My Sandisk WIFI Media Drive - first impressions

I was excited when Sandisk announced the Wireless Media Drive. The media playing features are secondary to me. I plan to use it to backup, archive, and preview photos while I am on vacation. I will not need to bring along a laptop PC for this purpose. I will backup and preview my photos on a 7" Android tablet . Since the Android tablet does not have an SDHC slot for my camera photo card, I will use the WMD as an intermediate device. The WMD will also to provide some extra storage if needed. After a couple of days I discovered some limitations and deficiencies with the WMD.

  1. I was discouraged to read in the FAQ that I am unable to copy directly to the WMD memory from an inserted SD card.

  2. Auto shutdown engaged after a short time while downloading a file from SD card to local device when on battery power

  3. Auto shutdown engaged after a short time while playing songs from WMD memory when on battery power

  4. I am unable to make a new file folder on the Sandisk Media drive using the Sandisk app

  5. Upload to local Android device from WMD SD card limited to the Gallery folder.

  6. Upload to local Android device from WMD SD card does not copy directory structure

  7. No option to upload to the local Android device SD card if there is one.

  8. ES File Explorer needs to be able to manage files on the Sandisk Media Drive.

I hope these items will be address in a future firmware update. 

SpunkyAZ

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@spunkyaz wrote:

I was excited when Sandisk announced the Wireless Media Drive. The media playing features are secondary to me. I plan to use it to backup, archive, and preview photos while I am on vacation. I will not need to bring along a laptop PC for this purpose. I will backup and preview my photos on a 7" Android tablet . Since the Android tablet does not have an SDHC slot for my camera photo card, I will use the WMD as an intermediate device. The WMD will also to provide some extra storage if needed. After a couple of days I discovered some limitations and deficiencies with the WMD.

  1. I was discouraged to read in the FAQ that I am unable to copy directly to the WMD memory from an inserted SD card.
  1. Auto shutdown engaged after a short time while downloading a file from SD card to local device when on battery power
  1. Auto shutdown engaged after a short time while playing songs from WMD memory when on battery power
  1. I am unable to make a new file folder on the Sandisk Media drive using the Sandisk app
  1. Upload to local Android device from WMD SD card limited to the Gallery folder.
  1. Upload to local Android device from WMD SD card does not copy directory structure except from the FILES option
  1. No option to upload to the local Android device SD card if there is one.
  1. ES File Explorer needs to be able to manage files on the Sandisk Media Drive.

 

I hope these items will be address in a future firmware update. 

SpunkyAZ

 

 

corrected item 6

I was looking for a portable, external device to store photos to supplement the small iPad memory, and the SanDisk wireless media drive seemed ideal. I was not interested in the movie/DVD streaming function. That may be fine, but the photo handling is unsatisfactory. I have returned my WMD and got a refund.

Complaints are:

  1. Uploaded photos do not display date and time of the exposure [an essential parameter] but the date and time of the upload action [which is irrelevent.] Moreover, the dates and times so shown are themselves months wrong.

  2. It’s not obvious to me how the ‘Photos’ file is to be used or accessed, nor how it is related to the ‘Media drive upload’ file, into which all SD card photos are uploaded. Nor do the instructional videos touch on this.

  3. I can’t see any facility for organising uploaded photos: there are no sub-folders or other subdivisions possible. What one gets, therefore, is one long ever-growing stack of photos in the upload file, catalogued without meaningful dates and times [see item 1.]

I still have a requirement to store photos external to the iPad, and will watch out for new issues of the WMD which may offer the facility. Thle concept is attractive, but at the present it’s immature. Disappointing.