Transfer Photos from iPhone wirelessly using SSH

by Simon Ng on August 10, 2008

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.

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Tagged as: iPhone, ssh, transfer-photos

{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }

1 jamal October 19, 2008 at 11:23 am

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

2 Simon Ng October 19, 2008 at 5:14 pm

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

3 tim November 29, 2008 at 6:12 am

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

4 John December 3, 2008 at 12:49 am

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?

5 Jones December 15, 2008 at 10:06 pm

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!

6 Rob January 7, 2009 at 12:20 pm

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.

7 Willy January 21, 2009 at 4:17 pm

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.

8 T March 23, 2009 at 9:31 am

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!!

9 Randy April 13, 2009 at 2:28 am

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.

10 Jarin May 13, 2009 at 4:29 pm

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

11 Dusty June 21, 2009 at 12:40 am

This just came in handy, thanks bud!

12 Matteo Rossi September 15, 2009 at 4:00 pm

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.

13 Simon Ng September 16, 2009 at 12:18 am: @Matteo, thanks. I’ll check it out.

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14 Phil October 22, 2009 at 9:19 pm

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

15 Simon Ng October 22, 2009 at 11:48 pm: @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.

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