SD card to iPad & vice versa

[c0t0paxi]

Hello,

I'm new to apple products and was going to buy an Apple lightning to SD card reader and wondering how I can transfer photos & vids from my SD card to my iPad Mini 4 and vice versa. When I plug in the device to my iPad will I need a file commander app of some sort? Will it be a straight forward process? I just remember trying this a while back and having to use itunes & icloud to transfer files was a headache for me.

Is there a way around this without the use of a laptop?

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Lightn...d=1538543723&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+to+sd+card

Thanks

 

[Donka]

The official SD card reader will allow you to import photos and videos from an SD card into the Photos app - no other software is required. You cannot copy back to the SD card though with this solution though - it is import only.

There are alternative third party card readers or drives that have their own application that will allow you to import images into the application and then into Photos if required and also write back to the SD card / drive.

 

[LibbyLA]

Hello,

I'm new to apple products and was going to buy an Apple lightning to SD card reader and wondering how I can transfer photos & vids from my SD card to my iPad Mini 4 and vice versa. When I plug in the device to my iPad will I need a file commander app of some sort? Will it be a straight forward process? I just remember trying this a while back and having to use itunes & icloud to transfer files was a headache for me.

Is there a way around this without the use of a laptop?

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Lightn...d=1538543723&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+to+sd+card

Thanks

[doublepost=1538590947][/doublepost]You need to be aware that iOS 10 and iOS 11 fail to import every 101st photo from an SD card. That has been fixed in iOS 12, with the photo import process having several improvements. It shows the number of photos on the SD card, shows a progress indicates and countdown so you know how far along in the process it is, and you can look at all imports, not just the last one. The last feature makes it possible to delete the imported photos if you transfer them to a computer and no longer want them on your iPad.

The Mini 4 is great hardware for viewing pics but importing large numbers of photos. However, the one time I tested with something like 5K photos on a card, the Mini 4 took five times as long as an iPad Pro.

 

[muzzy996]

I gotta give props to those who have the patience to manage large amounts of digital photos on a mobile device like this. I have an appreciation for traveling light but I'll be darned if I have the patience to sit there while a bunch of photos transfers to a mobile device. As smooth and speedy as these devices are to use for media consumption and the like, when it comes to copying files off of high speed SD cards they can't touch the speed of doing it onto a laptop w/ SSD and USB 3.0 card reader.

 

[LibbyLA]

I gotta give props to those who have the patience to manage large amounts of digital photos on a mobile device like this. I have an appreciation for traveling light but I'll be darned if I have the patience to sit there while a bunch of photos transfers to a mobile device. As smooth and speedy as these devices are to use for media consumption and the like, when it comes to copying files off of high speed SD cards they can't touch the speed of doing it onto a laptop w/ SSD and USB 3.0 card reader.

I use my iPad Pros (9.7, 10.5) to deal with as many as 10-20K photos at a time from my trail cameras. I keep a relatively small number of them. The Photos app makes “scrubbing” through a bunch of photos quickly very easy. I “favorite” the ones I want to keep then when I get home, transfer the favorites to my desktop computer, then delete all the imported photos from the iPad.

I’ve done file imports with an ultraportable and several 2-in-1s. The iPad is the best experience for what I do.

I prefer the size of the Mini 4 for viewing the photos but the import speed is slow. If Apple were to announce a Mini 4-sized iPad with USB 3 speed, I’d be on it like a duck on a June bug!

 

[Donka]

I do something similar but mark all the photos I want to delete as favourites. Then I just go into the favourites album and do a delete all. I don’t use favourites for anything else so this gives me a quick way of rejecting images before the deletion.

 

[LibbyLA]

I do something similar but mark all the photos I want to delete as favourites. Then I just go into the favourites album and do a delete all. I don’t use favourites for anything else so this gives me a quick way of rejecting images before the deletion.

I keep maybe 300-500 pics of several thousand so it’s easier for me to favorite the ones I want to keep but I can see how the reverse would work for people who aren’t transferring photos. That’s a handy tip.

 

[muzzy996]

I use my iPad Pros (9.7, 10.5) to deal with as many as 10-20K photos at a time from my trail cameras. I keep a relatively small number of them. The Photos app makes “scrubbing” through a bunch of photos quickly very easy. I “favorite” the ones I want to keep then when I get home, transfer the favorites to my desktop computer, then delete all the imported photos from the iPad.

I’ve done file imports with an ultraportable and several 2-in-1s. The iPad is the best experience for what I do.

What exactly is the process for doing the trail camera data on the iPad? Card reader adapter into iPad and then what? I'm trying to imagine what I'd do with my DSLR pics when I travel with just an iPad. It has been a while since I've tried working with photos off an SD card on an iOS device. Things may have changed in the last couple of years but the speed and process I remember was clunky and slow to get the photos over.

