iPhone Photo Backup Suggestion

Here's a recent item from the NYT Times describing two devices that are designed to do this. Hope it helps.

Apple often does not play nice with non-Apple products.

What's your objection to clouds? One less thing you have to lug around. I like the Microsoft OneDrive service. 5GB for free and 50GB of only $1.99 a month. Best of all OneDrive doesn't screw around with video files like Google and DropBox do.

Michael - you bring up an important point. How do Google and DropBox mess around with video files?

Also I'm thinking (without really knowing) that this is one of the advantages that some Android phones have - the ability to save to a mini SD card or to hook up to a computer or extra drive directly via USB cable (??).

How do Google and DropBox mess around with video files?

They compress video files and change their format. When you download them back from the cloud it's never as a good a quality as the original file. In addition it's harder to stream the files with those two services.
OneDrive doesn't mess around with the original file and let's you stream in HD.

It would seem that the problem is that you are using an Apple phone. My (non-Apple) phone takes memory cards. I can save pictures to the memory card and, when I fills up, replace it with a new one and save the filled one (actually, I take the memory card out of my camera and put it in the memory card slot of my netbook. This way I not only save the picture, but I can put them in folders by the date and/or location while it is fresh in my memory).

But Apple sells their phones that have more memory for a lot more, more than that much memory would cost as flash cards, and they don't want people to buy the cheaper phone and use memory cards, so they don't give their phone memory card slots or make it easy to save to cards. The answer is - get a different phone or stop complaining.

Hmmmm, unless the original post was edited I didn't see any complaining going on.

OP are you opposed to cloud storage even as a temporary measure.? You can backup to iCloud and then get them off the cloud once your are home.

Also a quick search reveals this article Macworld UK]1

I've have not tried any of them but maybe worth a look.

I bought one of these SanDisk USB-lightning adapters with 32GB RAM. I copy photos from my iPhone (and my wife's) and then delete the photos on my iPhone if Im running out of space. When we get home we transfer it to our hard drive.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-ixpand-32gb-usb-3-0-lightning-flash-drive/5061603.p?skuId=5061603

There are lots of options like the San Disk plug in flash drive in various sizes up to 128GB. So, now your iPhone can have more memory that you can easily swap just like a memory card when it fills. :-)

Thanks for the info on the San Disk drive. Although I have not (yet) had issues with running out of space on my iPhone, I might since I am thinking about doing video on my next trips. The 128GB flash drive I just got allows video recordings to be written directly to the flash drive in full HD. Can't wait to try it out.

I used one of these on my last trip:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-MobileLite-Wireless-MLWG3/dp/B019PY0ORK/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

I used it to view and move media files around with no computer or Internet connection required. I typically did my backups and file transfers on the train. Works with USB sticks, SD cards, or, if you have a lot of large files (like GoPro footage) it even connects to any portable USB-powered hard drive.

To address your specific question, it lets you offload photos from your smartphone without needing to connect to the cloud. It's all controlled with a free app. So it essentially enables virtually unlimited storage of iPhone photos (onto SD cards or USB sticks), which is handy if you get that annoying message that there's no more space on your phone when you're not connected to the cloud and you want to still take more photos.

Plus, it functions as a battery backup for your phone, a wireless hotspot for multiple devices when you do have an internet connection, and can even stream media to multiple devices (nice if several people all want to watch movies that you have downloaded and stored on HD or SD card.)

I carry an iXpand external drive made by ScanDisk. It's about 1/2 inch long and plugs into my iPhone or iPaid charging port. I backup all my photos on it.

I used a Leef iBridge to consolidate the photos off of three iPhones on our last trip. Works like a charm. Got mine refurbished from Leef on ebay. But here are the specifics. http://www.leefco.com/ibridge

For me, the biggest issue with cloud storage is the difficulry of finding fast wifi while travelling. I take a lot of high resolution photos each day. Uploading them using slow free wifi would take too much time.

I also use a cheap, old, lightweight netbook to do the job.

Google Photos is working great for me. Moved all the photos on my iPhone to the app. Allows me to share through various social media outlets and reproduces photos without any degradation, at least that I can see.