[digiKam-users] --> Import from Android: lots of general photos

[Remco Viëtor]

On lundi 20 février 2023 07:26:22 CET kaizubg at gmail.com wrote:
> la, 2023-02-18 kello 18:07 -0300, Alex Antão kirjoitti:
> > Hi,
> > 
> >    I'm new on Android stuff and need some help importing my photos
> > from it.
> >    I have a Samsung phone. When I plug it, I have 2 basic options to
> > transfer my photos. One of them is File Transfer, and if I choose
> > this, Digikan show ALL files on phone, including MP3 and other stuff
> > I think it shouldn't. But it a lot of files mixed with the real ones
> > and it turns very dificult to choose the right ones.
> >
> >      THe other option is Image Transfer. This limits the files to the
> > images and videos, good, but it still show a lot of images. I can see
> > on the list duplicated images, one of then is very small in size,
> > like 50kb, and I think it's kind of a thumbnail generated by the
> > phone. On the begining of the list, I always have a lit of images,
> > and I thing they come from several applications, they are not on the
> > Galery App, including, some images has WA on it's name, and I think
> > it was generated by WhatsApp...
> > 
> >      It's very annoying, having to filter all those images. 
> > 
> >       Is there a way I can show only the images I need ? Hide All of
> > those junk ?????
> >       There's no way I can filter by size or other thing on import
> > window...
> > 
> > THanks...
> >   
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I have observed the same issues with digiKam imports from a mobile
> phone. The current state very sub-optimal indeed.
> 
> My personal solution is to use Rapid Photo Downloader software. RPD has
> better functionality in filtering the files by source location folder
> and/or by  date, also by ignored folders. I import the photos into
> date-based folders on my laptop. From there digiKam loads the images
> into the database. This functions and you get your work done. 
> 
> RPD has also some shortcomings: no RAW photo viewing or no photo
> deleting on the mobile phone. These would be nice to have at hand.

Deletion is dangerous: if something happens after transfer and deletion from 
phone, and before you can backup your PC, you can lose (a lot of) images. So 
"delete while importing" isn't the safest method.

> According to my understanding digiKam has all these bits and pieces in
> its code base. However these are not packed into the import dialog
> where these could be needed. Most likely this yields into a bigger
> revision of the digiKam import tool. I would welcome this.
> 
> -Kai   
> 

There are a few things to keep in mind:
- not all phones allow the same access to the underlying file system, so that 
limits what software can do;
- digikam is originally a Linux program; one of the basic philosophies in use 
there is "one tool per job", so the habit is to use several programs, each 
designed to do one task well;
- digikam does not have a big (paid) staff of developers, so there are limits 
to what can be done;
- developers are unpaid volunteers, so they work mostly on what interests 
them...

In this particular case, you could e.g. use RPD to transfer the images from 
the phone to your image directory on the PC, then use digikam for selection 
and culling.
I found it's actually faster and a lot more comfortable to do the culling from 
within Digikam *after* importing. Just mark images to be deleted with a red 
flag, doubtful ones with yellow, keepers with green. Then do a bulk delete of 
the red-flagged images.