Passport Wireless: Dropbox/Google Drive backup from IOS app

WD External Drives My Passport Wireless
1

Hi!

I’m going backpacking and want to use an iPad and the WD Passport Wireless to backup my photos on the trip. But I also want the Passport to upload the files to either Dropbox or Google Drive when I’m connected to a Wifi. 

Is this possible to do through the IOS app or do I have to be connected to a computer/Mac?

Hope you guys can help me out!

L

2

Welcome to the Community.

Maybe you should try contacting WD’s Technical Support about this. You can do so either by phone or email.

To Contact WD for Technical Support
http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en

Support by Country
http://support.wdc.com/country/index.asp

3

Lars0rama wrote:

Hi!

 

I’m going backpacking and want to use an iPad and the WD Passport Wireless to backup my photos on the trip. But I also want the Passport to upload the files to either Dropbox or Google Drive when I’m connected to a Wifi. 

Is this possible to do through the IOS app or do I have to be connected to a computer/Mac?

 

Hope you guys can help me out!

 

 

L

My Passport wireless does not support uploading your files to Dropbox/Google drive.  You can also install Dropbox/Google drive apps on your iPad.  So it can upload your files for your to D/G.

4

Lars0rama wrote:

     Is this possible to do through the IOS app or do I have to be connected to a computer/Mac?

Yes it is possible. Don’t listen to the nay sayers!

But it may be very very slow, and may not be reliable.

I did a test using OneDrive rather than Dropbox or Google Drive. I don’t use either of those, but OneDrive is basically the same thing, and all are supported by My Cloud.

I tested this way:

My iPhone 4 connected directly to the MPW via WiFi.

My MPW connected to my home WiFi network.

My home WiFi network connected to 30Mbps download / 1Mbps upload broadband.

Used My Cloud to access files on the MPW.

Went into the Public/Sample Media/Photos directory.

Tapped the menu, top right (…) and tapped Select.

Selected six photos to upload to OneDrive.

Tapped Copy in the bottom menu.

My Cloud offered the MPW and OneDrive as targets to copy to. (Note: I had already set up OneDrive as a service in My Cloud.)

Selected OneDrive, and drilled down the directory I wanted to copy the images to.

Tapped “Selected Items” in the bottom menu to check the files are selected and waiting to paste.

Tapped Paste in the bottom menu. My Cloud redisplayed the Photos directory the images were coming from.

I did this twice. Both times I used a browser on my PC to check if the files were making it to OneDrive. The first two files turned up fairly quickly, then a third within about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I was using the My Cloud App on the iPhone, and also checking OneDrive there. After 25 minutes or so 4 files had turned up, totally about 17.5MB. I had kept the iPhone awake while waiting for the files to turn up.

Meanwhile, while only two files had turned up on OneDrive, I started a second copy of 6 files. This time I used the iPhone for a while, then let it sleep, assuming it would stop the transfer when that happened.

I waited to about 30 minutes were up and woke the iPhone again, to see if more files turned up. At first I didn’t see any indication anywhere that files were queued for transfer, so I went looking. Sure enough, under the main My Cloud menu, selecting “Activity” showed two transfers in progress, each for six items, and showed how much had been transfered and the total size of the transfer. Both transfers were happening simultaneously. At 35 minutes the first file from the second transfer turned up in OneDrive. At 38 minutes the first transfer of 38.2MB finished, and all files showed up in OneDrive.

The second transfer of 54.7MB completed at about 50 minutes.

I then did a third test this way:

My iPhone 4 connected to my home WiFi network.

My MPW connected to my home WiFi network.

My home WiFi network connected to 30Mbps broadband.

I selected a new group of six files totaling 65.1MB. This time the transfer went faster, and got to about 25Mb in four minutes, then failed. But there was hope in the form of a retry button next to the item on the Activity page. I tapped that button and the transfer started over again. Only one 12.8MB image had made it to OneDrive before the failure.

Second try. Completed in 9 minutes. An extra copy of the first photo was sent to OneDrive, so I had two copies of one photo, and the second had a " 1" added as a suffix.

I suspect this method is faster as the files are just copied from the MPW to iPhone to OneDrive, rather than MPW to iPhone to MPW to OneDrive, as in the first method when the iPhone was sharing the MPW internet connection. So if you are travelling and using a WiFi hotspot, it would be better if your MPW and iPad are both directly connected to the hotspot, as long as the hotspot security allows that.

When my partner and I go on photography trips, we keep the original photos on SD cards if we can and back those up to the MPW. So we haven’t thought seriously about backing up to a cloud service. As expected, speed and reliability are issues trying to do this. But it did work.

Of course, we are using DSLR cameras with SD cards. You don’t say if you are using a separate camera, or just the iPad. If you are just using the iPad, are you taking a Camera connection Kit with you, to copy photos off your iPad on to SD cards? If not you will need a way to get photos from the Camera Roll on your iPad to the MPW. Something like FileBrowser. The My Cloud App can’t directly back up the Camera Roll on an iDevice to the MPW. I don’t know of any WD iOS App that would back up the Camera Roll to the MPW. (I would love to be corrected if anyone thinks I am wrong here. I may have forgotten or overlooked something.)

Thanks for asking the question. I had been meaning to test the OneDrive connection, and thanks to you now I have.

5

Note also the one or more directories can be selected and copied, then pasted to OneDrive, rather than indvidual files. 

Using the second method above, the transfer process maxed out my upload speed which is just 1Mbps.

6

Topp stuff, Roderick!!

Yes, I use a DSLR camera, so the file size will be quite big and there will be alot of files. So with that upload speed the cloud storage solution isn’t optimal, but maybe if I’m at a place with good Wifi for a longer period, it could work. Either way I want to back up my SD cards, so the WDP is one of the better solutions I’ve found. The SD slot is super practical in the field.

L

7

Indeed, the MPW is a good tool on the go.

However, make sure that you have the latest firmware to get the best transfer speed, and do some transfer speed tests before you travel, so you know what to expect. It will be about 10MB/s, so a big day of photography can take quite a while to back up.

Also, if at all possible plug the MPW into a power outlet while you are doing the backups. This will improve the speed and guarantee that the MPW doesn’t try to go to sleep, or spin down the drive, while it is backing up.

The other thing to consider is that mobile (cell) phone plans often have a higher upload speed than broadband connections. My broadband is just 1 Mbps, but my Mobile can be up to 24 Mbps. So get an App that can check upload speed, like Ookla Speedtest, and test the wireless hotspot before you use it to do backups. If you have the data on your plan, or can add it, it maybe be far quicker to upload to Dropbox using the Mobile data plan, once you are in an area with strong signal.

Anyway, enjoy the trip. Stay safe, and take lots of great photos!

8

Great! Thanks for your help. Much appreciated :slight_smile: