To make room for new images on smartphones, take advantage of the option to store images on the phone's SD card.
Contributed / Metro Newspaper Service
Every week we offer to take in questions for Tech Savvy columns and then to search for the answers.
This prompted one reader to ask why we don’t print the questions and answers in our weekly column. Quite frankly, we put out the option each week but it’s been a long time since anyone took advantage of it. We are more than willing to research issues and we can rely on CTC to help us out when regular searching doesn’t help or when real technical skills are required. We aren’t the technical genius type as much as we are tech enthusiasts and consumers of technology.
So our reader said maybe putting in a question would help galvanize other readers to do so and her question wasn’t related to new gadgets and tech as much as it was something a little more used. Namely a 2017 Samsung J7. I use a Dell at work and have a mix of tech at home, but at home, as anyone who reads this column somewhat regularly may know, I am an Apple user at heart. But I’m also a strong believer in continuous learning and I enjoy problem-solving and looking for answers.
Question: How do I get my phone, a 2017 Samsung J7, to download images and video from my phone’s memory to my SD card? I need to free up space on my phone memory.
Answer: So I had to do a little research to come up with the answer to this question and since I don’t have a Samsung, I couldn’t test it myself for empirical knowledge but other folks on the internet had. And this is one of the reasons the internet has great value. I’ve used YouTube to find out how to fix a vacuum and how to change a headlamp on my car. For this one, I relied on checking multiple sources via a Google search and found a checklist for this move with Verizon and checked several YouTube videos to see if they were advocating the same thing. This is one thing we no doubt have in common across platforms is the need for more space, even digital space. For some, that means getting more memory on the phone up front or adding storage space and room for backups in the Cloud, or a combination of both. The photos we take are time capsules of our daily lives and worth the memory and memory space.
- On the home phone screen, tap on the Samsung folder
- Then select My Files.
- Once you have opened My Files, a screen opens with categories at the top and, toward the bottom of the screen, there should be an option for internal storage or SD card.
- Select internal storage.
- Now look for the folder marked DCIM, where the photos and video are stored, and next pick camera.
- Next, on the top right hand top corner of the screen, there should be three options, share, delete and three dots, which indicate the access to more choices. Touch the three dots, which are referred to as the Menu Icon, to open the gate.
There appear to be a couple of ways to go from here. The most simple in a couple of YouTube videos is to put a finger on a photo and hold it to mark it as one to move. Holding on one photo will open an option to select all in the top left hand corner of the screen. Perhaps you want to keep some and move others. In that case, select the photos or video individually by tapping on them.
- Now that you’ve selected the images you want to move, tap the Menu Icon, the three dots in the upper right corner, again, and then tap Move.
The SD card should be one of the options.
- Touch the SD card folder.
- Touch DCIM.
- Touch camera folder.
- Tap Done (on the upper right). And the photos will transfer.
Tech Made Easy has an easy to follow YouTube video showing it step by step.
I hope this helps. We always welcome questions to Tech Savvy and appreciate this one. So if there are others, just drop us a note and we’ll try to find an answer.
Renee Richardson, managing editor, may be reached at 218-855-5852 or . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchBizBuzz .
Renee Richardson is managing editor at the Brainerd Dispatch. She joined the Brainerd Dispatch in 1996 after earning her bachelor's
degree in mass communications at St. Cloud State University.
Renee Richardson can be reached at or by calling 218-855-5852 or follow her on Twitter @dispatchbizbuzz or
Facebook.