How to transfer photos from Samsung Galaxy SII to the PC – update Nov. 10, 2013

Since posting my little how-to back in March, 2013, I’ve had a number of people commenting that the instructions did not work for them. With help from other commenters, and a lot of time on the technical forums, I’ve seen a pattern emerge. Basically, most of the problems are not to do with the Samsung phone itself, but with the Android operating system the phone uses.

In simple terms, Android is to the Samsung what Windows is to the PC, except that there seem to be far more versions of the Android – even within the same model of Samsung phone.

The original how-to I wrote works for Android version 4.0.3. ONLY.

To find out what version of the Android software your phone uses, go to Applications, then Settings, then About Phone [down the bottom of the menu list].

Now, if your version of Android is earlier than 4.0.3 – say 2.0 or 3.0 – then there is a good chance the reason you cannot transfer photos to the PC is because your phone came with only 1 cable. In these earlier versions, this one cable was supposed to work for both charging the phone and transferring data.

Over time, this cable can become slightly damaged. It may still charge the phone, but it can no longer transfer data.

The solution we [other commenters and I] have found was to try a dedicated data transfer cable. They are relatively inexpensive so worth a try. If the new cable works then you know the problem was with the cable rather than the phone.

Another problem we discovered was that for some versions, the process works BUT apparently you have to try it THREE times in a row before it ‘clicks’. I have no idea why that should be, but more than one commenter has said it works.

Finally, we have the issue of people whose version is more recent than 4.0.3. In particular, those running Android version 4.0.4.

Apparently, this version of Android does not have the USB option at all.

“Samsung removed the USB mass storage option in the ICS update, instead moving entirely to MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) for file transfers.”

http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-galaxy-s-ii-epic-4g-touch/191147-ics-4-0-4-morning-lost-usb-mass-storage.html

The ICS update mentioned in the quote above is the update to 4.0.4.

In searching for info on this Media Transfer Protocol [MTP] I stumbled across a workaround. Before people get too excited, however, this workaround is for the Samsung Galaxy S3 running the 4.0.4 software, not the S2. Moreover, the workaround is for transferring photos from the S3 to Linux, not Windows.

The core of the workaround seems to be to use the ‘Camera [PTP]’ option instead of MTP.

If you follow the link below, it will take you to a step-by-step guide [with screenshots] on using this workaround. The person who posted the guide is called Rocksockdoc, and the post is ‘permalink #12’, so you will have to scroll down a bit until you find it.

http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/713775-possible-move-files-t-mobile-samsung-galaxy-s3-linux-laptops-via-usb-cable.html#post5868475

Unfortunately I can’t experiment with the workaround because my version doesn’t support it, so I cannot recommend that anyone tries it. However if someone does try it, could you please let us know whether it worked or not? If the workaround works it could save a lot of frustrated users.

And last but not least, I’d like to thank everyone who commented on the original post. The success stories all made my day, and the not so successful stories motivated me to learn more about smart phones than I otherwise might have done. Thank you so much for your support.

cheers

Meeks