Send Pictures from Your Cell Phone to Your Computer

Do you want to send the pictures taken on your cell phone to your computer? Perhaps you want to send pictures to someone, or you want to upload them onto a computer file. There are a variety of ways to do this, from using MMS, a USB cable, a memory card, and more. Depending on your phone and your resources, certain methods may be simpler than others. In any case, you'll be enjoying all of your camera phone pictures on a much larger screen in no time at all.

Steps

MMS Method

  1. Send your photo as an MMS message. MMS (multimedia messaging service) allows you to send your photo to other cell phones or to email addresses. Each cell phone is different, but you should have an option to share your photo via message.
    • Be aware that if you're on a plan that charges per text, an MMS will count as a text.
  2. Enter your email address. Instead of entering another cell phone number in the Send To field, though, input your email address.
  3. Send the photo.
  4. Login to your email and download the photo. When you open your email account, you should see a message sent from your phone, with the photo as an attachment. Download the attachment, and the photo will be on your computer.

USB Cable Method

  1. Find or purchase a USB cable for your phone. Most phones you purchase now will come with a USB cable that allows it to be connected directly to your computer. If your phone didn't come with one, search online for a new or used one you can buy, or contact your phone's manufacturer.
  2. Plug your phone into your computer. Make sure the phone is on.
  3. Open up iTunes, or open the phone's files the same way you would open a flash drive.
    • If you use iTunes to manage files on your phone, simply press the drop arrow next to your phone on the left-hand sidebar. Double-click photos, and drag what you want onto your desktop or into a new folder.
    • If you don't use iTunes, open your phone like you would any detachable drive. Click My Computer or Finder to locate it. Drag and drop any photos you want to your desktop or a new folder.
    • Sometime on Android phones the windows will not install the required software so you should install it manually from the internet or via CD.

Sync Method

  1. Sync your phone. The photos you take should automatically be transferred to your computer when you do.
    • On an iPhone, plugging in the device will prompt the computer to open iPhoto or a similar Photo application, which will display the pictures you took on your iPhone. Choose to upload the photos.

Memory Card Method

  1. Insert a memory card into your phone. Before you take any pictures, check to see if you can insert a memory card into your phone. Many phones use a micro memory card that comes with the phone and can be inserted and removed at will.
  2. Make sure your phone saves the pictures to the memory card rather than to the device.
  3. Plug in your memory card into a memory card reader. In some cases, your memory card reader may be too big for a micro memory card. In this case, you can get an adapter in which you can insert your micro memory card. You can then insert the adapter into the memory card reader.
  4. Plug the memory card reader into your computer. It connects via the USB port.
  5. Transfer the pictures to your computer. You can look for the memory card reader as a removable disk in Finder or My Computer.
    • If you're on a Mac, open iPhoto, go to File>Import to Library and select the photos you wish to import within the memory card.

Bluetooth Method

  1. Activate your phone's Bluetooth. If you're unsure about how to do this, look under Settings or Controls.
  2. Purchase a Bluetooth adapter. If your computer does not have the hardware for a Bluetooth/Infrared this connection, then buy the adapter, sometimes called a 'dongle'. The common BT/I adapter plugs into a USB port. If you're on a budget, look for a used one online - they can be quite inexpensive. This adapter will have software for the connection process, which lets you transfer files from the computer to your phone, or vice versa.
    • Some computers, such as MacBooks, are already outfitted with Bluetooth devices, and won't require one of these cables. If you're unsure about whether or not your computer has this capability, search for the information online.
  3. Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on both your computer and your phone.
    • If you have a Mac, you can make sure your Bluetooth is on by clicking on the Bluetooth symbol on the right side of the upper toolbar. The symbol should be to the left of the Date and Time and should look like some triangles.
    • On a Vista, go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet Connection -> Bluetooth Devices.
  4. Make sure you are standing within {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} of your computer. Bluetooth does not work more than {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} away.
  5. On your phone, open up the picture.
  6. Go to the menu, and select Copy or Send.
  7. Choose the Bluetooth option.
  8. Once you confirm that you want to enable Bluetooth, the Bluetooth menu in the phone will pop up automatically.
  9. Select the "Look for Devices" option.
  10. Select your device from the list that appears.
  11. A request will be sent to your device asking for you to accept the sent picture.
  12. Accept the request, and the picture will be sent.

p2p Transfer

  1. Sync your phone with your computer using a p2p based (that means no cloud or 3rd party servers involved) application like Fylet or a similar Photo application. The application will automatically find photos on your smart phone and will send them directly to your computer.
  2. Install application on your smart phone
  3. Install application on your desktop
  4. Photos from your smartphone will be sent automatically and directly to your computer. They won't be stored on any server.



Tips

  • Bluetooth is measured in classes. Class 1 is the best, its on my Motorola V3 RAZR, it allows a distance up to 100M away from the other device! Class 2 is far more common, it allows 10M, which is still quite good! Note: the adapter has to be capable of Class 1 to use the added range of Class 1 Bluetooth, if you have a Class 1 phone, and a slightly cheaper Class 2 adapter, you might as well have a Class 2 phone as well.

Warnings

  • E-mailing a lot of photos over your phones data connection, might exceed your data plan and you'll get charged for something you can do for free using the other methods.

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