How to transfer photos using SMB?

Configuring an SMB connection

To transfer photos with SMB (Windows network sharing) you usually need a Wi-Fi connection to a Windows computer or server, credentials to access the SMB server and the network address or the qualified hostname of the SMB server.

Create the connection to the SMB server in the PhotoSync settings under Configure > SMB by adding a new configuration.

Enter the connection data to the SMB server. In the Server field please enter the network address (e.g. 192.168.1.10) or the hostname (e.g. homeserver) of the SMB server. Login and password should contain the credentials to access your SMB server.

In the Network Share field enter a Windows network share or select a share by tapping the search button next to the Network Share field.

The port is the communication channel for the SMB connection which is usually 445.

Tap on Done when all data is entered. PhotoSync tries to build a connection to the SMB server and if it succeeds you'll be able to further configure your SMB connection. Under Title you can set a name for your connection to easily recognize it.

In the Destination Folder setting you can choose your destination folder to save your photos on the SMB server using a folder browser. Tap on Select to store the actually selected folder as destination folder for your transfers. Your selection will be shown in the Destination Folder setting.

The setting Create Sub-Directories allows to create individual subdirectories for each transferred photo. By default PhotoSync creates additional subdirectories with the name of the device and the name of the selected album.

If you wish to select your destination folder with each transfer please enable the Select Before Transfer setting.

In the Transfer Settings section you can define individual file names for your transferred photos and you can set various transfer options for your Wi-Fi and cellular data connections like that quality of your transferred photos, allow video transfers and much more. You can enable the Delete After Transfer setting to delete your photos on your device after a successful transfer to save storage space on your device. When you set the Allow overwrite switch to off PhotoSync checks for every transfer if a file with the same name and size already exists on the SMB server and it will rename the transfer if the file on the SMB server is a different file. If the files are identical it will skip the transfer if files are identical. By default PhotoSync always overwrites files with the same name on the SMB server.

In the View Settings action your can define the sort order for your files when you browse the files on the SMB server.

Sending photos with SMB

Sending photos and videos to an SMB server is easy: Just select the photos that you want to transfer by tapping the thumbnails. If you want to transfer all photos in the current album or only the new photos in the current album there is not even the need to select the photos.

Now tap the red transfer button and then Send. Send will be chosen automatically by PhotoSync if you have selected one or more photos for transfer. The Send page shows you three options to transfer your photos: New only chooses new photos which have not yet been transferred with PhotoSync, Selected chooses photos that have been tapped and selected for transfer, All chooses all photos from the actual album. Each option shows the number of affected photos in brackets behind the option name. Tap the option of your choice to continue with the transfer.

Now tap the target of your transfer. For transfers to an SMB server tap on SMB. If you have more than one SMB connection configured, you will get a selection of the available configurations to choose from. If you have only one configured SMB connection, the transfer will start when you tap the SMB option.

Your selection will be transferred to the SMB server. During the transfer PhotoSync shows you a detailed transfer progress.

Recive photos with SMB

To receive photos from an SMB server and download these photos to your device or to browse and view photos on an SMB server please tap the red transfer button in PhotoSync and then tap Receive to get a selection of remote targets to choose from.

Tap on SMB to connect to the SMB server and browse through the folders on the server to your preferred directory. PhotoSync will show you all folders on the SMB server and all photo and video files. Other file types will not be shown in the browser.

To download photos from a chosen directory on the SMB server to your device please select the photos that you want to downlaod by tapping the thumbnails of the photos. If you want to download all photos in the selected directory or just new photos, you don't need to select anything and directly tap the red download button.

If you want to view your photos in full size or if you need the full size preview to select photos for download please change the between selection mode (default) and view mode. To toggle the mode just tap on the button in the bottom left corner (on iOS) or long tap on a thumbnail to open the options for a photo which includes e.g. the view option (on Android). While in view mode each photo will be shown in full screen size. If you tap the selection mark in the bottom toolbar of the photo viewer you can toggle the selection of the photo for a download to your device.

Tapping the red download button will show you three options to download your photos: New only chooses new photos which have not yet been downloaded with PhotoSync, Selected chooses photos that have been tapped and selected for download, All chooses all photos from the actual folder. Each option shows the number of affected photos in brackets behind the option name. Tap the option of your choice to continue with the download.

Before the download starts you have to choose or create an album on your device as a download target.

Tap Select to confirm the target albums selection and start the download. During the download PhotoSync shows you a detailed transfer progress.