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Transfer Photos from iPhone wirelessly using SSH

By on August 10, 2008 in Posted In: iPhone

Sometimes I’m really tired of the way that we are required to synchronize files between iPhone and computer through the dock and iTunes. Particularly, when I just want to copy a couple of photos from my iPhone. There is no other way to transfer file to/from iPhone. Why can’t we transfer file using the built-in Wi-Fi?

In my previous post about transfer ringtone from iPhone wirelessly using SSH, I wrote about how we can use SSH (of course, it only works for jailbreak iPhone) to transfer ringtone through Wi-Fi. Actually, you can use the same method to transfer photos (or any types of files) from your iPhone without using the dock.

If you do not know about SSH on iPhone, you can refer to my previous post that you’ll find procedures about SSH installation.

First, connect to your iPhone using SSH. For Mac user, you can use Cyberduck to make the connection. If you’re Windows user, you can download WinSCP for free.

After you connect to your iPhone, go “/User/Media/DCIM/100APPLE” folder. All your photos in camera roll are stored in this folder.

Camera roll photos

You’ll find two file types in the folder. You just need to download those with “.jpg” extension. Those files with “.thm” extension are thumbnail images.

Here, I’d like to thank my wife that she’s really smart to discover the folder that stores the iPhone photos.

About Simon Ng

Founder, developer and chief blogger of simonblog.com
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  • jamal

    hi there i found the folder but when i transfered photos from pc in “/User/Media/DCIM/100APPLE and then open photos on iphone nothing is there my iphone is jailbroken 2.0.2 please help

    thanks

  • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

    Did you also create “.thm” file? This is the thumbnail version for your image (jpg file)?

    • Michelle

      Where do I put the .thm file I created?

  • tim

    for me it saves in private/var/mobile/media/dcim/100apple

  • John

    I have private/var/mobile/media/DCIM but I don’t have the 100apple folder all I have is a .MISC folder… but I can’t seem to find the right directory.. I copied my photos under just DCIM folder and nothing.. I created a 100apple folder and nothing, I copied it to the .MISC folder and nothing either… any ideas here?

  • Jones

    Hi Simon,

    Previously I have photos (all nicely sync with iTunes into separate folders) in my iphone 3G but after my computer harddisk crashed and loses all the photo backup . How can I transfer my photos in the phone back to my computer in normal jpeg format? I tried several softwares found on the internet (e.g. Tansee, 4Media, DiskAid, etc) but none works so far…

    Pls advise. Thanks!

  • Rob

    I tried transferring photos to my phone using this – BAD IDEA apparently…
    Not sure if it was because I didn’t create matching thumbnail images or something else, but it seriously messed up the springboard, and when I restarted, the phone refused to go past the boot logo…
    I had to put my phone into DFU mode and restore it with iTunes eventually.
    I’d think twice before messing with however Apple stores these photos, if I were you.

  • http://manageipodphotos.wordpress.com Willy

    Thanks for this article. However I am wondering whether it is safe or not?

    If you want more info on how to manage your iPod and iPhone photos, I would recommend you this blog:
    http://manageipodphotos.wordpress.com

    From what I read, I downloaded CT Photo which is a cool app to transfer photos to the computer and create albums folders on the iPhone.

  • http://tiinacious.blogspot.com T

    hi there. thanks for this post. i found it when i was panicking about not being able to find my photos! for some reason the pictures in my phone don’t show up in iphoto anymore! i’m sure i’ll have to restore it or something. anyway, my iphone is jailbroken so i tried SSH’ing over to the other directory that someone posted in the comments but that was empty for me. so luckily i found your post suggesting an alternate directory and so i was able to SSH over to that directory and i found my pictures. thank you!!

  • Randy

    hi! i need help with my iphone when i install any themes from cydia n launch it thru winterboard but the icon that shows on my springboard it’s not complete n some of it is not working.pls guide.

  • Jarin

    Hey I found another iPod/iPhone manager named copytrans manager.
    This video on YouTube shows some key-features:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grm1VuetO5c

  • Dusty

    This just came in handy, thanks bud!

