Hi all!
An oldie but a goldie!
I've changed from S6 32g, to S6Eedge 64g since I was running out of space.
Now I need to transfer 4000 photos (sorted by date) to the new phone. A direct copy/move from PC converts all the created dates to the current date (ie when transfer was done) which as you can imagine screws everything up royally!
Ive tried and failed in many many many ways including:
FTP
Syncing programs from pc to phone
ADB push
WEBdav
Hail marys, and praying to every god out there
They all bugger up the dates...........
The ONLY ONLY way Ive found out that works is by zipping up the original files, transferring to new phone, and unzipping locally with Total Commander. ONLY Total Commander seems to be able to unzip and preserve the dates, all the other file managers and extracting programs (I tried 10-15) out there can NOT manage this. Total Commander probably works cuz im rooted, and it can use this.
HOWEVER this only worked with smaller directories, but my main pics folder is an 8 gig compressed zip, and when I try the same way Total Commander only manages to unzip some 700 files and stops (anyone else come across this limitation?). So the only way I can manage is to zip up the original files in 7-8 different zip files and unzip locally individually, which is a big hassle.
Ive googled many threads on this problem, most of them were unresolved and some solutions refer to previous android versions or software and dont work anymore.
I'm hoping that you all dont spend four days setting up a new phone everytime ( home screen and app settings is a whole different drama! Thank you Titanium backup! iOS really has the jump on Andoird when it comes to changing phones...)
The only thing I can think of which I havent tried yet is USB OTG, since I dont have the cable. Anyone can confirm whether this method keeps the dates unchnaged?
So in your experience, whats the best way of doing this? How do you guys do it?
Why you need to store such a large amount of photos in your phone.
Did you try to sync to flickr or google photos?
Sent from my MI 5 using Tapatalk
I want to have immediate access, cant rely on patchy internet connection, areas without coverage (inside a lot of buildings, or basements) and can you imagine how much it would cost when roaming?
Everybody is talking about cloud cloud cloud, without taking account that its not a solution for all sitautions..
Update and for future help for people who will come across this issue.
I managed it!
I used Total Commander on the phone through the LAN plugin function, to access my backup folder on the pc, select all files and copy to local phone directory.
You need to initiate the copy from the PHONE on Total Commander, ie pull the files onto the phone, dont copy them by drag and drop from PC.
It took a while but it was done!
Dates and timestamps all preserved and correct!
k.aalai said:
Update and for future help for people who will come across this issue.
I managed it!
I used Total Commander on the phone through the LAN plugin function, to access my backup folder on the pc, select all files and copy to local phone directory.
You need to initiate the copy from the PHONE on Total Commander, ie pull the files onto the phone, dont copy them by drag and drop from PC.
It took a while but it was done!
Dates and timestamps all preserved and correct!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been trying to tackle this same problem over the last few days with no luck. I just tried total commander and it was unsuccessful. Was there anything special you did? Like you mentioned the entire copy process was initiated on the phone via total commander. However, I'm not rooted so I'm wondering if that's the issue...
k.aalai said:
Update and for future help for people who will come across this issue.
I managed it!
I used Total Commander on the phone through the LAN plugin function, to access my backup folder on the pc, select all files and copy to local phone directory.
You need to initiate the copy from the PHONE on Total Commander, ie pull the files onto the phone, dont copy them by drag and drop from PC.
It took a while but it was done!
Dates and timestamps all preserved and correct!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
I'm facing the same problem\task as yours and I want to know how did you transfer photos TO the PC with the file creation dates saved?
Has any of you tried compressing the images on your device to a zip file and then unzipping them on the PC?
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Hello its me, the OP.
Re your question about moving files from phone to PC, I used the usual way of plugging the phone into pc by USB, and simply copying from windows explorer. Things were ok for me like that.
Or as Ibuporfen said, try zipping the pics folder on the phone, transfer the zip file, and decompress on the pc.
I think the confusion here is the difference between CREATED and MODIFIED dates.
Try copying a file locally in windows ie from PC to PC, you see it always gets the current CREATED date and not the original date. I use the MODIFIED dates as my preferred sort method, which is the common sort option in many apps, so MODIFIED date is the one that matters to me.
