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Help pulling photos off Ipad...

V

volntitan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 4, 2005
374
0
Hi folks....

My father recently passed away. My mom was going to give me his ipad but wanted me to remove the pictures he has on there (approx. 1500 or so) so we can save them. Here is the problem...the computer he originally synced with went down and is no more. How can I pull the pictures off without the original computer? Any help would be great....
 
Thanks. Been a tough week or so, but plowing thru.

I did plug it into another computer and opened iPhoto. I see the iPad, but can't doesn't show any pics. But when I go to the photo library on the ipad, they are all there. I don't have apeture. Tried Lightroom, but no luck.
 
I'm very sorry for your loss.

You might be able to get at the underlying folder structure and track down the photos by using the program Phone Disk:

http://www.macroplant.com/phonedisk/

It's free until December 1 (the link has the activation code). The program is a little flaky (it seems to stop working after about 5 connections) but a reboot fixes that. Besides, for the price, one can't really complain.

Best of luck.
 
Phone Disk works...the photos are under the Photos -> Thumbs -> Fnn folders, but they are in no particular order, nor do they preserve the names or dates on the pictures. It might be quite a project with 1500 photos to deal with, but the data is there.
 
Hello,

To get the photos all you need to do is plug the ipad into a windows computer, then go to my computer and after a few seconds you should see the ipad as a disk drive. Just open the ipad drive, go into the folder and copy and paste the pics to a folder on your computer.

I hope this helps.
 
I downloaded Phonedisk, but it won't mount the device and I get an error message.

As far as the PC, we are a mac family, so no PC available.

Any other programs anyone can suggest?
 
So, found in the attic an old PC. Hooked it up. Went to my computer and it shows up as a mobile device and a camera device, but not as a hard drive. When I "open" either, it shows there is nothing in there. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I can't believe it is this hard to take stuff off an ipad.
 
You should see a folder called DCIM. Double click on that then you should see a group of folders with each folder generally being associated with the date the photo was placed on the ipad or the date it was taken.

What I do is just copy the DCIM folder (single click on it then select CNTRL C) then paste (CNTRL V) it onto the C drive.

The process is the same as what you would do with a digital camera where you download the photos off it via a cable.
 
Also, I would imagine there is a similar process for a Mac. I don't have one so I can't say for sure. With a Mac what do you do when you have a pen drive. However you get files off it should be the same as with a camera, iPad, iPhone, etc. They all have hard disc like file systems on them
 
When I click the mobile device icon, there is nothing there. It wants to treat it like a camera, but it isn't a camera. So as far as it is concerned, there aren't any pictures.

Sigh.....
 
I'm sorry to hear you are having the problem.

I just tried it again with my iPad. So this is what I did...

1. turn on iPad
2. Plug cable into USB port on PC
3. After about 10 seconds I get a pop up saying what do you want to do with the device. I close that box off.
4. Then iTunes comes up. I close that program off also since iTunes is not needed to get at the Pics.
5. Double click on My Computer icon and it shows an iPad device.
6. Double click on the iPad device and it shows a display saying how much Internal Storage is on the iPad.
7. Double click on that and it shows a DCIM folder. You can copy and paste that folder at that point. When I go into DCIM it shows a bunch of folders each relating to a date. I think these folders relate to the iPad 'Events' groupings of photos.

For those who have a Mac please post a similar set of steps for getting at the iPad as a file system (e.g. not using iTunes).

I know this sounds like a hack but it isn't. I never use iTunes unless I need to update the iPad, iPhone. Everything else I just use the file system. It is much, much quicker.
 
infosprt said:
Hello,

To get the photos all you need to do is plug the ipad into a windows computer, then go to my computer and after a few seconds you should see the ipad as a disk drive. Just open the ipad drive, go into the folder and copy and paste the pics to a folder on your computer.
Click to expand...

I believe the above method will only let you see the photos on the "Saved Photos" or Imported album on the iPad, but NOT any of the albums originally synced from iTunes which is what I believe the OP is looking for.

same thing with connecting to a Mac and using Aperture or iPhoto or Image Capture.

however there are 3rd party applications that run on the Mac and PC that allow you full access to the contents of the photo album, including photos that were originally synced to iPad from computer. I'm not aware of any free ones, however many have demo versions you could try

for example PhoneView - I've only tried the demo version (has a limit of the number of photos you can transfer) but I think this app got good reviews on macworld.com and elsewhere
 
volntitan said:
When I click the mobile device icon, there is nothing there. It wants to treat it like a camera, but it isn't a camera. So as far as it is concerned, there aren't any pictures.

Sigh.....
Click to expand...

Are you able to get online with this iPad? If so, go to the App Store & get the application called "Photo Transfer." if you install it on both the iPad and on another device (computer, iPad, iPhone), you can transfer up to 50 photos at a time off the 'Pad...wirelessly! Here's a link to the developer's website:

http://www.phototransferapp.com

Good luck, and condolences on your loss of your dad!

Macwheels
 
So I just bit the bullet and got PhoneView. Worked perfectly....

Thanks for all the advice!
 
Its good to hear you were able to get at the pictures.

My condolences to you and your family on the loss of your father.

Best wishes,
Al
 
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