Move photos from iPad Pro into a Passport Wireless Drive

Can I move a photo that I have edited with iPad apps from my tablet into the Passport Wireless Drive? If so, how is that accomplished? Can I select just one, or a few, that are on the iPad to copy onto the wireless drive? I’m thinking of buying one of these drives, but only if there is an easy way to get an image from my iPad back to the external wireless drive. Thanks for any help.

Before I get too carried away with a reply to this question, I have a question for you.
Do you have the iPad Camera Roll backed up anywhere, or is the Camera Roll ONLY on the iPad?

For some reason some, but not all, photos are backed up elsewhere. What I really want to know is whether the wireless drive has the ability to extract an image directly from the iPad into the drive. It seems that images can load into the iPad directly from the drive, but can they go directly from the tablet to the drive wirelessly? I would like to be able to do that while not connected to the internet in any way. If it can do that I will most likely buy one. And thanks for responding.

Dana Grover -

Dana,

What I really want to know is where is the “elsewhere” your partial backup resides? And, I also want to know why you have not intentionally created a COMPLETE (and updated) backup of your iPad and iPhone photos and videos. Your precious data is at risk, so if/when you drop and break the devices, or they get stolen or anything bad just happens you have copies of the data “elsewhere”.

So. right now, if you had copies of the iPad data saved elsewhere, then you could just copy them to a My Passport Wireless (MPW) or your computer, flash drive, and even a wireless flash drive.

I have full backups of my iPhone and iPad camera data and have the MPW device. That device is quite expensive, complex and very much overkill for storing a few photos as you say you would do. Although you DO need a way to store the photos/videos, be it on a portable drive on your computer or just saved in your computer’s drive.

I have all the devices we have mentioned here. I am going to presume someone told you you need a My Passport Wireless, but I disagree with that idea.

For now I will tell you how to copy all your iPad photos & videos to either your computer or to a drive connected to it. Once done you will be able to go into the folder you copied either place and see your photos and videos and find the particular ones you want.

  1. Turn on computer and iPad.
  2. Once they are fully on, use your iPad charging cable to connect the iPad to computer.
  3. Give things a moment to connect and follow any instructions you see on either screen.
  4. If using Windows go into File Explorer or if using a Mac go into Finder and find your drive for PC. You should see your iPad is connected to it. If not, unplug iPad cable and reconnect it. You should see iPad now.
  5. Assuming you see the iPad, open it as you would any device and you will see a folder called Internal Storage. Open that and you will see a folder called DCIM. This is a common folder for holding photos and your iPad data is in here. So, COPY ( do not Move) this folder and place it on your Computer’s Desktop to copy the folder.

Depending on how many photos and videos you have, the copy process can take quite a while to finish.
6. When finished turn off iPad and disconnect it. Now you have the DCIM folder still on your iPad AND now on your desktop. Click on it a few times to open the folders inside, and after a few times you will see thumbnails of all the photos and videos. This is where you will go in the future.

Now that the iPad content is on your computer you can do anything with the contents.

Thank you for the detailed info. I understand that, have done that, and still do that, but that is not what I am asking about. Perhaps an explanation of what i would like to be able to do.

I take photos with a digital camera. I copy some onto an iPad where I do some editing to them in Photoshop Express, Lightroom CC, and/or other image processing apps on the iPad. I then want to copy the edited images onto a hard drive when I am in the field, away from any internet connection, and have the manipulated/edited image, not just the original unedited image, on the external hard drive. When I return to my desktop I simply want to bring those images into it where I can use them to print, further edit, or whatever.

I am just asking if the Western Digital wireless hard drive will allow me to do that.

Dana Grover

Dana,

Thank you for filling in some much needed details of what you do with your photography occupation and the professional tools you use. The short answer to your question is YES, a WD Wireless drive is what you need.

In fact, I recommend the SSD model in the capacity best suited to the amount of data you want to store. The size and weight of it compared to the Pro model with the traditional (and fragile) hard drive is very advantageous for someone toting it around all day.

I suggest you explore this link describing the Portable Storage products of WD. You can check the specs and even download the full user manual of the model you want.

This link will keep you busy for a while. Please let me know if you have further questions.
–Mike
PS: I have both a hard drive model and the SSD model.