Downloading to Flash vs. running out of battery

[David Hubbard]

I recently bought a Sandisk Duo Flash Drive that I thought would be a great idea for downloading photos from my phone (Samsung Galaxy S7) and avoid all the wires necessary to download to my tablet/computer (Surface Pro 4).

Although not at 100% when I started, I didn't realize what would soon happen: the downloads and battery life were both coming down to the wire. When I began, I didn't see an option other than selecting the entire DCIM folder for download, and as I watched and waited, it eventually reached 100% download with only 1% battery life left.

Not knowing at this point if I needed to do anything else, and with only 1% power left, I powered down. I removed the drive (since this was also the port with which I charge my phone) and plugged it in. Upon restarting, my entire DCIM folder was missing (I have seen various suggestions as to how to get them back, and since they DID show up on the flash drive, it's not really a big deal). But is there a way to ensure this does NOT happen again, as I don't really want to have to reload photos (and going through several thousand to do so as well).

 

[Dannydet]

Yes, and totally wireless and without a cable or flash drive...
It's an app called Google photos in the play store.
You basically access all of your photos on ANY device simply by logging into your Gmail account.
15gb free. That's the easiest method to backup every single photo, be it taken with your camera or saved off websites or social media.

 

[MoodyBlues]

avoid all the wires necessary to download to my tablet/computer (Surface Pro 4).

Wires? I move photos (and all other types of files) to my tablet/computers all the time, with no cables.

They're all networked, all Linux, all on the same Wi-Fi network. Accessing their storage from my phone--including internal and external hard drives--is no different than accessing my phone's storage.

If you can't, or don't want to, do that, @Dannydet's suggestion to use Google Photos is a good option.

Or you can use other cloud storage, such as Dropbox (which I use for off-site backups), which, like Google Photos, gives you access to your files from any device.

Seriously, though, nothing beats networking, in my opinion. Network your computer(s) and you're good to go! Move or copy files/directories from one device to another effortlessly.