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Dumb cell phone question - dowloading photos

toxcrusadr

toxcrusadr

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How do you get photos out of your cell phone?

I have a texting phone (not a smart phone) with a camera. I've never downloaded photos from it and I have a bunch on there I'd like to recover. I thought maybe I could use the USB port and plug it into my PC and read it like a camera card, but the PC says "unrecognized device". Do I need a piece of software? It's a Samsung BTW, less than a year old.

I s'pose I oughta read the dang directions. The phone came with a palm-sized 189 page manual in tiny print. :rolleyes: I do know there was no software included with it.
 
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Ive never owned a cell phone but all 3 of my brothers do, whenever I need a good camera for a photo I will borrow one of theyre " smartphones " which usually have decent cameras hehe. Usually I just take a picture and send the picture from the phone to my email address. Im not sure if your phone can do this but I thought Id give you an option :)
 
try looking on samsungs website .there should be software available .i cant understand why your pc cant see it properly .it should come up as mass storage device . failing the software you could blue tooth to pc .or take the data card out and put it in a card reader .
 
It's a stretch, but I'll offer it. My computer doesn't recognize some devices in some USB ports. I have to re-try them in different ports.
 
I can indeed email a photo to myself. It's just that I have several dozen in there and would like to get them out in bulk rather than one at a time.

Hadn't thought of the card reader angle, I may try that. Assuming that the card in a cell phone can be read by one. I don't think it looks the same as the cards in our cameras, so I'm not sure I have a reader for it.

I will check Samsung's website. I looked at AT&T's site and it was no help on this point. Will also try a different USB port as Brett suggested.
 
toxcrusadr said:
How do you get photos out of your cell phone?
Click to expand...
By any chance, did you save the pictures to a memory card installed in the phone? If you did, the fastest and easiest thing to do might be to simply remove the card and read it with a suitable card reader.

I've seen multi-card readers available for as little as $5. (The "Vivitar" branded one I bought does work, though it can only handle one card being in place at a time. I guess one can't have it all for $5.)

Any cell phone with USB connectivity that I ever played with would show up as a "mass storage device" to the computer. Perhaps your phone needs to have its operating mode changed (in a menu?) or...there is the possibility that it's not making good contact with the USB connection?

I've had USB devices do that a time or two when they weren't making a good connection. Tried another USB port or connecting cable?

(EDIT: I see most of these have been suggested. Oh well. Better "late" than "never" or something.)

The card is probably a micro SD type. There exist adapters to read these in anything that can support an SD or SDHC (4GB or bigger) card.
 
Cool, thanks for the info on the cards. I do not know whether the photos are in the phone's memory or on the card, or how to determine which.
 
Even the famously locked-down iPhone will let you pull your photos without any sort of interference. Speaking of which, I need to do that now.
 
Just to muddy the waters, I also have a Samsung with a bunch of "stuck" photos. My computer won't recognize my phone as a device, either. The pics are in the internal memory. I made the mistake of thinking that I could just transfer them with a cord. I can email them, but it is really hit or miss. It takes forever for them to transfer, and even then many of them never make it. They just get lost. I ended up buying one of those micro-SD cards, so any pictures I take now are easy to transfer. It came with an adapter that plugs into the SD slot on my computer.
Another possible way to transfer is to send them via bluetooth to somebody else's phone that has a memory card, and then use that to get them onto a computer.
 
some phones you have to look at it when plugged in usb it will come up with choices .just choose mass storage . then if windows go to my computer you should see it in there .look for a file called dcim your pics should be in there .
 
petehall347 said:
some phones you have to look at it when plugged in usb it will come up with choices .just choose mass storage . then if windows go to my computer you should see it in there .look for a file called dcim your pics should be in there .
Click to expand...

So, I would select mass storage on the phone? I don't recall anything popping up on the phone when I plugged it in. I should check to see if I still have the cord, and try it again. I think I might have taken it back when I couldn't get it to work.
 
Some phones can connect and transfer files via Bluetooth with your computer. Also, did you try the "Add new hardware" route to establish recognition between the computer and phone? Also make sure the phone is set to transfer data by looking at: Applications > Settings > Wireless and network > USB utilities. And finally, if your phone has wifi, you can connect to your home network and transfer files that way.
 
The samsungs have a connectivity setting in the menu. Two choices on my now-dead Impact. IIRC, PC Studio and Mass Storage Device. Choose MSD and the computer should find it, just like any other flash drive.
 
Do I need to have the cord hooked up to see this menu? I've haven't come across anything that mentions mass storage, or connectivity, in the menu section.
 
Tox, Call your provider's customer service. For Sprint I know it's just *2 on the phone but don't know about other carriers. They can walk you through it. You paid for their training.
 
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