Are your photos spread out over multiple devices? Are there some photos you can only access on your phone and others you can only access on your PC? By changing the way you store photos and access photos you can make it possible to retrieve the same photos from any device. Below are just a few tips on how to manage your photos from multiple device.
Explore different ways to transfer photos
There are lots of different ways to transfer photos between devices/send photos to other devices. These include:
- Emailing yourself a photograph so that you can view it on PC.
- Sending someone a photo through Facebook messenger or WhatsApp
- Using Bluetooth to share photos (the devices must be close to each other to do this)
- Using a USB cable to copy photos (the most old-school way. Again, both devices need to be at hand to do this).
- Putting a USB stick or CD (when transferring between two computers)
These can all be efficient ways to transfer individual photos between devices. But if you want to freely access your entire library on another device, you probably want to try a different method.
Store your photos on the cloud
Storing photos onto the hard drive of a device means that you can only ever view them on that device. If that device breaks, you could lose all your photos. This is why it’s important to upload them to the cloud.
Using a cloud server you can manage your photos from anywhere, from any device. The cloud is an online server that you can access from multiple devices providing that you have the right password. Many smartphones, tablets, and computers now automatically back up photos on the cloud. Google photos and iCloud photos are two of the most popular cloud platforms for smartphones – you can access these photos on your Mac or PC with the right software, which leads to the next point…
Get the right apps
You won’t be able to access your photos on multiple devices unless you have the right apps. If you’ve saved your photos on Google photos via an android phone and you want to view them on your PC, make sure to download the Google photos application onto your PC. You can similarly download the Microsoft OneDrive app onto an Android phone to view photos saved on your Windows PC on your phone.
Factor incompatibility issues
Microsoft, Apple, and Google are all rivals and in the past, they haven’t always made it easy to use their programs on other devices. Some people would solve this by sticking to one brand for all their devices such as an iPhone and a Mac or a Windows phone and a Windows PC.
Fortunately, most devices now allow you to download apps from other device manufacturers. You may however be limited when it comes to certain features such as being able to edit photos. You should also expect more bugs – these can usually be solved online.
Link up all your devices to social media
Social media can be a great place to publicly share photos with family and friends. When using a smartphone, it’s worth downloading apps for social media sites like Facebook so that you can more easily upload photos when you need to.
Some social media sites are catered specifically towards smartphones such as Instagram. Using Instagram on a PC or Mac never used to be possible, however now it is – but with limited features. There are still hacks that can teach you how to post on Instagram from Mac. If you’re using your Mac and you really want to upload some photos on Instagram, this could be useful to know.
Share libraries with loved ones
Some devices allow you to share your entire photo library with a loved one. This could be useful for sharing photos with a partner or allowing a child to share their photos with you.
Generally, you can only share libraries with people that use the same device manufacturer. For instance, Android users can only share libraries with other Android users. Apple has its own method of sharing photos, which doesn’t involve sharing your entire library but selected photos.
Both Apple and Android allow you to hide certain photos that you don’t want to share with others. This gives you some privacy. When sharing photos, make sure to only share with close people that you trust.
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