  • http://www.theolternative.com Matteo Rossi

    You might be interested in a recently added iPhone app. It’s called WiFiPhoto. You can pick and download multiple photos in a single zipped file to any computer over a local network in WiFI. You can set compression quality to fit your needs. Hope it helps.

    • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

      @Matteo, thanks. I’ll check it out.

  • Phil

    I always use http://electrica-ms.mures.rdsnet.ro/ as ssh-client , would it be possible to do this with that client ?

    • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

      @Phil, the web version of SSH client may not work. I suggest you to download WinSCP, which is a free SSH client. You can check out this complete guide to learn how you can transfer file using the application.

  • Dave

    I am currently on a 3.1.2 jailbroken phone,

    under User/Media/DCIM/100APPLE there appear to be no .thm files and adding them does not help the transfer. What is interesting is that the number beside the album name (camera roll) increases every time I add a picture but nothing shows up in the album.

  • Violiance

    PuTTy may be good SSH-client for a little more expert users.
    PuTTy is Open-Source and free.

    • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

      Yes, putty is another great SSH client. Thanks for sharing.

  • neige

    I wonder if Apple has changed the way it handles photos and thumbnails. When I look on the web, I hear people talking about MISC folders and .THM thumbnail files. I have a iPhone 3GS running 3.1.3 and I can’t find any such files with SSH or with viewers like PhoneView.

    I am able to swap pics from my camera to my Mac sans problem using OpenSSH, but if I try to put photos back onto the iPhone, there aren’t any thumbnails on the phone, just a black icon for a thumbnail.

    Any ideas?

  • Bruno

    Simon,

    I know this is an old post but I was wondering if you could help me. I had the bad idea of deleting all files after moving them, but now it is now showing anything else on the Photo menu. If I try to take a picture, it does not appear anymore. Do you know if is there any hidden file or anything else when the default system is setted that I need to put back?

    Thanks in advance.
    Bruno

  • http://www.dennis-parsch.de/ Dennis

    Thank you! I just needed the path.

  • Dennis

    Hi Simon,
    Firstly thank you for taking the time to post all your tech answers. I am just about to do my head in with trying to connect opens ssh through winscp program.

    I have research all site forums and site for solutions and so far have no luck. These are my specs’;

    Iphone 4 on IOS 4.3.3 jailbroken with Cydia installed.(Working fine)
    Winscp 4.3.2 installed
    My pc runs on Windows 7
    Iphone tunnel suite installed

    I get a error message “network error refused”
    I would appreciate if you could give me some simple step step instructions in simple terms not techo jargen. Please Please help me to connect my iphone to my pc.

    Thank you.

  • Jenni

    Question: I was in the process of upgrading to the 4 iOS update, and mid-backup there was a problem/error. I didn’t expect anything to go wrong and I had NOT saved my camera roll to my computer. It is missing from my phone and I don’t see them in my computer. :( It was over 500 pictures of my kids (I knew better than to not save them, I just forgot). I’ve researched online and I see that you might be able to use an “extractor” or they might be in my phones “flash drive”??
    I’d be willing to ruin my phone if needed… Any help?? Ideas??

    Apple says they are gone, but I’m seeing promising posts on the web.

    Thanks.

  • Corey

    Just wanted to thank you!

    I followed your info on how to install and use winSCP, and how to use ssh… and it was very easy – step by step instructions that were fool-proof (luckily for me!) and worked beautifully!

    Keep the ‘layman’ blogs comimg my friend!

    • http://www.simonblog.com Simon Ng

      @Corey,

      Thanks! Glad to hear you love the guide. Will try hard to keep all the guides easy to follow.

  • http://murlax.com Murali

    Thank you. Very useful post. I didn’t know which folder to check for my videos. Hail ssh. And hail jailbroken iPhones :D

  • Pingback: Transfer Photos from iPhone wirelessly using SSH | Hainesy's TechNotes Blog

  • antar

    how can u make the thumbnail file?

  • Derek

    Once connected to Cyberduck I transferred a “successful” .jpeg file from my mac to my iPhone. However once I looked in the photos of my iPhone library I didn’t see the photo. Any idea as to why?