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danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
I tried searching for this and found many posts saying it can't be done, but surely somebody has come up with a solution. My wife has an iPad 2 and uses it to record video; unfortunately it fills up quickly and she needs to get it off to clear space for more recording. She doesn't use a computer and is not always at home where I can transfer them.

I know the Camera Connection Kit only supports one-way transfer TO the iPad, but I need transfer FROM the iPad, and without a computer. It seems like there would be an app to do this, but I can't find any. What do people do when they are vacationing and only have the iPad, but need to save photos/videos and clear up space? And don't say to get a bigger iPad with more storage, because no matter how much storage you have you can still run out.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Does the transfer have to happen through the physical port, or are you willing to try wifi solutions? How about uploading the videos to the cloud, or do you want the storage to be local?
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
Does the transfer have to happen through the physical port, or are you willing to try wifi solutions? How about uploading the videos to the cloud, or do you want the storage to be local?
Cloud or a simple ad-hoc wifi would work but be slow. Whatever I do it needs to be simple and wife friendly. Do you have a suggestion?
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Cloud or a simple ad-hoc wifi would work but be slow. Whatever I do it needs to be simple and wife friendly. Do you have a suggestion?

The simplest solution I've found so far is Microsft OneDrive. You get a OneDrive account, which you may already have if you have an Office subscription or have used any Microsoft online service. Then you set up OneDrive on a computer, and download the app to your wife's iPad, and turn on the photo backup function. Then, when your wife wants to upload her videos, she just opens the OneDrive app while connected to wifi, and it starts uploading automatically. And once it uploads, it syncs to the computer. Yes, wifi upload can take time, but once it starts, it continues uploading in the background, so your wife can do other things on the iPad while her videos are uploading.

Dropbox's photo syncing also works the same way, but you get more free space with OneDrive.
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
The simplest solution I've found so far is Microsft OneDrive. You get a OneDrive account, which you may already have if you have an Office subscription or have used any Microsoft online service. Then you set up OneDrive on a computer, and download the app to your wife's iPad, and turn on the photo backup function. Then, when your wife wants to upload her videos, she just opens the OneDrive app while connected to wifi, and it starts uploading automatically. And once it uploads, it syncs to the computer. Yes, wifi upload can take time, but once it starts, it continues uploading in the background, so your wife can do other things on the iPad while her videos are uploading.

Dropbox's photo syncing also works the same way, but you get more free space with OneDrive.
Thanks I have been trying that out but have a question. I know from using DropBox and OneDrive on the Mac and PC that they mirror themselves to the local storage and thus take up as much local storage as what is stored online. Is this also true of the iPad apps? If it is then you could never have more than half of the iPad's storage space used on DropBox or OneDrive. Probably not an issue but if it is it is a big one. The idea is that if she has 10GB or photos and videos in her camera roll that she can upload all of these to the cloud and then delete the copies on the iPad, but this can't work if the cloud app takes up 10GB of storage itself like it would on a Mac or PC. Time for some experimentation I guess.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Thanks I have been trying that out but have a question. I know from using DropBox and OneDrive on the Mac and PC that they mirror themselves to the local storage and thus take up as much local storage as what is stored online. Is this also true of the iPad apps? If it is then you could never have more than half of the iPad's storage space used on DropBox or OneDrive. Probably not an issue but if it is it is a big one. The idea is that if she has 10GB or photos and videos in her camera roll that she can upload all of these to the cloud and then delete the copies on the iPad, but this can't work if the cloud app takes up 10GB of storage itself like it would on a Mac or PC. Time for some experimentation I guess.

Nope, files in Dropbox and OneDrive apps aren't stored locally, unless you chose to do so, by marking the files as to be stored on the iPad. Once your wife uploads her videos to Dropbox or OneDrive, and you confirm that the files are working and safely stored on the computer, she can delete them from her iPad camera roll.
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
Nope, files in Dropbox and OneDrive apps aren't stored locally, unless you chose to do so, by marking the files as to be stored on the iPad. Once your wife uploads her videos to Dropbox or OneDrive, and you confirm that the files are working and safely stored on the computer, she can delete them from her iPad camera roll.
Thanks for the help I appreciate it.
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
One more question: how fast and reliable is OneDrive vs DropBox on the iPad? It seems to me like file upload is slower on OneDrive but it is also much cheaper ($2/month for 100GB vs $10 for DropBox). I am tempted to go DropBox simply because it is a known quantity. Also I have read user comments about slow speed and inconsistent file updates with OneDrive.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
One more question: how fast and reliable is OneDrive vs DropBox on the iPad? It seems to me like file upload is slower on OneDrive but it is also much cheaper ($2/month for 100GB vs $10 for DropBox). I am tempted to go DropBox simply because it is a known quantity. Also I have read user comments about slow speed and inconsistent file updates with OneDrive.

I can't really compare the two because I use them differently. OneDrive for pictures and videos, and DropBox for my work documents. If OneDrive is slower, I wouldn't notice, because I figure big files like pictures and videos take long to upload anyway. The reason I use them this way is of course that I get more storage space in OneDrive. As far as reliability goes, they seem both very stable and reliable to me. I haven't had any problems with either one.
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
I can't really compare the two because I use them differently. OneDrive for pictures and videos, and DropBox for my work documents. If OneDrive is slower, I wouldn't notice, because I figure big files like pictures and videos take long to upload anyway. The reason I use them this way is of course that I get more storage space in OneDrive. As far as reliability goes, they seem both very stable and reliable to me. I haven't had any problems with either one.
You have not had any file corruption or missing files? That is the major complaint that I see so frequently. I really want to use OneDrive because it is so much cheaper and you get more for free, but I don't want to lose files either.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
You have not had any file corruption or missing files? That is the major complaint that I see so frequently. I really want to use OneDrive because it is so much cheaper and you get more for free, but I don't want to lose files either.

No, I haven't. That's just my experience, though. I really can't say how prevalent this problem you are reading about is.
 

coobcam

macrumors newbie
Jul 24, 2014
2
0
Any one ever try Flickr? It offers 1TB for storing photos and videos for free, much bigger than OneDrive or Dropbox.
 

danny_w

macrumors 601
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
4,462
297
Cumming, GA
Any one ever try Flickr? It offers 1TB for storing photos and videos for free, much bigger than OneDrive or Dropbox.
Do they have an iPad app? All I could find was an iPhone app. Also do they do automatic camera roll uploads like the others?
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Do they have an iPad app? All I could find was an iPhone app. Also do they do automatic camera roll uploads like the others?

I don't use flickr, but if found a review.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/09/fl...-take-advantage-of-that-1-tb-of-free-storage/

Read the "update" at the end. Ouch. Who knows if that ever got fixed. Also, no iPad app, apparently. :(

What I do with OneDrive is if it fills up, I just move the videos and pictures to some other location on my computer. I assume your wife doesn't need access from her iPad to every single video she took, right? She just wants them preserved?
 

coobcam

macrumors newbie
Jul 24, 2014
2
0
Do they have an iPad app? All I could find was an iPhone app. Also do they do automatic camera roll uploads like the others?
Unfortunately, there is no app for iPad up to now, but you might access Flickr through Sarafi (or other 3rd party app) instead. Most of the cloud apps such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Flickr... do have the auto-upload functionality.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Unfortunately, there is no app for iPad up to now, but you might access Flickr through Sarafi (or other 3rd party app) instead. Most of the cloud apps such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Flickr... do have the auto-upload functionality.

You could always just use the iPhone app on the iPad.
 
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