Rapid, seamless syncing of photos from a mobile device to a PC
February 15, 2020 12:09 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a way to do a quick, automated, and reliable sync (download) of photos from a wireless mobile device to a Windows PC.
This is a workplace-related project. We have visitors bringing items to our front desk. Staff use a desktop PC to enter descriptions into a web-based app, and then they attach photos to the record for each item.
I'm looking for a wireless mobile device (or potentially an actual camera) that can take photos and sync them to a folder on a Windows server. The folder would be configured as a network share, so that it can be accessed from multiple PCs on the network. Also, the wireless network is completely isolated from the LAN (wired network), so the photos would have to sync through the Internet, not through a local connection.
Speed and convenience are of the essence here. Ideally, the staff would not have to force any sort of manual sync. After a photo is taken, it would just appear in the network share, preferably in 30 seconds or less.
I've been playing with an iPhone 6, but I just can't get it to work quickly and reliably. I've tried iCloud photos and Dropbox. They both sort-of work, but they're flaky and/or slow. I'm looking for a robust solution that won't need babysitting. The solution doesn't have to be based on the existing iPhone. I can get an Android phone, if that's easier. Or I can even buy some kind of wireless-enabled point-and-shoot camera.
This is a workplace-related project. We have visitors bringing items to our front desk. Staff use a desktop PC to enter descriptions into a web-based app, and then they attach photos to the record for each item.
I'm looking for a wireless mobile device (or potentially an actual camera) that can take photos and sync them to a folder on a Windows server. The folder would be configured as a network share, so that it can be accessed from multiple PCs on the network. Also, the wireless network is completely isolated from the LAN (wired network), so the photos would have to sync through the Internet, not through a local connection.
Speed and convenience are of the essence here. Ideally, the staff would not have to force any sort of manual sync. After a photo is taken, it would just appear in the network share, preferably in 30 seconds or less.
I've been playing with an iPhone 6, but I just can't get it to work quickly and reliably. I've tried iCloud photos and Dropbox. They both sort-of work, but they're flaky and/or slow. I'm looking for a robust solution that won't need babysitting. The solution doesn't have to be based on the existing iPhone. I can get an Android phone, if that's easier. Or I can even buy some kind of wireless-enabled point-and-shoot camera.
Dropbox is usually quite fast and reliable.
As everything needs to go through the internet, I'm guessing that the bottleneck is the upload speed of the broadband, which can be more than an order of magnitude slower than the download speed.
Run an internet speed test, and try to reduce the image resolution/JPEG quality to make things go faster.
posted by Sharcho at 2:20 PM on February 16, 2020
As everything needs to go through the internet, I'm guessing that the bottleneck is the upload speed of the broadband, which can be more than an order of magnitude slower than the download speed.
Run an internet speed test, and try to reduce the image resolution/JPEG quality to make things go faster.
posted by Sharcho at 2:20 PM on February 16, 2020
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posted by flabdablet at 12:21 PM on February 15, 2020