Getting Synced Photos off iPad Mini

[Photo Time]

Hello everyone, I could use some help.

I borrowed a friend's iPad Mini for a trip to Europe, and about half way through the trip all of my cameras' memory cards were full. I jumped on a computer at a hostel to transfer all of the photos to the iPad, with its 30GB drive. Not being an Apple expert, I guess I made a mistake and synced them from the PC I was on (I had first imported all of the pictures from the memory cards to the PC). I just got back and now I am trying to get these photos off the iPad.

I did some googling and most people recommend just using the Windows "Import Photos and Videos" option that first pops up when you plug in the iPad. I tried this, it only grabbed the photos I had actually created using the iPad itself (i.e. photos I had taken with the iPad camera or screenshots).

The photos I want to grab are in "albums", if that helps you.

I did find this discouraging text on the Apple website:

Pictures that have been synced from your computer to your device cannot be reimported back to your computer. Only pictures in the Camera Roll or Saved Photos can be imported from your device to your computer. If you need to retrieve synced photos from your device, email them directly from the device to yourself and then copy them from the emails to your computer.

support.apple.com/kb/HT4236?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US under "Additional Information"

All that considered, there must be some way to get them off! There are just over 3000 of these pictures, so emailing them one by one won't really work. Please help me.

Thank you

 

[Photo Time]

I ended up finding a program called iExplorer that did the trick. Unfortuantely, it looks like the resolution of the photos was decreased when I synced them from the computer to the iPad (7GB of photos are now 2GB of photos). For anyone who is thinking of using an iPad to store photos on a trip, I would not recommend it without looking into how it can be done safely beforehand.

 

[twerppoet]

It can be done. However syncing the photos from a computer using iTunes isn't the way to do it. This is an option that was meant for people who want to sync some albums from their computer to view on the iPad. As such, it optimizes the pictures for iPad viewing. In most cases that means making them smaller so that they don't take up more space than needed. It's assumes, since you re syncing, not copying, that you'll keep the originals on the computer.

Unfortunately there is a lot of misunderstanding around this feature, and that has caused a lot of heartache. Basically, iTunes is meant to sync content to your iPad from your computer, where you'll keep your originals intact. Using iTunes for anything else is pounding nails with a wrench.

The better approach is to use a camera connection kit. You can import your photos to the iPad directly from the camera or SD Card. These photos will be full sized and can be exported back off the iPad using a number of tools, the same as the Camera Roll photos.

The best approach, however, in my opinion, is to buy more memory cards. You can get a 32 GB SD card for pretty cheap. The iPad (or any mobile device) is a risky place to keep you only copy of something.