Moving/Copying Pics From Computer to Droid or Droid to Computer

[theguy386]

This is the most helpful information I have received yet. Thank you.

I can get to where I am looking at the two drives in Windows Explorer but, when I do, DCIM does not appear anywhere on either of them. I have just been closing the pop-up window that comes up when I hook the phone up to the computer - maybe that's why. I will try it again, this time making a selection in that window as you have suggested. Maybe then the DCIM directory will appear.

Yes, try not closing the pop-up window, you might accidentally be accessing a different drive.

I gather that, in order to copy pics from computer to phone, I have to create a new directory ("Pictures") to receive them whereas, in copying pics from phone to computer, I copy them out of the DCIM folder on the phone and do not have to create any new folder - is that right?

Yes, that is correct. We just have to find your DCIM folder

 

[Jejackson]

I assume you want the pictures physically on the Droid and the previous response works well for that. But if you just want access to them you can add photographs to your gmail account by uploading directly or using picasa and these will be accessable in your Gallery. Also I have found the easiest way to get files on my phone is to use the Dropbox App. Drop it into the folder on your computer and access it on your phone.

You can add or remove files to and from your Droid to PC with webshare

 

[RyanPm40]

Dropbox is a nifty tool, tooj

 

[pdmike]

This is the most helpful information I have received yet. Thank you.

I can get to where I am looking at the two drives in Windows Explorer but, when I do, DCIM does not appear anywhere on either of them. I have just been closing the pop-up window that comes up when I hook the phone up to the computer - maybe that's why. I will try it again, this time making a selection in that window as you have suggested. Maybe then the DCIM directory will appear.

Yes, try not closing the pop-up window, you might accidentally be accessing a different drive.

I gather that, in order to copy pics from computer to phone, I have to create a new directory ("Pictures") to receive them whereas, in copying pics from phone to computer, I copy them out of the DCIM folder on the phone and do not have to create any new folder - is that right?

Yes, that is correct. We just have to find your DCIM folder

This is a total circus. I hooked the phone up and selected "View folders using Windows Explorer" when the popup window came up. This time, all I got was N Drive, instead of M and N Drives as before.

I saw three, additional files I didn't see before. They don't amount to anything - image files or some such. Other than that, no change. Still no DCIM folder anywhere to be found.

So I got mad and said screw it - I created a directory on N drive called Pictures. Then I navigated to a photo on my hard drive and dragged the sucker in there. Then I took the phone back to "Charge only" and hit Gallery. You got it - the pic I had just installed was in there with all the rest of the pics that had come with the phone originally plus two that I had taken myself with the phone camera.

I guess my phone just doesn't have a DCIM folder.

Nonetheless, I seem to be able to view all photos on my phone and I have now mastered the art of putting a photo with a contact page. Not too shabby.

 

[Axel]

Sorry about the snide reply in the FAQ section, I didn't see this thread first. It sounds like you have some weirdness going on with your phone, in which case I'm not surprised you didn't find regular instructions helpful.

First of all, I'd expect you to, but just in case have you looked for DCIM in both the SD card and the embedded memory? When you connect to your PC, the embedded memory card should come up first, and the sd as the letter after it. If it's not on either, try enabling showing hidden folders on your computer, which would depend on what OS you're using (in other words, if you don't know, find instructions somewhere else).

If that doesn't help, to find where your photos are, try going into the photos gallery and holding on one of the pictures, then selecting "details". It will show you the name of the file and the folder it's in (unfortunately, it won't show the full path - so \DCIM\100MEDIA just shows up as \100MEDIA). You can then search for the filename on your computer, or using a file manager app on your phone like Astro.

As an example, I just tried this with one of my photos. The filename it gave was IMAG0117, so I opened Astro and hit the UP button until I was at the root folder, then hit the search button and pasted IMAG0117 into the "Name contains" field. It came up with /emmc/DCIM/100MEDIA/IMAG0117.jpg - the /emmc/ means it's on the embedded memory, if it were /sd/DCIM it would be on the SD card.

Let me know if any of that works, I'm curious what's going on with your phone.

 

[pdmike]

Axel -

Thanks for your interest. DCIM has now appeared! I think the problem of not seeing it before had to do with the fact that this phone is only a week and a half old and, when I went looking for the DCIM folder, I had only taken one pic with the phone at that point and also I had the phone set on Phone Storage instead of Storage Card.

I switched it over to Storage Card and took half a dozen photos or so. Now, DCIM is there whenever I hook up to the computer.

Like so many other things in computer land - I don't know why it happens, but it happens . . .