[digiKam-users] How do you Import from Android phone on Windows?

[Gilles Caulier]

Hi all,

The camera recognition under Windows is more problematic than under
Linux/MacOS systems. Even if Gphoto2 library has been ported to
Windows by a RedHAt developer, it does not use the official WIA
interface but the libusb. This last one must be installed with admin
rights to work in place of the standard interface. This is not a
suitable solution. See the long story from this bug report :

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=398166

The alternative is to write a WIA interface in digiKam, using native
Windows API, as we do for Gphoto2 and USB Mass Storage camera under
Linux. See this entry for details :

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=412466

To be clear, this will not be a simple task. It's feasible but I would
prefer to find a student or a volunteer to guide on this topic, as I
have more tedious tasks in my pending list.

Gilles

Le mer. 30 mars 2022 à 14:42, frederic chaume
<frederic.chaume at gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> Hi Peter
>
> I tried the same and the only solution I found is to automatically
> synchronize my pictures from Android to a cloud (Google drive for
> example) , then use the menu "add pictures" in the import menu and
> select the folder of the cloud in your PC.
> Once done you can filter the "new added files" (menu in the bottom of
> the screen) and proceed with the import. On my side I also set the flag
> "marked as downloaded" for the ones I don't want to import (so it will
> not appear again as a new one)
>
> hope this can help
>
> regards
> Frederic
>
> PS : name of menu may differ from what you can see as I have translated
> the french menu I have
>
> Le 30/03/2022 à 14:29, Pete Lindgren a écrit :
> > Hi,
> >
> > Digikam 7.6.0
> > Windows 10 Pro
> >
> > I'm trying to import pictures from my Android phone into digiKam on
> > Windows but can't find my phone within the Import section of digiKam.
> >
> > When I plug in my Android phone it appears as a 'Device' under the
> > 'Devices and drives' section of 'This PC' in File explorer. If I put
> > the phone in PTP mode, the icon representing the phone is a camera,
> > and if I put the phone in MTP mode, the icon representing the phone
> > looks like a phone.
> >
> > In neither case does the phone appear as a removable storage with a
> > drive letter attached. Nor can I map a drive letter to it in the
> > typical way.
> >
> > In digiKam, I can't find any way to select the phone in the Import
> > options. When I click 'Import > Cameras > Add Camera Manually', I'm
> > presented with the Camera Settings pop up with the central camera list
> > blank. When I click the 'Add...' button, the resulting pop up also
> > shows a blank list. I can't specify the phone manually as a USB device
> > because windows doesn't give it mount path as such. And I can't choose
> > 'USB PTP Class Camera' as advised in the text of the pop up because
> > the camera list is empty.
> >
> > Any advice on how I can import from my Android phone on Windows
> > gratefully received.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Peter
>