backed up may be found in your (My) Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Music, and Movies folders. Here are a few ways to safely backup your files:

Physical Options

External Hard Drive or USB Drive - I recommend these over burning your files to a CD or DVD because it will be easy to edit and reuse for future backups. With this method, just find your files and drag them over to the drive. This needs to be done manually, so I recommend setting a reminder on your computer, phone, or calendar to alert you periodically. ($ Cost of hard drive)

Apple Time Machine - Apple makes it simple: just plug in an external hard drive dedicated to backing up to your computer and enable the time machine feature. Your data will automatically backup to the drive, and, in the future, anytime the drive is connected, it will backup any files that have been edited since the last backup without prompting. To view or access the backups through this method, you will need to go through the Time Machine Settings and choose Enter Time Machine to view your backed up files and previous versions of each. ($ Cost of hard drive)

Window’s Backup and Restore – Through the options in the Control Panel, you can choose which files or folders and how often to back them up as well as the desired location to send it. ($ Cost of hard drive)

Cloud Options

Google Drive – With Google Apps for Education, we get unlimited space in each of our Drives (personal accounts receive only 15 GB, but $1.99 per month gets you 100 GB). You can put your files in Drive by merely dragging them into the Drive window or pressing the upload button. Another option is to install the Google Drive application on your computer. This will place a folder on your computer in which you could store all or most of your files that will regularly backup to your Google Drive. If you want or need it installed, open your Google Drive and look on the left for an “Install Drive for your computer” button. I like this option because it doesn’t force me to turn my Word or Pages documents into Google Docs, thus preserving my formatting options and the ability to still edit them. (Free)

Dropbox – This service is similar to Google Drive in that you can manage your files online or within the installed folder on your computer. A major difference is that Dropbox only provides users with 2 GB of storage for free. You can earn another 1.25 GB by jumping through a few hoops like going through some initial set up options, backing up photos from a camera, and referring others to Dropbox. Depending on what you save or are working on, this could be a viable option. (Free)