Phone - Photo transfer direct to share folder

Personally I still store photos in my own server and not in cloud computing.
Maybe I should try looking for a cloud back up service later...

But for those out there who have the same practice, you probably notice that phones really don't have too much support for transferring photos directly to a share folder.  Lots of apps do the same like uploading to certain services or making your phone a host to access from the PC browser.  In my case I like simplicity and control.  I just want to select the photos from my phone and send to local server over wi-fi... done!

So far these are the best options I found.

Android:  Sweet Home WiFi Picture Backup

Sweet Home is a simple application which once configured to access your shared folder, it allows you to send the new photos by clicking "Upload Now". And also has an option to automatically upload whenever the phone is connected to the network.  Simple!

This application works really well for me using:  Motorola Atrix 4G & Windows 7 for home server.  It has a free version for try out, but please support the developers and purchase it if you like!  :)

iPhone:  Files Connect

This application is not as simple as Android's Sweet Home for sending photos to the share folder, but it does carry a lot of functionality.  Files Connect is more like a general network file transfer application as the name suggests.

At the end, it is really easy to send photos to the shared folder once this is configured.  You only need to browse for the photos in you phone and "select / copy" them to later "paste" them at the share folder.  Something I liked a lot was the transfer activity monitor which allowed me to see the transfer was not hanged.

In my case I had an iPhone 4G and the share folder in Windows 7 home server.  The application was able to transfer over 1,500 photos with no hangs in a descent amount of time.  It took a little to start the transfer but still less than 1 minute.  I am happy from purchasing the application.

Quick note:
In order to transfer even faster, I browse the phone from the server.  Then PULL the content instead of pushing it.  This significantly reduced the transfer time be 66%.  Just look in your router for the IP the phone is connected to.

General Comment:

If you need applications which directly communicates with your share folder, then search for Samba client applications.  Both of these applications supports the SMB protocol which is what allows the direct access between phone and PC.


Hope this helps others.