Easily Back Up Your Memory Cards To External Drives With This OTG Cable Hack

August 9, 2015 by Udi Tirosh 17 Comments

When you shoot multiple cards, usually the workflow is to unload them once you get back to home base. This is usually enough, but if you want to be absolutely on the safe side (or just want to empty your cards) you have two common solutions: use a laptop to transfer the files or use something like the $219 WD My Passport Wireless hard drive that comes with an SD slot.

Reader Sasha Stojkovich just sent in this clever tip that enables a backup from practically any card to practically any portable hard-drive. The secret sauce? An OTG card reader with a USB hub built in.

The idea is quite simple, instead of backing up a memory card to a computer, use your smartphone as a file browser to transfer files from a card reader to an external hard drive. This is kinda like Norton Commander if you’ve been here long enough. If not, than any file managing utility like ES file explorer (or FileExplorer for iOS) should do.

Since external harddrives are small, portable and as cheap as $50/1TB , backing up now becomes significantly less of a headache.

The nice thing about Sasha’s hack is that is also enables connecting an external battery to power the drive via a Y-cable.

The specific brand that Sasha uses can be found here, but other, similar, devices can be found on Amazon, and Chinese sites like BangGood or DealExtreme.

Yea, I know that this may not technically be a hack, deal with it.

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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Rick

What part of installing an app and plugging in an external drive constitutes a “hack”?
- udi tirosh
  
  I see you did not read all the way through
  - Rick
    
    You would be correct. When I realized this was nothing more than what I posted elsewhere (http://goprouser.freeforums.org/card-backup-using-android-devices-t17195.html) nearly a year and a half ago, I stopped reading. By hack I though maybe someone had found a way to improve upon a system that is cumbersome at best.
    - Rick and Trump are dicks
      
      Rick: you’re kinda of a dick. No one saw your post or cared. The author was trying to restate the concept. Unless you’re the first person to think of this which I slightly doubt then he doesn’t need to cite you.
      - Walden James
        
        Can I also point out that besides being a bit of a dick, his claim is unfounded considering the LINK IS BROKEN. (insert lol fail meme here)
      - Rick
        
        Auto linking grabbed a “)” it shouldn’t have. If you knew how to use a computer you would have known that.
        
        http://goprouser.freeforums.org/card-backup-using-android-devices-t17195.html
      - MikeDF
        
        Crikey guys, is it really worth getting your handbags out for this?
      - Rick
        
        Maybe so, but I have much nicer hair. :)
Paul Menard

wonder if it goes through the phone, or direct
- Rick
  
  Yes, it passes through the phone’s processor.
Garrett Jimenez

Is there anything similar for iPhone/lightning or could the Lightning to usb connector connected the hub with as card reader work?
- Nick Holliday
  
  My experience with a pre lighting iPhone (the 4s) is that you can only use a card reader with it if it’s jailbroken. I haven’t tried since, but presumably it would be the same.
  - TheInconvenientRuth
    
    There actually is an “Apple SD card to lightning adapter” for iOS devices with lightning port, that allows you to transfer jpeg, gif, tiff files, RAW files and movies. But it only seems to work reliably with the newer iPad and iPad mini. Make sure to check the compatibility list on the apple store site, it does NOT work with any iPhone. And it only works if you use SD cards that store the images in a folder named ‘DCIM’, otherwise it can’t find the images. And note that RAW files take a long time to find/preview/transfer. If you only use jpeg it should be fine. But for me it workd flawlessly for backing up my travel pics from my Fuji x100t.
- Aaron Villa
  
  I’ve used thisKingston Digital 5-in-1 Mobile Companion to do the same thing on iPhone. Haven’t tested it on huge amounts of data. http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-Companion-Expanded-MLWG2/dp/B00KU2E9IW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1439249955&sr=1-1&keywords=kingston+mobilelite+wireless+g2
Gabriel Lewy

Very nice idea. I ordered similar hardware and could try it out today. I had a concern, that my Sony Z3 Compact will recognize my NTFS-formatted external hard drive. Of course it didn’t because Android doesn’t support the NTFS file system natively. :(

If you have a rooted device, NTFS is no problem anymore. But I don’t have a rooted device and actually don’t want to root….

But there is a solution! :)

The app “USB plugin for Total Commander” can be used on unrooted devices. It works perfectly, when you use Total Commander for copying.

Here’s the link to the app in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paragon.tcplugins_ntfs_ro
RL

purchased an OTG to lightning adapter – purchased the FileExplorer App and can confirm that this method doesnt work with iOS apple phones
elellilrah

You can now backup your SD chips, CF cards, and MicroSD cards to an external Solid State Drive (SSD) using only your iPhone. With the new iOS 13 being released today, you can back up every card in the field without a laptop, PC, Mac, or whatever. I show it all in this single video, connecting every chip at once through my phone.
https://youtu.be/SnizmzqYvuk