Accessing network drive with an iPad

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Level 1

127 points

Accessing network drive with an iPad

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for an App (iPhone apps okay) that will allow me to copy photos from the iPad to a network drive.

I would like to use my iPad to store photos while travelling, and ideally I would like to have a second backup. I thought I could bring an Airport Express and a portable USB drive to create a remote network drive. I would then like to be able to copy photos from my iPad to that network drive.

I looked at the Apps "EZShare" and "iStorage" which seem like they might do what I need, but it was hard to tell for sure from reading their documentation. I tried "EZShare Files" (the free version), and I was able to copy photos to a storage location on the iPad and access those from my computer, but I wasn't able to copy directly to a network drive (which I did find and was able to browse). Maybe I need the "Pro" upgrade for that?

The iPad seems like a great photographers companion while travelling, but I shoot RAW and even my 64GB iPad will fill up on a longer trip. And even if it doesn't fill up, I feel much safer having as many backups of my photos as possible.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3), iPhone, iMac, iPod touch, iPad 3G, Apple TV

Posted on May 5, 2010 4:18 PM

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Answer 1

May 5, 2010 4:41 PM in response to Shadow99999

Try drop box, it's free.

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Answer 2

Shadow99999 Author

Level 1

127 points

May 5, 2010 5:24 PM in response to top_gizmo

Thanks, but I should have been more clear. I don't want to use an internet based network drive. I want to access a drive that is on my local network. The RAW files are 25Meg each and if I take 200 photos, that is 5GB of data. I don't want to push that kind of data to a cloud service.

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Answer 3

May 5, 2010 6:21 PM in response to Shadow99999

This might work for you: http://www.airstash.com/

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Answer 4

Gaffa

Level 1

26 points

May 5, 2010 6:31 PM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

That is very cool. I don't have a use for it, but that's cool!

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Answer 5

Shadow99999 Author

Level 1

127 points

May 5, 2010 7:34 PM in response to Jim VanLeeuwen

Thanks for the pointer ... it does seem like cool technology. However, it requires storing on SD cards. I'm looking for cheap and large storage (e.g. a $99 500GB Western Digital Passport drive). I already have an Airport Express, so if I could just create a network, connect my USB drive, and then transfer files to it, I would be happy.

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Answer 6

May 5, 2010 8:02 PM in response to Shadow99999

I've been looking for such a solution, too, but at a more casual pace. I've read a couple reviews so far, and the apps that seem to be pretty good at this are Air Sharing HD and Print Central for the iPad. I've not tried either yet, but you can read more at their respective websites.

Air Sharing
http://avatron.com/apps/

Print Central
http://mobile.eurosmartz.com/products/printcentral.html

There are some reviews available, too. And don't let the "Print" name throw you - it does file sharing, too!

HTH,

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Answer 7

Shadow99999 Author

Level 1

127 points

May 6, 2010 10:24 AM in response to Alphaman.

Thanks ... both of those Apps look useful!

Unfortunately, I also just figured out that the Airport Express does not support network drives which means I can't do what I was hoping to do. Oh well. I suppose I could use an NAS, but those are a lot more bulky.

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Answer 8

Avatron

Level 1

70 points

Jun 5, 2010 9:10 PM in response to Shadow99999

Hi. Dave at Avatron here. With any of these iPhone or iPad apps, including Air Sharing HD, that support SFTP/SSH, you can access other volumes on your network pretty easily.

Set it up once like this:

1. From your Mac, "Connect To" the desired file server.
2. Still on the Mac, turn on Remote Login in the Sharing preferences.
3. From Air Sharing HD, go to the servers list, and Add a Server.
4. Choose SSH/SFTP, and add your Mac.

Now you've set it up. Every time you want to connect, do this:

1. In Air Sharing HD, navigate to the Mac server you created.
2. Look in the /Volumes folder for the mounted file server.

Cheers,
Dave

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Answer 9

Jun 5, 2010 9:56 PM in response to Avatron

Dave,

I use your products every day, and love them. What the original poster wants to do is not take another computer on the road, but just an Airport Express, and some kind of storage. I think as long as that storage can be accessed via FTP or SSH, he should be fine. I use AIR Sharing HD to connect back to me FTP server at home, but I am not transferring such large files.

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Answer 10

kcisam

Level 1

0 points

Aug 6, 2010 8:36 AM in response to Shadow99999

I was wanting to do the same thing and access photos on my network drive from my ipad directly. Try Filebrowser for ipad and Netportal for iphone. There's a free netportallite app so you can test your connection before purchasing the full versions. It was very easy...I entered the name of my network drive (yes, name not IP!), id, and password and could see all the folders and files.

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Answer 11

ArKaX

Level 1

0 points

Oct 11, 2010 6:46 PM in response to kcisam

Hi Kcisam,

Thank you so much for let me know netportal, it works flawlessly browsing through network files across VPN.

Bye

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Answer 12

Jun 6, 2011 5:14 AM in response to kcisam

Hi Kcisam,

I am trying to get this Netportallite working on my iphone. I have a hard drive connected to my wireless router with a usb cable, i am using windows 7 and the hard drive it working find with it remotely.

I tried everything with netportal settings with my ip address etc to get it working and no luck. you seemed to get it working fine very quickly.

when you say full name of your network drive, what exactly did you enter?

Mine is Wd drive and it wont find it. even with entering my IP address.

any help would b great

Regards

Rob

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Answer 13

wsuranga

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Jul 7, 2012 6:52 AM in response to Avatron

Hi Dave,

I have been playing with your Air Display product a lot now and have been suitably impressed with what it has to offer. Just started using the Air Sharing to browse and transfer files between my ipad and the network drive. It does the job nicely.

Best regards

Suranga

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Answer 14

Jul 12, 2012 9:02 AM in response to wsuranga

HI Suranga

I'm interested to know if you have managed to transfer files FROM the iPad TO the Network Drive as your post appears to suggest. I'm new to the iPad (got an iPad 2 for my birthday) and have been trying to find a way to transfer edited photos from my iPad straight onto my Network Drive (Seagate usb drive connected to a BrightBox router). This would be the ideal solution for me as now I am an iPad convert I hate firing up the laptop and having to wait around to see if it's gonna play today! I've looked everywhere to try and find a solution but I can't find a clear answer so I'm hoping you have solved it although I'm not going to hold my breath. If you have can you let me know how you did it and what your set up is please.

Regards

RIchard

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Answer 15

wsuranga

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2012 1:03 PM in response to Richardcn

Hi Richard,

I am using Avatron's Air Sharing app to transfer my files between the iPad and the network storage.

I pretty much followed Dave's simple instructions above to setup a Server on the Air Display app. Here's what I did.

In my case, I have Western Digital Network Drive connected to my home WiFi network. This serves some shared folders with dedicated logins.

1) On Air Sharing app select the Plus icon from the top left. This will let you add a Server/Share.

2) From the list, select FPT (assuming you have an FTP server running on your network drive?) or SSH/SFTP if you have ssh access to the network drive. Of course this depends on how you are sharing the content on your network drive.

3) fill in the Description, URL (the ip address of your Network Drive). You can leave the user name and password blank so that the app will prompt you for the login details when you try to connect.

4) save the details and select the newly created Server/Share from the Server list which will prompt you for the login details and connect if all is good

Hope this helps.

Good luck

Suranga

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