Backup to NAS better than cloud when using slow broadband.
Photos get backed up from my Samsung Galaxy S4 to Google+ and via my Microsoft powered laptop to a separate local NAS box. This doesn’t work for the Samsung Chromebook as the laptop doesn’t recognise the presence of the phone when I plug it in. Also in any one month the photo storage requirement can easily exceed the storage available on the Chromebook – it’s a machine for the cloud.
As it happens when I got my S4 I also got 50GB of Dropbox space free for two years and the photos from the phone have been happily backing up to Dropbox. Why not if it is free? Of course this means that the internet bandwidth I use for backing up the pics has effectively doubled (ish – Google+ doesn’t upload the full size I don’t think).
Last night I downloaded September’s photos from Dropbox to my Chromebook. Dropbox zips the files so it isn’t ideal but it did mean that they were available on the Chromebook for me to drag into the upload box of the NAS box (Netgear ReadyNAS 2TB). Looks as if it has worked though the zipped file on the NAS is only 640MB compared with 1.6GB on Drive so will have to check the contents are all there. I don’t really want to zip the pics anyway. I want them easily accessible. I have plenty of storage space.
This is a bit of a long winded way of backing up locally. There has to be a simpler way of doing it. Also like I said before it also assumes you have enough free storage space on the Chromebook.
The one thing I’ve noticed during this phase of tyre kicking is that you really know when you’re connection is offline, even if it is only for a few seconds. Either my WiFi is not rock solid, which is believable or the FTTC connection is not rock solid, which is also believable. I don’t think I’ll be totally happy until I get FTTP.
I just had to reboot the Chromebook because it totally lost the WiFi hookup and there appeared to be no way of reconnecting it via the settings page.
11 replies on “Photo xfer from Samsung Galaxy S4 to NAS backup via Chromebook”
Thanks for posting your thoughts – interesting stuff.
I’ve talked a few people out of buying one of these! The price is great and I’m a Google fan.
BUT there are too many issues as you are starting to point out.
I’m still telling people it’s better to pay more and get a real laptop 🙂
Just read that again…
The trouble with your free (for 2 years) Dropbox space is that it will be a pain to move in the future. I guess that’s their plan and hope people will just start paying to avoid the pain!
Have you thought about moving the photos wirelessly (not via the internet) from your phone to your NAS? Lots of apps out there – something like Airdroid will let you access your phone from your Chromebook and you might be able to stick them directly onto your NAS…
Might be worth a look 🙂
Thanks HmmmUK. It is definitely worth looking at the app – in fact I was just doing that as you commented. As far as I’m concerned Dropbox isn’t going to be a long term storage source for my stuff.
Found a number of apps that might do the job. Unfortunately the Netgear one, which looks like the simplest functionality and which would appear to be what I need, comes with v poor reviews and isn’t straightforward to set up. These NAS boxes in any case seem to need a degree of sys admin skills.
Did you get a change to look at Airdroid?
I use this on Android phones and tables – it works well. A simple web interface so should be fine with your Chromebook.
It also has good reviews on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid
I did and downloaded it. Seems only to have 100MB a month allowance though & 1GB if you pay. unless I’m very much mistaken
I need to be able to do 20GB – 30GB a month
As far as I can tell that ‘allowance’ is only applicable if you are using a remote network and going via Airdroid’s server: http://forum.airdroid.com/discussion/10704/the-difference-between-airdroid-premium-and-free-users
If you connect using the local IP address I don’t think there are any limitations.
It could work great if you can pick up your photos via Airdroid from your Chromebook and them save them directly to your NAS drive – that’s what I would try to do.
Apart from using other similar wifi apps like Airdroid another option would be to use an Android FTP app – I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=lutey.FTPServer
I then use Syncback (my favourite backup solution – the free version does everything!) from my Windows PC to squirt my data all over the shop. But I’m not sure what you can do from your Chromebook end.
…OR
Forget about your Chromebook for backing up your phone and take a look something like
Upload 2 NAS – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rcreations.upload2nasUpgrade
I’m not familiar with this app but this or something similar sounds as if it would be useful for you 🙂
Managed to get ReadyNAS Remote for Android working though currently have to load pics individually which is going to be a real faff. It’s a start though.
The final solution was an app called Sweet Home – check the post out here http://www.trefor.net/2013/10/08/photo-backup-to-nas-box-solved-sweethome-android/