If i'm shooting in RAW on my Nikon DSLR I'll easily hit 16GB+ in photos and the data transfer for that to my rMBP will take just a few minutes via USB 3.0 card reader after which I'll go through my photos in Lightroom and mark the keepers for upload to the cloud for sharing, the rest I keep and archive to a NAS when I am at home. For me its not so much the scrubbing through the photos on a touch screen that I'm looking for. . i know that experience can be satisfying . . its more the speed of transfer and opening the files that I have an issue with on mobile devices. Like I said, I'm impatient LOL.

 

[LibbyLA]

What exactly is the process for doing the trail camera data on the iPad? Card reader adapter into iPad and then what? I'm trying to imagine what I'd do with my DSLR pics when I travel with just an iPad. It has been a while since I've tried working with photos off an SD card on an iOS device. Things may have changed in the last couple of years but the speed and process I remember was clunky and slow to get the photos over.

If i'm shooting in RAW on my Nikon DSLR I'll easily hit 16GB+ in photos and the data transfer for that to my rMBP will take just a few minutes via USB 3.0 card reader after which I'll go through my photos in Lightroom and mark the keepers for upload to the cloud for sharing, the rest I keep and archive to a NAS when I am at home. For me its not so much the scrubbing through the photos on a touch screen that I'm looking for. . i know that experience can be satisfying . . its more the speed of transfer and opening the files that I have an issue with on mobile devices. Like I said, I'm impatient LOL.

Yes, Apple card reader to iPad, one SD card at a time. I go through the photos from the imported card, marking the ones to keep, then repeat the import process. iOS 12 is a huge improvement for lots of reasons and the Pro hardware (iPP 9.7 and 10.5) is much faster than the older hardware (iP Mini 4 is my only “older” iPad).

Some SD cards have only a couple or three hundred pics, some several hundred, and a handful have several thousand. Most are not “keepers”. My photos are 5 MP or smaller so it doesn’t take very long to import photos from most of the SD cards.

I do no or very little processing on the photos, and none of that is done in the iPad.

I don’t know if there’s any way that you could try a typical SD card from your DSLR on an iPad Pro to see if the USB 3 speed helps with the slowness you remember. I hope that someone who does the things you do will have some input for you. My use is very specialized so not all that helpful, I’m afraid.

 

[muzzy996]

I don’t know if there’s any way that you could try a typical SD card from your DSLR on an iPad Pro to see if the USB 3 speed helps with the slowness you remember. I hope that someone who does the things you do will have some input for you. My use is very specialized so not all that helpful, I’m afraid.

Still helpful actually. If iOS 12 has made a difference perhaps I should try taking another shot at it.

Thanks!

 

[sparksd]

Still helpful actually. If iOS 12 has made a difference perhaps I should try taking another shot at it.

Thanks!

Do you have the newer reader that supports USB 3 speeds?

 

[Donka]

Do you have the newer reader that supports USB 3 speeds?

I have that one. That and the 2nd gen 12.9 or the 10.5" Pros both make full use of it and there is a noticeable improvement on import speed.

 

[sparksd]

I have that one. That and the 2nd gen 12.9 or the 10.5" Pros both make full use of it and there is a noticeable improvement on import speed.

Yeah, I upgraded my reader when I went from the Air 2 to the 10.5 and it makes a tremendous difference.

 

[LibbyLA]

Still helpful actually. If iOS 12 has made a difference perhaps I should try taking another shot at it.

Thanks!

iOS 12 made the following improvements in the import process as I use it:

• The import process “sees” all photos on the card. Earlier versions of iOS lost every 101st photo. Apple tech support appeared to be unaware of the problem until I brought it to their attention. I confirmed with multiple SD cards, both iOS 10 and iOS 11, all three of my iPads. Not only does it recognize all photos, it reports how many are on the card.
• While the photos are being imported, there’s a pie-chart thingie that shows import progress, along with a countdown showing the actual number of photos left to be imported.
• Instead of just showing “Last import”, toward the bottom of the Albums view is an Imports album that shows all imports, grouped by the SD card imported. This makes it easy for me to select all for any given card (or all) to delete all the photos after I’ve transferred the favorites to my desktop computer.

These may seem insignificant, but for me, they are the difference between something that really doesn’t work that well and something that works as it should. I just wish there would be a mini-sized iPad with the faster port because the Mini 4 size is more convenient, but the slowness is not.

 

[muzzy996]

Based on what has been described above and the update to USB 3.0 speeds I really need to get a new adapter and try this for myself on my 2nd Gen 12.9. Thanks all !