iPhone for camera, but transfer problem
 

I'd like to use our new iPhone as a 4k camera while on vacation. We were thinking of possible problems that could arise and one comes to mind, storage/backup/transfer when in areas with bad wifi or no cell service.

If we take a lot of 4k video as well as photos and start to run out of room there's no way to transfer the data onto another device since Apple relies on the Cloud/iTunes to do that which means a complete reliance on either decent wifi at a resort or cell service with unlimited data. Those two things are a problem when on islands in the South Pacific, in our experience. We usually bring our iPad with us, but don't know of a way to transfer the video/photos from the iPhone to the iPad (to use as a storage device) without needing internet or hefty cell service. Tech is not so good on some islands. Even the best resorts can have terrible wifi. It took 10 minutes just to email a couple photos from Bora Bora one time due to the poor wifi.

We normally don't use a cell phone when we travel to far away islands so we don't have experience getting a reasonably priced SIM for travel or temp plans. In order to upload a lot of 4k video and such it might not even be possible depending on how remote we are for certain areas of the world.

Is there any device that would create it's own local wifi in order to transfer data from an iPhone to the iPad or any other device you can carry with you when traveling to remote places? Or, is iPhone technology simply not there yet since it relies on cell service or internet (after all it is a phone). Maybe I need to forget about trying to use the iPhone for this and invest in a 4k camera, but we like to travel light and in fact only use carry-ons where ever we go. This latest iPhone really takes great 4k video when using an attached lense for wide angle. It is 64GB. Maybe I'm concerned for no reason and I won't run out of room and just backup everything once I return home. But, it does raise some questions that I'd love to hear an answer to regarding remote travel and what limitations it presents which mobile tech may not have answered yet.

You could use:
1. USB stick with lightning port.
2. Laptop

Thanks.

Any device that would suffice similar to a laptop, but much much smaller?

Amazing there's no way to hook the iPhone and iPad together via cable without having to use a laptop.

We travel light with carry-ons only and usually at carry-on max weight so the smaller the better. For instance, Air Tahiti Nui is very strict about weight and has even made us take clothes out of our carry-ons then layer them on top of clothes we're already wearing. So, we must be mindful of weight, but could resort to checking luggage if necessary.

Maybe - http://www.adorama.com/KGMLW221.html

Found the product I was looking for at the Apple Store. It's made by Sandisk and creates it's own local wifi so you can transfer from the iPhone to iPad or even directly to the Sandisk since it has 128GB storage. That should be enough to use as an extra backup for my iPhone videos and photos when on vacation. You have to set it up using a Mac or PC before leaving then it's ready to use. It's around $79.

What's sad is when I spoke to Apple customer service they didn't have any knowledge of such a device and assumed it was only possible using Internet or cell service. Maybe it's because they're only familiar with their own products, but they do sell this in store.

So long as your iPad isn't so old, you can just Airdrop between an iPhone and iPad. If you're somehow doing 4k video on an iPhone 6 I presume you're using some third party App. Not sure how it gets stored locally, and you'd want to ensure you can do this while at home successfully from that App.

But it's a built-in function. If you're willing to have your iPad as your storage, you don't need a thing.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204144

This is what I originally thought until my conversation with an Apple employee (tech support) who said it required a wifi network or cell service. Obviously, they hadn't had enough training to be familiar with product capabilities. Another employee (from an Apple store) also said it wasn't possible without an internet connection and then showed me the Sandisk product. They said it's not possible without a wifi network, which we won't have in some of our travels. But if the devices create their own isolated wifi between the devices without the need of a network (such as hotel provide wifi for instance) then this would be ideal as long as we don't have much on the ipad, like movies.

I'll test the iphone and ipad to see if it's a simple process to airdrop the 4k video to the ipad as storage without the need of an external wifi network or cell service. Thanks.

PS: The iPhone is a 6s and the iPad is the most recent generation.

My understanding (never tested) is that Airdrop uses Bluetooth to find each other, then creates a peer-to-peer wifi to make the transfer. So yes, it "uses" wifi, but I don't think it needs a wifi network. Just need both devices to ensure wifi is on. Just experiment with both in the middle of nowhere. We might all be right, technically.

The bigger issue might be the App you use. I'm less familiar with understanding what happens to a file on the receiving end once you accept it. Without a normal file storage system in iOS it's not exactly like you can "save" the file. You have to place it somewhere within an App (or use iCloud drive, which is not available for you). Thus, you also want to experiment using the actual Apps you plan to use to ensure you have a way to "open in" the 4k video App rather than having things go into something like Photos.

Your wifi hard drive might still be the better, smarter solution. I'd be nervous only saving materials "within" some third party App on an iPad. Something could go wrong with the iPad or even just the App itself that could result in loss of that App's data. If the only place you saved the data is within the App, it's all lost.

Great analysis. Since safe temporary storage is my main goal I'll stick with using the portable wifi hard drive instead of trying to transfer it to the iPad. Thanks.

Airdrop is a good suggestion. Didn't think of that before when I was running out of storage space on my phone.

I posted this on another thread but I use a wireless USB flash drive. My original post talked about storing movies (see below) but it works for anything. In the case of photos, just connect them (the Sandisk has it's own 'wifi' that you connect your phone to - no actual wifi network necessary - and then you just save your photos to it. It is exactly like a regular USB thumb drive except it connects wirelessly rather than plugging into a USB port. Here is my original post:

I bought a wireless USB flash drive last year. Holds a bunch of movies, documents, anything you want. Load it up on a laptop or whatever and then connect my ipad to it wirelessly wherever I am. I can watch a movie anywhere with no internet access needed; on a plane, on a beach, wherever. I bought it as I only ever travel with an ipad (no usb port) and I often need to edit, save and print documents. I save them to the usb stick and can take it anywhere to print from. But it comes in very handy for movies as well.

https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-...wireless-stick

This. I've got one of these and it works perfectly to make "just in case" backups from my iPhone while traveling. I take a LOT of pics and video with my iPhone while I travel so I'd be devastated if it got lost or stolen before it had the chance to back up via wifi to iCloud.

I should have followed up here with my report of success with the wireless wifi drive which worked well to back up/transfer from iPhone in remote islands. Takes some time, but worked very well and felt good to have backup storage. Just sat it next to the iphone and let it do the work.

This is what we bought at the Apple Store in accessories, made sure it was set up before we left home and it worked great: https://express.google.com/product/10999298927066103116_16077668808661941754_1057813? mall=WashingtonDC&directCheckout=1&utm_source=goog le_shopping&utm_medium=product_ads&utm_campaign=gs x&dclid=CJid4qLz1tsCFQIBPwod6a0P-w

We didn't have room to transfer to our iPad because we use that to store movies since the islands we go to have no English TV to watch, except for CNN which is NOT what I want to hear on vacation (never watch it anyhow). The wifi stick worked flawlessly and we had a lot of iPhone video too as well as photos. We travel very light and won't take a laptop either, so this device was perfect for our needs. Can get one up to 200GB.

Get the Documents app.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/docu...364901807?mt=8
This is a free app and can be used as a client and a server.
Install it on both iPhone and iPad, on the iPhone set it as a server (which is WebDAV: cogwheel => Wifi drive), on the iPad as a client in which you can use the builtin browser of Documents app to open the URL specified on the iPhone Documents Wifi drive.
Then you can download the photos from the iPhone to the iPad.
And Documents offers more: transfer to Windows computer (Windows share) and Mac or Linux (SFTP).

Today iPhone have a very nice camera. In the afternoon, quality is like that of DSLR.