Are you by any chance on the pc trying to sort by CREATED date instead of the MODIFIED? If proper sorting is what you are trying to achieve, is the created date critical for you? And if for some reason MODIFIED date column is not showing up, you can always add that column in the windows file explorer.
As a general update, my procedure now, for repeated use which I do about once a week, to have a current backup of the photos on the phone is as below:
1- Get "FTP server" (by olivetreesoftware, or any other ftp Server for android)
2- Get goodsync https://www.goodsync.com/ for pc
3- Setup a sync job from phone to pc over FTP (this was the only way I cold reliably get access to the phone and its files, cuz now the USB conncection is all about MTP, music files and that kinda of rubbish, which makes it really difficult to accesses it just as a disc.
4- This way I easily copy the files from my phone, to a backup folder on a pc so i have an uptodate backup, and every week or so when I run the program, the backup folder gets updated with all the deletions and additions that have happened on the phone! For copying BACK from pc TO phone, I still use the TotalCommander method, and I think to preserve dates, phone needs to rooted....
I had to this many times recently, since for some strange reason, there was a time that some system app (Samsung S6 Edge, never found which app or why) would suddenly change ALLLLLLLL the dates of ALLLLLL my pictures to the present moment, so you can imagine how that messed up all the sorting of the pics! I had to update my ROM and thankfully this bug has not appeared again. I still get some random changes when the seconds field is set to zero, but as long as the year/day/hours/minutes are not messed up, I can live with that.
Hope this helps!
PS Cant wait to upgrade my phone, to one with an SD card, so I don't have to go through all this rubbish!
k.aalai said:
Update and for future help for people who will come across this issue.
I managed it!
I used Total Commander on the phone through the LAN plugin function, to access my backup folder on the pc, select all files and copy to local phone directory.
You need to initiate the copy from the PHONE on Total Commander, ie pull the files onto the phone, dont copy them by drag and drop from PC.
It took a while but it was done!
Dates and timestamps all preserved and correct!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey where do you stay mate? Because Im about to come over to your place and KISS YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACE! ITS FINALLY WORKING! AFTER 3 DAYS OF GRINDING TO FIND A SOLUTION. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I have around 9000 plus photos that I keep with me at all times (from older iPhones, just jumped into the android bandwagon, which is why I had to do this), and its my only photo journal, and I need to access them based on the date and organization of the gallery. Its still transferring as I type this, but I know its working since I checked the gallery and the pictures that usually pop up in "today"'s folder, shows up in the right date.
Once again man, THANK YOU.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE STUCK:
Get Total commander
Get the lan plugin for Total commander:
Click on LAN, add in the static IP address, user name and password of the PC that contains the pictures you want to transfer.
Copy paste FROM THE APP itself! (Make SURE the folder that contains the pictures have the SHARE feature on in Windows.
I cant post links here yet so search for these on youtube:
'How to access files on Windows PC from Android"- by Busy Ping (I know its not Total Commander in the video, but it's the exact same process)
"Total Commander able to work around most SD write limitations in KitKat (tested on Note 3)" - By Android Police
Hope this works for you guys! Good luck!
You are welcome Vangelis!
A question though, are you on OREO, and if not are you rooted?
Cause the method/drama above is needed on pre Oreo phones, and works only on rooted devices (as I found out after lots of trial and error). The problem is/was lack of write permissions on non rooted devices, ie apps were not allowed to update the dates on files if not rooted.
I just came back to this thread to update it and add whats below, and I saw your post!
On my new S8 which I got in January, I couldn't be bothered with rooting etc, so I didn't have my pics on the new phone for a couple of months and just waited for OREO.
As I posted on an Oreo update thread elsewhere, this is now fixed on Oreo:
YEY! Finally got the XEU update!
And miracle of miracles, Google finally fixed the file write permissions, which means even when non-rooted you can copy files to the phone, and the file dates don't change. Which means that you can copy your pics etc from a PC to the phone and the file dates stay intact, so the sort order isn't screwed up! Only been waiting 4 years for this, since most phones removed the external SD card option! Now we have the SD card back, but for other apps like whataspp etc that still use the internal memory, this is finally fixed!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
However, some apps (filemanagers, filesync apps etc eg Airdroid) still dont do this properly, but totalcommander works perfectly. I still havent tried a direct copy from pc to phone (by usb cable) so no idea if this simplest method works now.
