JPGs shrink when uploaded from iPad?

WD External and Portable SSD My Passport Wireless SSD
1

When I upload photos wirelessly to MPW from my iPad, the files on the MPW end up about half the size of the original - e.g an original file of 7.89 MB ends up as 3.82; one of 7.54 MB becomes 2.37.

Transfer from PC to MPW via USB seems fine, and my single attempt at transferring direct from SD also seems OK.

So far as I can see there’s nothing in the instruction manual (or even in these forums) which mentions this - can anyone shed some light on the issue?

Thanks!

2

That shouldn’t happen, and is not my experience.

How, exactly, are you transfering the photos from the iPad to the MPW? (Application and steps.)

Are these all photos that have been taken on the iPad?

Note also that when you view a photo from the MPW on an iDevice, a lower resolution version is displayed. To get the full size version you need to tap the “HD” item on the photo viewing menu. i.e. On the top bar when you have the lower resolution version displayed.

That shouldn’t be related to your issue, but you should be aware of it.

3

Photos have been (mostly) taken on an Olympus EM-5. I’ve just rerun the process so I could describe all the steps in detail as requested!

Photo transferred from camera to iPad via Lightning/USB connection, and then iPad connected to MPW through My Cloud app. This opens with left pane headed by " Public", and a list of folders beneath. Tap on  “. . .” at right top of this pane, and from the drop down menu which appears tap " Add Photo".  This then brings up a window with the photo albums on the iPad.

I select "Last import", then " Select all".

(As I select photos I notice there is a running tally of the number of files selected and the total size of the upload just below the Upload icon.  In this case I have selected only one photo, and I see “Upload (1/6.4 MB)”. Select another photo and I get “Upload (2/14.3 MB)”.  So far so good; deselect scond image so back to one file of 6.4 MB)

Now tap " Upload", wait a sec, and lo, the file name for the phot) now appears in the left pane of My Cloud.  At this point something has gone wrong! The file size is now shown as 1.9MB. What’s happened to the other 4.5 meg??

(Previous tests, as described in original post, show that in fact the file on the camera and on the iPad is in fact 6.4 MB, and the MPW copy is 1.9 MB.)

Hope that’s the sort of detail that’s wanted - and that it helps find a solution!

4

Okay, I can confirm that behaviour. It looks like My Cloud must be processing the JPG file before sending it to the MPW.

I tested using an iPhone 4 rather than an iPad, but My Cloud is basically the same on both, although the interface is a little different.

I transfered three files totalling 5.87MB and they arrive totalling 4.87MB. This is not very good at all. The files are being re-encoded and no doubt losing quality. The resolution stays the same, and all EXIF data is retained. So it looks like My Cloud is basicaly taking the image off the iDevice screen, re-encoding it and sending that to the MPW. Or it could be iOS is doing the re-encoding.

I think this issue would be worth taking up directly with WD Support. You should raise a ticket for it.

The alternatives include using a different App to transfer the files. I just tested File Browser and it transfered the images at the correct size. It looked like it just copied the files, which is what you would expect My Cloud to do as well.

The other alternative, which is what my partner and I do when we are travelling and backing up photos, is to use the Apple Camera Kit, as you do, to preview and view select files on the iPad, but also directly transfer all images from the DSLR SD memory card to the MPW using the built in SD card reader. That way we know for sure that the original, untouched photos are backed up onto the MPW.

It looks like the Olympus EM-5 also uses SD cards, so you could use this workflow. Not ideal, but it works. We shoot in both RAW and JPG at the same time, onto two SD cards, so it makes more sense for us, since My Cloud can’t use RAW files. The RAW images become the masters, and the JPGs the quick review images. You will find some other posts of mine around here talking about how we manage the images, copy speed and so forth.

Perfect level of detail by the way. I was able to follow exactly and replicate the problem easily.

5

Thanks for having a look at that - good to know it’s more general than just me and my setup!

As suggested I’ve raised this with WD support, so we’ll see what they make of it.

I’m surprised the issue hasn’t been reported before - I can’t be the only person transferring files from iPad to MPW - and if your suspicion about iOS re-encoding files is correct it should be a more general problem!

I’m just glad I found this before I entrusted a whole set of travel photos to MPW!

Thanks again!

6

mbl_2614 wrote:

I can’t be the only person transferring files from iPad to MPW

No, you’re definitely not.  But you’ve got an interesting corner-case – you’re uploading them FROM a camera TO the iPad – which gives you the ability to know what the size is in the originals.

If you’re taking photos off your camera rolls (snapped from the iDevice), you probably don’t know what the original file size is – unless you plug your iDevice into your computer and look there.

7

TonyPh12345 wrote:> If you’re taking photos off your camera rolls (snapped from the iDevice), you probably don’t know what the original file size is – unless you plug your iDevice into your computer and look there.

 

In my testing above I actually used photos taken on the iPhone, but checked their size via Windows Explorer first, then transfered them to the MPW where they were smaller. You are correct in that there is no way to check the size of the images on the iDevice, except perhaps using non-Apple Apps, like File Browser, which I also did.

Imagine all the people snapping away with their iDevices, proudly showing off how good they look on the iDevice, only to transfer them to another computer and feel they don’t look so good.

False conclusion: Apple make really good products and particularly great screens, so photos look better on an iDevice.

The truth: Apple reduce the size of photos on transfer off an iDevice, recompressing them in a lossy compression format, so they lose definition and clarity, and don’t look as good anywhere else.

I really hate Apple’s restrictive file management and access policy, but if the above its true… Law suits away!

8

The upload screen - the one where you select the images for transfer to MPW - shows the total size of the files to be uploaded (bottom right corner) - so if you just select one file, you can see what the size of the source file is regardless of where it comes from.
Can it be true that no-one (including WD engineers) has ever noticed the difference between the source file and the image on MPW before???