Quick Downloading Pictures & Videos from Smartphones

Using smartphones to take pictures and videos is commonplace. Some people take pictures or videos every day or at least once a week while others not as much.  However often you take pictures or videos on your smartphone, these often accumulate faster than we realize.  Backing up smartphones can be and often gets skipped simple because we forget to do it.  However, if you want to download pictures to print or a video to share, there is an easy way to quickly download these from either Android or iOS smartphones onto a Windows devices.  

First, using a USB cable, connect the smartphone to the Windows device.  A Windows AutoPlay window will automatically pop up and ask what you would like to do with the connected device.

Select the first option to "Import pictures and videos".  Once you select this the connected device will be scanned for all pictures and videos.

To access the default import settings click on the "Import settings" link at the bottom left of the "Import Pictures and Videos" box.

Use the the "Import Settings" window to customize many of the import settings.  For instance, the default folder for imported pictures and videos can be set from here by browsing to the desired folder.  This is helpful when pictures and videos are stored somewhere other than the default "My Pictures" folder.  

The "Folder Name" drop down provides different name formatting which will automatically be applied to each new import folder.  Each time pictures and videos are imported, a new folder is created and it's name will be based on the naming structure selected in this setting.

If you prefer to have pictures and videos deleted once they are imported, check the box next to "Always erase from device after importing".  This setting helps prevent duplicate pictures and videos from being imported.  However, this setting is not advised unless you also utilize a backup program as all pictures and videos can be lost if they are erased from the smartphone and something happens to the device they were imported onto.

After making any changes, click OK to save them.

Once all of the pictures and videos have been located, click the "Import" button.  If the box to "Prompt for a tag on import" is checked in "Import Settings" you will be prompted to set a tag for the pictures and videos before importing them.  If prompted, type out a tag name and click the "Import" button.

Once the pictures and videos start importing, a progress meter will show the progress status.

The import can be cancelled at any time from the progress meter box.  The progress meter also provides a check box to "Erase after importing".  This allows you to easily erase the imported pictures and videos if you want to erase them after importing even if this is not the default preference set. 

Once all of the pictures and videos finish importing they will automatically open up in a new folder window.  With the import process finished, disconnect the smartphone device at any time.  Browse the pictures and videos which import in chronological order.  

Regardless of how smartphone pictures and videos are used, using the Windows import tool is an easy way to quickly download them.  The import tool starts automatically once a smartphone is connected via with a USB cable and can be more efficient than a full smartphone backup.  While complete smartphone backups are important to capture other types of data on them, using the Windows import tool is a better choice if only a few pictures or videos are needed. 

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