Backing up photos from an android phone to an external hard drive without a pc

Derekoak

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We want a way to do the above. It seems almost impossible to connect an external hard drive directly to an android phone. We are thinking of buying a teltonica rut 955 in order to get a better mobile data signal in our camper. I notice that the 955 has a port to connect a hard drive by USB. Will that solve our photo backup problem too?
Would the connection from the phone to the 955 be by WiFi, would it be faster if there was a way to wire the 2 devices together?
If it would, would it still back up by wifi even if we had no data connection?
 
You definitely can connect an external drive to an Android device.

I do it frequently.

Purchase an USB device with SD card slot.

This is what I use:

20220303_160554.jpg
20220303_160610.jpg
 
I found that the double ended pen drive works. Well, it does on my phone which uses the old style micro USB socket. Presumably similar drives are available for the current USB-c style too
 
I have a RUT955, bought it on the recommendation of Phil T, he had a video on it.

Yes you can attach a USB hard drive to it.

Would I buy another 955? Probably not although I've not tried any of the alternatives. It's very fussy about changes to settings, often requiring a reboot which takes ages. This could be a Teltonika thing because the RUT240 I worked on the other day was just the same.

Personally (this is no recommendation), that means ME, I would use a Raspberry Pi to do the lot, WiFi, 4G, network storage etc etc.
 
I had the same problem with an older 950 gb usb drive.
I also have a more modern 950 Gb drive and it works fine with OTG!
Whilst travelling I will use a large (datawise) Usb memory stick
You can get Otg devices with 2 plus Usb ports and as has been suggested a card reader.

Get and try various combinations to see what works and suits you !
Suggest a bluetooth mouse as well
also check images have transferred before deleting originals
 
Canalsman said:
You definitely can connect an external drive to an Android device.

I do it frequently.

Purchase an USB device with SD card slot.

This is what I use:

View attachment 106637View attachment 106638
Click to expand...
I meant a hard drive. I think your picture is of a flash drive or an sd card reader. My wife has a library of sd cards getting bigger over time. Perhaps I should have said videos and photos. This topic has arisen again as we seem to have an sd card that corrupted and as the videos move from a go pro sd card to a phone sd card then to a storage sd card as the phone storage gets full and then back again when editing, a better solution would be great.
When we investigated attaching an external hard drive maybe 3 terabyte to an android phone it seemed difficult, but maybe the teltonika router could do the job of intermediary, as well as the one we may buy it for?
 
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xsilvergs said:
I have a RUT955, bought it on the recommendation of Phil T, he had a video on it.

Yes you can attach a USB hard drive to it.

Would I buy another 955? Probably not although I've not tried any of the alternatives. It's very fussy about changes to settings, often requiring a reboot which takes ages. This could be a Teltonika thing because the RUT240 I worked on the other day was just the same.

Personally (this is no recommendation), that means ME, I would use a Raspberry Pi to do the lot, WiFi, 4G, network storage etc etc.
Click to expand...
So the teltonika would work but best if you did not fiddle with the settings too much?
Just to be sure. If I bought say a 2 terabyte standard reasonably cheap usb hard drive, and usb wired it to a rut 950 or 955. My wife could down load videos from her go pro to an android device by bluetooth and then download videos from all android phones to the hard drive using the 955 wifi.
Would the pictures still transfer even if there was no mobile data where we were?
I am sure you can make a raspberry Pi work well, but best that I avoid that.
 
jagmanx said:
The other solution is a photo hosting website😁
Dare I mention Google photos ?
Lots of others.
Click to expand...
We have avoided cloud solutions as we are often out of signal range, but as signal gets stronger perhaps that may be a future solution. Your 950gb drive is that flash memory or a hard drive? OTG are initials I saw for some hard drives but did not want to buy a dud.
How does a mouse help when we are talking android touch screens?
 
Derekoak said:
So the teltonika would work but best if you did not fiddle with the settings too much?
Just to be sure. If I bought say a 2 terabyte standard reasonably cheap usb hard drive, and usb wired it to a rut 950 or 955. My wife could down load videos from her go pro to an android device by bluetooth and then download videos from all android phones to the hard drive using the 955 wifi.
Would the pictures still transfer even if there was no mobile data where we were?
I am sure you can make a raspberry Pi work well, but best that I avoid that.
Click to expand...
I see no reason why you shouldn't be able transfer files without a mobile signal.

I did give up using the RUT955 with an attached USB drive and use an old RPi 2 as a Printer and File server to which is attached USB drive.

At this moment my 955 does all internet and WiFi duties in our van. The RPi sits beside the 955 and is connected by ethernet cable (you could use WiFi). I use Samba to make file sharing easier. I can disconnect the Drive or take the RPi and Drive indoors.

The 955 is frustrating to me compared to a RPi.
 
Derekoak said:
We have avoided cloud solutions as we are often out of signal range, but as signal gets stronger perhaps that may be a future solution. Your 950gb drive is that flash memory or a hard drive? OTG are initials I saw for some hard drives but did not want to buy a dud.
How does a mouse help when we are talking android touch screens?
Click to expand...
The hard drive is a proper hard drive and it connects via otg.
Moving i find touch screen not precise enough...but that is me !

Surely you only need a reliable connection every 2 or so days.
As per another post I keep all my photos on a Nas box.
That can be synched with google drive.
But as you imply it is nicer to have your own solution.
Ps my camera can transfer photos to my tablet via wifi.
Then backup to usb hard drive and google ! ( Don't tel Trev )
 
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If you are connecting to the RUT955 via wifi to change settings then you will lose the connection when it saves the settings, this may seem like it's rebooted 🤔 If you use a patch lead and connect hard wired then it's much better and I've never had to reboot mine when changing settings and I change from sim 1 to sim 2 and vice versa a lot ;) There are alternatives but they are all much more expensive and I wouldn't change mine unless a reasonably price 5G one came on the market.

Regards,
Del
 
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@Derekoak
Just to add:
When I used the 955 with external storage it was with the previous version of firmware. I'm now using RUT9_R_00.07.01.02 which removed some functionality. There still is under USB TOOLS > STORAGE MEMORY EXPANSION the option for USB.
 
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