As a suggestions(same as in my previous post, Im still doing it since it works very well), this is my current setup for regular backup of all my phone pics to a pc :
Put an ftp server on your android, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver&hl=en
Get this app for your pc, https://www.goodsync.com/
On the goodsync app, add the directories on the phone you need backed up, plus the backup storage directory, and any additional options
Whenever you want to backup your phone pics, just launch the ftp app on phone, and through goodsync, backup all the new and changed pics etc to a pc hard drive through the WIFI (don't need to plug in the phone). Works great!
PS I copied my pics to the now OREO phone, first with the totalcommander through wifi (to check that it works now!), and then using a USB stick with the OTG adapter (since it was 13gigs, and then using totalcomamnder to copy from usb to internal memory). And it worked fine, so this is another method. You could also try putting a zip file on the phone and unzipping them there, which hopefully due to the fixed permissions should work also!
Hi there,
I have similar problem on my Huawei Mate 10 PRO, which runs on Android 8.0.0, with the security updates from 01.01.2018., kernel 4.4.23+. This phone has only the internal storage, no sd card. And when I am trying to copy/move files from external storage (i.e. with usb drive on OTG), then the files have the current date, the original is gone. I tried to change the date of file in the internal storage with total commander, and I get the error with no priveleges. Do you think, that this
And miracle of miracles, Google finally fixed the file write permissions, which means even when non-rooted you can copy files to the phone, and the file dates don't change.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have to be implemented in update for my phone and only this can solve my problem?
Hello there!
I have no experience with Huawei, so cant give you a perfect answer. As far as I found out the write privilege option was implemented in Oreo, so I assume that means from the first versions of Oreo.
I can suggest a couple of things though.
1- Zip your pics on the pc, and then put the zip file on the usb card, and try unzipping to the phone (using totalcommander) . If it doesn't work, try copying the zip file first on to the phone memory and unzip from there
2- Use totalcommander to copy the files on to the phone using the network method as mentioned previously.
PS on further thoughts, try copying a file ALREADY on the phone, to a different directory, and see what the date is on the copied file. If I remember correctly, before the Oreo update, when I copied a file (instead of move) it always got a new current date, but now when I copy it still retains the original date. By checking this, you can find out if your Huawei, will or will not let an app set the date when performing a copy/move operation.
worked like a charm thanks!
Setting up sync job is confusing
k.aalai said:
Hello its me, the OP.
Re your question about moving files from phone to PC, I used the usual way of plugging the phone into pc by USB, and simply copying from windows explorer. Things were ok for me like that.
Or as Ibuporfen said, try zipping the pics folder on the phone, transfer the zip file, and decompress on the pc.
I think the confusion here is the difference between CREATED and MODIFIED dates.
Try copying a file locally in windows ie from PC to PC, you see it always gets the current CREATED date and not the original date. I use the MODIFIED dates as my preferred sort method, which is the common sort option in many apps, so MODIFIED date is the one that matters to me.
Are you by any chance on the pc trying to sort by CREATED date instead of the MODIFIED? If proper sorting is what you are trying to achieve, is the created date critical for you? And if for some reason MODIFIED date column is not showing up, you can always add that column in the windows file explorer.
As a general update, my procedure now, for repeated use which I do about once a week, to have a current backup of the photos on the phone is as below:
1- Get "FTP server" (by olivetreesoftware, or any other ftp Server for android)
2- Get goodsync https://www.goodsync.com/ for pc
3- Setup a sync job from phone to pc over FTP (this was the only way I cold reliably get access to the phone and its files, cuz now the USB conncection is all about MTP, music files and that kinda of rubbish, which makes it really difficult to accesses it just as a disc.
4- This way I easily copy the files from my phone, to a backup folder on a pc so i have an uptodate backup, and every week or so when I run the program, the backup folder gets updated with all the deletions and additions that have happened on the phone! For copying BACK from pc TO phone, I still use the TotalCommander method, and I think to preserve dates, phone needs to rooted....
