Re: Transferring contents of a large folder (eg 3000 photos) from Android to Windows 10

On Sat, 7/19/2025 6:05 AM, NY wrote:

My mother has a lot of photos (both taken on her Android phone's camera and received as attachments in WhatsApp) which she wants to transfer to her Windows PC for permanent storage and backup to a USB HDD.
 
The phone is Android 14, Samsung Galaxy A13 SM-A137F/DSN. The PC is Win 10 Pro.
 
The obvious way would be by USB cable, such that the phone appears as a "pseudo disk drive" in Windows Explorer and files can be selected for copying/moving. I know about the various USB modes: "Transferring files/Android AUto", "USB tethering", "MIDI", "Transferring images", "Charging phone only". Of these, only the two "Transferring" options would seem to be relevant. "Transferring photo" only shows the DCIM folder; "Transferring files" also shows Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media/Whatsapp Images.
 
However Windows 10 (unlike Windows 7) seems to crash Explorer as it is gradually transferring the list of files (not the files themselves) in a selected folder (eg DCIM) order to populate the Explorer window so files can be selected.
 
On Win 7, even a folder with a large number of files (photos), as seen by Windows Explorer, gradually (slowly!) populates with filenames/icons and then allows them to be selected and copied.
 
Unfortunately this phone only has internal storage, so it's not even possible to copy files to Micro SD card in the phone and then remove it and put it in a card reader on the PC.
 
Is there is way around this?
 
Files can be transferred in small quantities as email attachments, but with a folder of 2000+ files, that will take forever. And it needs to an ongoing process, not just a one-off process: as she takes new photos into the DCIM folder or receives them to Whatsapp, she wants to transfer the new files to Windows.
 
And above all, it needs to be a SIMPLE solution because unlike a Windows PC, I can't connect to the phone remotely by TeamViewer. (I live 200 miles away.)
 
There are various solutions that transfer by Bluetooth but they also seem to be geared up for selecting fairly small batches of files.
 
 
Is there a known problem (and solution!) with Win 10 viewing the contents of a folder on Android via USB if there are a large number of files to be enumerated before copying?

Considering there was a very similar issue raised upthread, as
a person who does not own a phone, I would be using my "unreliable transfer"
methods for the job.

The question is, does the phone have a way to make an archive file ?
This could be a TAR (tape archive) file. It could be a ZIP file
(as ZIP is semi-standard, and there are occasional issues with
the >4GB problem and older versions of ZIP). It could be a 7Z file
(which would reduce the temporary storage space needed on the phone
but would be slow if selecting Ultra Compression). The images might
not compress all that well.

You could set up FTP on the computer end, to give the various
phone methods another "push" option. Maybe a Wifi protocol would
have slightly better performance than the USB2 (and mainly because
"not using MTP", not just because the link runs at a different speed).
File Sharing might work. FTP might work.

You have to consider:

1) User skill set ("user should be mailing the fool pictures to themselves" :-) )
2) Physical links available. MTP over USB. Android ADB bus. wifi.
3) Protocol options. Private sync. MTP. FTP. File Sharing.
4) Phone resources (starved for storage is not going to help matters)

Can the phone be a bus master to a USB stick ? Does it understand
USB Mass Storage protocol ? Maybe if it doesn't have an SD, but
does have a USB, the USB could be used for a USB stick. Anything
to get away from MTP protocol.

You'll notice the article here, makes the USB interface "clunky at best".
It does not mention anything at all about hierarchical copy, only
some idiot tick box copy method.

https://support.google.com/files/answer/9301516?hl=en#zippy=%2Ccopy-a-file

Apparently MyPhoneExplorer, if you have copies on either end, has some
sync protocol. But I don't trust stuff like this, particularly.

My Digital Camera doesn't use MTP, and this makes copying the new files
off it, particularly easy.

   Paul