SD Photo help

[AC Question]

Have Android tablet, wish to import photos from SD card, clear SD card, and then transfer photos to my PC. So far I have had no luck. Any help appreciated

Thanks
Sebtru

 

[SpookDroid]

So, you want to copy everything from the SD Card onto your tablet, format the SD card, and then transfer those pictures to a PC? Why not skip the tablet storage and move them directly to PC instead? If you connect your tablet (provided you don't need any special drivers; this depends on each manufacturer and device model) you should be able to browse the SD card just like any other thumb drive. Then after transferring the data over to your PC, you can proceed to the formatting.

When you say you haven't had any luck, what exactly do you mean? It would help to know what you've tried that hasn't worked so we can get an idea of what could be going wrong or to avoid suggesting something you've already tried. The model of your device would help, too.

 

[sebtru]

problem is; I'm getting the SD cards out of my game cameras which are in the woods (difficult to bring PC). I want to download the photos, clean the card and re-install the card(s).
As far as "no luck" have tried file manager apps, but they don't seem to allow the proceedure described above.

Thanks,
Sebtru

 

[Rukbat]

Which part don't they allow? You should be able to transfer photos from the cards to the tablet with no problem.

Writing to the card, if you're running KitKat, might be problem, but you can always wipe the card in the camera. (All cameras have an "Erase All" type of function.) Copying the photos from the tab to the computer should be as simple as plugging the tab into the computer and dragging the files from the tab to the computer (using the computer).

So which part aren't the apps allowing, transferring the photos to the tab or transferring them from the tab to the computer?

 

[sebtru]

Please understand that I'm a complete tablet novice. I don't need to write to the card, the problem is finding the SD card on the tablet, downloading to the tablet and then downloading to the PC. I've been able to download them a couple of times, but purely by accident. Then I have problems finding them again. I have yet to be able to download to my PC.
I've tried 'file commander', 'SD card mgr', 'adv SD card' apps. I guess I'm trying to make it act like a PC

 

[SpookDroid]

It's OK, we're all here to help. OK, so your problem seems to be getting your tablet to actually READ the SD Cards, right? As I understand it, you plug the card in, open the File Manager, and nothing comes up, am I correct?

Working from that assumption, when you insert the SD Card, does anything show up on the notification bar? Any kind of indication that your device has recognized that an SD Card has been inserted (usually a message saying that the system is scanning the card for media)? If not, it might be two things:
1) Your tablet is not compatible with the card size you're using. Especially with older devices, the maximum size of an SD Card can be limited. So make sure that, say, if your card is 64GB, your tablet can support card sizes that big.
2) The format itself. SD Cards, in order to work with most Android tablets, must have a file format of either FAT32 or Ex-FAT (the first limits the file size to 4GB, the latter does not). If your card was formatted on a Windows Machine as NTFS, chances are your tablet will not be able to read anything off it as this is a Microsoft proprietary format and has not been licensed to be included with Android. Also, if your cards come directly from a camera (especially older ones) and was formatted in there, you might also run into a similar problem with proprietary file formats your tablet just can't read.

I know you say you can't access a PC so easily, but it would help to make sure that the cards can be read on a computer. If your camera can read it but your PC can't, you're looking at camera-proprietary format issues. If neither your camera nor PC can read the card, then chances are it is corrupted or damaged.