Ask HN: Convenient way of getting camera photos to your computer?
This: https://xkcd.com/949/ It's 2023 and I still use GMail on the phone to email photos to myself to download onto my desktop computer. Surely, there must be a better way? USB cables generally doesn't work since getting Arch Linux to consistently detect and mount the phone's ssd is nigh impossible.
21 comments
Syncthing - https://syncthing.net/
Before I explain my setup, realize a simple one-way, two-device setup can be done quickly and easily. https://docs.syncthing.net/intro/getting-started.html
I have it set up on my phone (android), desktop (Devuan), laptop (MX Linux), and a server (DietPi).
I have the DCIM picture folder synced one-way from the phone to the server, and one-way from the server to the desktop and laptop. As soon as a new picture is taken and a network is in range, the photo is synced.
I also have separate sync folders set up for other purposes: "music" - all-way, all devices. "keyring" for password manager - all-way except one-way to phone. "sync" - All-way, all devices except phone. "syncmobile" - all-way, all devices
Right now sync only happens over WiFi connections (local and remote) for "reasons". It's been that way for years and it's been enough. I'm still contemplating cellular data.
Before I explain my setup, realize a simple one-way, two-device setup can be done quickly and easily. https://docs.syncthing.net/intro/getting-started.html
I have it set up on my phone (android), desktop (Devuan), laptop (MX Linux), and a server (DietPi).
I have the DCIM picture folder synced one-way from the phone to the server, and one-way from the server to the desktop and laptop. As soon as a new picture is taken and a network is in range, the photo is synced.
I also have separate sync folders set up for other purposes: "music" - all-way, all devices. "keyring" for password manager - all-way except one-way to phone. "sync" - All-way, all devices except phone. "syncmobile" - all-way, all devices
Right now sync only happens over WiFi connections (local and remote) for "reasons". It's been that way for years and it's been enough. I'm still contemplating cellular data.
Syncthing works over mobile data as well. You need to enable the option to Run on mobile data in settings. In addition you will need to Enable Relaying and Global discovery on both ends (phone and server)
I have been using it to sync photos and other data from Phone -> Desktop for a few years now and it works fantastically.
I have been using it to sync photos and other data from Phone -> Desktop for a few years now and it works fantastically.
> USB cables generally doesn't work since getting Arch Linux to consistently detect and mount the phone's ssd is nigh impossible
You should add something about Arch Linux to your title. I have been transferring phone files (including photos) to and from my Windows computers using USB ever since I've had a camera in my phone, works great.
You should add something about Arch Linux to your title. I have been transferring phone files (including photos) to and from my Windows computers using USB ever since I've had a camera in my phone, works great.
Sounds like you should get the USB thing fixed, because that is normally the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way to transfer data.
You could set up a network share and then use a file browser on your phone to just copy and paste the files.
You could set up a network share and then use a file browser on your phone to just copy and paste the files.
Google photos? Any photo you take gets uploaded to the cloud.
If you want a method not depending on any service (and assuming you have an android), get Termux for your phone, and have a home screen shortcut to start a web server that you can browse on your computer.
If you want a method not depending on any service (and assuming you have an android), get Termux for your phone, and have a home screen shortcut to start a web server that you can browse on your computer.
> and I still use GMail on the phone to email photos to myself to download onto my desktop computer
Nothing wrong with that, it integrates well with the phone's UI (which isn't setup well for the whole "remote access from somewhere else" situation) and is often the easiest for sending a small number of photos right now.
But here is another alternative:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.primftpd/
It will let you do ftp or sftp and so you can log into the phone and download batches of photos all at once (or, upload batches of photos to the phone all at once).
Nothing wrong with that, it integrates well with the phone's UI (which isn't setup well for the whole "remote access from somewhere else" situation) and is often the easiest for sending a small number of photos right now.
But here is another alternative:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.primftpd/
It will let you do ftp or sftp and so you can log into the phone and download batches of photos all at once (or, upload batches of photos to the phone all at once).
... or you've used bluetooth after setting it up, without a hitch for years on some old computer and one day suddenly you need to pull out a smart phone and take some snaps for a report that needs to be finished in two hours ... arrive back and find nothing works wasting half a hour until realising that updating via a proper broadcom driver package might have seemed so clever and the interface looks pretty now, but it's basically f'in useless.
Sneaker net is why sd cards in my smart phones are not encrypted ...
Sneaker net is why sd cards in my smart phones are not encrypted ...
I have used PhotoSync App(not free, this is not a promotion) for transfers between iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. It also supports transfers via (S)FTP, SMB or WebDAV, hence Linux (I have not tried this).
https://www.photosync-app.com/home There may be other apps that set up a server (i.e. http, ftp ...) on the phone. Ask Google.
https://www.photosync-app.com/home There may be other apps that set up a server (i.e. http, ftp ...) on the phone. Ask Google.
I've used WiFi FTP server on android. The main advantage is that is totally cross platform, and very fast (far from USB speeds but easily you can get a few tens of MB/s). On the other hand, OneDrive is very good at uploading and keeping a sane folder structure, so there is also that.
> It's 2023 and I still use GMail on the phone to email photos to myself to download onto my desktop computer.
If you use a single IMAP email account, a slight optimization is to not click “send”, but just save a draft message. IMAP, sort-of, is a remote file system.
If you use a single IMAP email account, a slight optimization is to not click “send”, but just save a draft message. IMAP, sort-of, is a remote file system.
I assume you mean the camera on your smartphone? Can you use a background sync program like SyncThing to push photos and they'll be there when you're ready to use them on your desktop?
https://github.com/immich-app/immich is getting there!
Use resilio sync. I guess you don’t want to install anything. Use instant.io then. Or webtorrent.
Ironically, older / cheaper phones often have SD card slots that make this a breeze.
The most convenient i ve found is wifi file transfer (android)
Have a look at the wiki for map
Arch has nothing to do with it
Syncthing works fine if both devices are online
reflectors on the webcam
should be in electronic sites; EEVBlog, allaboutcircuit, etc instead
should be in electronic sites; EEVBlog, allaboutcircuit, etc instead
[deleted]
can you not fire them off via bluetooth?
i use hotmail instead of gmail