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Sony a6000 Camera Wireless Photo Transfer

zachlegomaniac

zachlegomaniac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 20, 2008
806
370
A novice here so I really appreciate your patience, but I am having a hell of a time getting my Sony a6000 to wirelessly transfer my photos to my iPhone 6 or MacBook (10.10.2). The Sony app is atrocious. I feel like I haven't Googled this long to troubleshoot anything in a while. Any tips?

Thanks,

Z
 
Using the Sony wi-if transfer is a bit of a hassle. Here is what I do to transfer to my iOS devices.

I first set up the camera to Send to Smartphone and have been using the Select on Smartphone option. With either option you end up at the screen showing the SSID, password, and camera Device Name. Leave that screen on.

I then go into settings for the iOS device and the Wi-Fi setting. Under CHOOSE A NETWORK you should see the SSID name. It may take while or much longer. When it takes too long, I turn off wi-if and turn it back on. That seems to help it some times. I believe you can use Other to manually enter the name. When you see the SSD name tap on it. Enter the password that is displayed on the camera. You iOS device will remember it for next time.

Now open PlayMemories Mobile (PMM) on the iOS device. Depending on what share option you choose either the iOS device will show a list or send chosen files.

After changing the iOS device to connect to the wi-if on the camera, it is likely that your device will appear to continue to search for the camera. I start PMM and often the network connection completes. This is the most flaky part of the setup.

I don't use the Sony Mac software as it wants to do a low level kext install requiring an administrator password. I don't trust Sony software on my computers given their history of adding crap that they should not.
 
xStep said:
Using the Sony wi-if transfer is a bit of a hassle. Here is what I do to transfer to my iOS devices.

I first set up the camera to Send to Smartphone and have been using the Select on Smartphone option. With either option you end up at the screen showing the SSID, password, and camera Device Name. Leave that screen on.

I then go into settings for the iOS device and the Wi-Fi setting. Under CHOOSE A NETWORK you should see the SSID name. It may take while or much longer. When it takes too long, I turn off wi-if and turn it back on. That seems to help it some times. I believe you can use Other to manually enter the name. When you see the SSD name tap on it. Enter the password that is displayed on the camera. You iOS device will remember it for next time.

Now open PlayMemories Mobile (PMM) on the iOS device. Depending on what share option you choose either the iOS device will show a list or send chosen files.

After changing the iOS device to connect to the wi-if on the camera, it is likely that your device will appear to continue to search for the camera. I start PMM and often the network connection completes. This is the most flaky part of the setup.

I don't use the Sony Mac software as it wants to do a low level kext install requiring an administrator password. I don't trust Sony software on my computers given their history of adding crap that they should not.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the very detailed step-by-step. I have tried that method, but (as you mentioned) it is very flaky for me, too. Sometimes it will work, and other times I just can't get the devices to work together.

On a Sony thread I saw a bunch of folks mention that they were having the same trouble that I am. One poster said he just uses iPhoto to wirelessly import the photos rather than relying on Sony's software, but he did not explain how he was making that work.

It almost seems like, regardless of the Wi-Fi ready camera, the easiest, most reliable, and cleanest way to go about this each time is with a USB, which is a little disappointing simply based on the way the camera was sold to me. It's not a huge deal though.
 
xStep said:
Using the Sony wi-if transfer is a bit of a hassle. Here is what I do to transfer to my iOS devices.

I first set up the camera to Send to Smartphone and have been using the Select on Smartphone option. With either option you end up at the screen showing the SSID, password, and camera Device Name. Leave that screen on.

I then go into settings for the iOS device and the Wi-Fi setting. Under CHOOSE A NETWORK you should see the SSID name. It may take while or much longer. When it takes too long, I turn off wi-if and turn it back on. That seems to help it some times. I believe you can use Other to manually enter the name. When you see the SSD name tap on it. Enter the password that is displayed on the camera. You iOS device will remember it for next time.

Now open PlayMemories Mobile (PMM) on the iOS device. Depending on what share option you choose either the iOS device will show a list or send chosen files.

After changing the iOS device to connect to the wi-if on the camera, it is likely that your device will appear to continue to search for the camera. I start PMM and often the network connection completes. This is the most flaky part of the setup.

I don't use the Sony Mac software as it wants to do a low level kext install requiring an administrator password. I don't trust Sony software on my computers given their history of adding crap that they should not.
Click to expand...

Finally got it! Thank you for your help.
 
zachlegomaniac said:
Finally got it! Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

It's a bit cumbersome to get set up initially, but I've found that it works fine after the initial setup. I've been transferring photos from my a6000 to my ipad and icloud photo library exclusively via wifi transfer without issue for the last two months.
 
Mine works fine too, to ipad or iPhone. Use the SD reader on my MacBook. But I really wish I could transfer via Bluetooth or NFC:(.
 
jjk454ss said:
Mine works fine too, to ipad or iPhone. Use the SD reader on my MacBook. But I really wish I could transfer via Bluetooth or NFC:(.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I saw a friend tap his Droid against the camera and - voila - pictures on phone with NFC.
 
irishv said:
It's a bit cumbersome to get set up initially, but I've found that it works fine after the initial setup. I've been transferring photos from my a6000 to my ipad and icloud photo library exclusively via wifi transfer without issue for the last two months.
Click to expand...

I was on a shoot yesterday and I was continuously transferring photos to my iPhone from my A6000, editing them in VSCO and uploading them on the fly. When I got home and reviewed my uploaded photos on my computer, I found they were blocky, low resolution, almost unusable files. It turns out that PlayMemories had applied massive compression to my files.

If you try to transfer a RAW file, your device recieves a low res JPEG less than 1mb in size. If you try to transfer a fine JPEG, it gives you about a 2.8mb JPEG (half the size of the original image). I can't be the only one seeing these issues?!

(Yes, I have the 'send original' option checked in PlayMemories settings) Can you let me know what size the files are when you receive them on your iPhone/iPad after a wifi transfer and also what file type the original image was when you sent it across?
 
I'd like to know as well. It hasn't worked incredibly well for me, either, and I've resorted to just using the SD card reader as (obviously) it's the most reliable.
 
zachlegomaniac said:
A novice here so I really appreciate your patience, but I am having a hell of a time getting my Sony a6000 to wirelessly transfer my photos to my iPhone 6 or MacBook (10.10.2). The Sony app is atrocious. I feel like I haven't Googled this long to troubleshoot anything in a while. Any tips?

Thanks,

Z
Click to expand...

I reckon ditch the old tech and grab a wireless SD. Then you can sync super easy using the wifi signal from the card itself.

I just bought and reviewed this wireless SD card and i've been super happy with it. Don't think you'll find anything of the same calibre any cheaper: https://thieve.co/review/wireless-microsd-card-adapter-review/

hope that helps someone out!
 
I believe these resolution concerns are actually Play Memories "working as designed". The idea of the wireless transfer is more to allow you to post the images on social media asap. It is not really for transferring images ready for full on editing. - I may be wrong on this but I remember reading this somewhere in a manual.

I cant check as I just upgraded Android on my phone and it has broken the Sony app again... Grr!

To be honest, I just turn all that jazz off and use the reliable old school method of pop out the SD card. That stuff just makes life more complicated.
 
I have had the same experience with transferring images, and from Sony's perspective they aren't going to change anything yet... For now, either get a wireless SD card, or if you're like me and you travel with your MBP just pull the SD card and put it in your Mac to grab those images, while doing that, this is when I charge my battery, even if only for 2-3minutes.
 
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