I had to this many times recently, since for some strange reason, there was a time that some system app (Samsung S6 Edge, never found which app or why) would suddenly change ALLLLLLLL the dates of ALLLLLL my pictures to the present moment, so you can imagine how that messed up all the sorting of the pics! I had to update my ROM and thankfully this bug has not appeared again. I still get some random changes when the seconds field is set to zero, but as long as the year/day/hours/minutes are not messed up, I can live with that.
Hope this helps!
PS Cant wait to upgrade my phone, to one with an SD card, so I don't have to go through all this rubbish!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even after setting up right and left folders i keep getting errors. Can u kindly give me a link or guide me how to set it up ?
will this lan method also work for normal files ? i.e. non pic files such as .m4a voice recorded files, pdf files, word, excel files etc...
thank you
Maybe a quick update from me: after switching phones I installed Whatsapp and it reloaded all media (animated gif, pics and video) from it's own backup store. And all the dates were 31 May 2018. I copied these Whatsapp folders to my linux pc over wifi using Ghost Commander and the SMB plugin. Works similar to TC, no root required.
Now the neat trick: because the date (and sometimes the time) is in the filename, I could reset dates to the original with a oneliner using touch.
After that, copied the folders back with Ghost Commander (replace always) and all was set
---------- Post added at 12:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:34 PM ----------
[email protected] said:
will this lan method also work for normal files ? i.e. non pic files such as .m4a voice recorded files, pdf files, word, excel files etc...
thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely (with Ghost Commander, but TC will be the same I expect). I have copied MP3 and M4A files, .epub files, etc....
have been tryin to get my 4000+ photos to my iphone since last week. just figured out this easiest way to do this. Using the Documents app wont show the correct date and time the photos were taken. Using a .zip file wont work either. If u have the correct dates n time on the files u have on ur pc, download SHAREit to ur pc and iphone. Connect both to same wifi and probably i dont have to tell u guys how to do a file transfer.
If the dates are wrong on the files on the pc, download File Date Corrector n fix the dates.
Cheers!
We're all trying to do the same thing! It's amazing an easier solution doesn't exist off-the-shelf.
So I've just been through the same process coming here late in the game. Like you guys I've been trying to copy images from my OnePlus 3 to my new OnePlus 6 without changing date information. And here's what worked for me :
I installed RAR on both phones from the Play store. I connected an external USB memory stick using an OTG cable. As I am using Oreo I had to enable OTG from the top menu on both phones (I added the OTG option using the top menu editor) before the phones would see the external memory.
Then the process was really straightforward and extremely fast: I created RAR archives for groups of folders from the source phone directly on the memory stick - I had to give it permission to access the external drive - then I moved the memory stick to the new phone, copied the RAR archives to a temporary folder on the phone and finally expanded the contents directly back to their correct positions in the file system.
I can't believe how fast it has been compared, for example, with trying to use SuperBeam over WiFi which also changed file dates and seemed to remove exif data from images making it impossible to index them. Gbytes copied in seconds rather than minutes.
k.aalai said:
PS I copied my pics to the now OREO phone, first with the totalcommander through wifi (to check that it works now!), and then using a USB stick with the OTG adapter (since it was 13gigs, and then using totalcomamnder to copy from usb to internal memory). And it worked fine, so this is another method. You could also try putting a zip file on the phone and unzipping them there, which hopefully due to the fixed permissions should work also!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely works with a zip file unzipped using totalcommander on oreo.
I just copied a zip file from pc to phone via normal usb cable.
Then unzipped to the right folder. All dates modified correct.
Works like a charm and very easy.
Finally!! after a long time suffering with zips i accidentally found a program that saved all my pics/videos with modified dates correctly. Fast and you can use in portable mode.
Best find of the year so far! :victory: :laugh:
Download here: fosshub.com/MyPhoneExplorer.html
1 - Connect your device via USB with debug enabled
2 - Click on the Sync icon (or F1) to find the device
3 - Go to Files and choose the folder you want to save
4 - Click on the icon Download files... and choose the destination location
5 - Enjoy!!!
PS: By default it keeps a copy of everything saved in cache folder, to delete go to Settings> Advanced 2 and mark Delete filecache on exit.