Get photos off your cell phone without paying Sprint $15 a month

Update: Before leaving a comment on this post, please realize that I do not support BitPim nor am I one of the BitPim developers. I simply downloaded and installed BitPim in order to download photos off of my cellphone. If you are looking for information on BitPim support for your particular cellphone model, please consult the BitPim Help Page rather than leaving a comment here. Good luck!

Sprint offers optional wireless internet service called PCS Vision. For an additional $15 a month, you get unlimited Sprint TV, picture mail, video mail, email, instant messaging, and web access. None of which I really want—except the ability to move the photos I take to my computer. Without the Vision service, it costs 2¢ for every kilobyte transfered off the phone.

Let’s do the math. Average file size of a 640×480 pixel jpeg: 55KB. Cost per photo uploaded: $1.10! A buck to take a crappy cellphone picture!? I mean, I’d pay $5 a month if I could configure Sprint to upload the pictures directly to my WordPress blog, but that’s unlikely any time soon.

I just want to get the photos off my phone, and I don’t want to pay Sprint in order to do so.

First thing I need is a cable. Don’t expect to find that in any Sprint store. After a little Googling around, I discovered that my Samsung SPH-A840 phone (aka the PM-A840) accepts a Samsung USB Data Cable (PCB113BBEB). I got mine from WirelessGround.com for $15 (including shipping). Just arrived today.

Of course it came with no software or drivers. I found some some drivers online, but these were only intended to turn my cell phone into a wireless modem. Handy, but I really just want to copy my photos to my laptop. Ain’t no way I’m paying $70 for DataPilot. This should just work! Update: Mike left a comment to say that actually the drivers are necessary for BitPim to communicate with the phone. And he offered what will hopefully be a more permanent link to the download them. Thanks Mike!

In the end, it was an almost year old article from Microsoft (of all places) called Camera phone options that pointed me to BitPim, a free, open source cell phone syncing application. It had trouble downloading my phone book entries, but no problem downloading my photos!

Drive home from work along Occidental Road, Sebastopol, CA
Driving home from work along Occidental Road

Yay, I win!

How to download cameraphone photos using BitPim

  1. Start BitPim with your cellphone attached to your laptop
  2. Goto Data > Get Phone Data …
  3. Check the “Wallpaper” checkbox and click OK
  4. BitPim will start downloading your photos (on some occasions BitPim has crashed here, so usually I just unplug my phone, restart BitPim, and start over)
  5. In Windows, the photos should be downloaded to a folder called “camera” under “My Documents\bitpim\bitpim.db_blobs”.

Feel free to if you found this useful.

163 Comments

New comments are no longer accepted, so if you want to get in touch, send me an email.

Brian/Dad

Awesome!

I’ve been thinking about the same thing for awhile now. The last time we re-upped our phone contract, we ended up adding all this crap neither of us use (I have share talk with hubby) that shot our monthly bill up over a hundred bucks. Which is absurd. Really need to find a cable for my cell phone, you’ve inspired me!

Sara

yes but when will the rain end? sick of it…

iuvius

Hey… Bitpim version 0.8.08 is stable with my a840 and the aforementioned Samsung USB driver. I’m working up a list of functional (and semi-functional) applications for this phone, and have got a smooth routine for installing them via data cable…

iuvius, feel free to leave details here.

jane

now figure out how to do it with my Verizon phone (please)

jane, I imagine all you’d have to do is find the right USB cable and check and see if BitPim supports your phone model.

gabriel

I have a problem my sm a840 phone screen went black i cant see any numbers or pictures, is there a way i can get my pictures out of it … i know the functins but not by heart to upload them ,please conteact me so you can walk me through where the upload feature is at…. thanks… i really need help with getting the pictures out.

gabriel, here’s a link to the SPH-A840/PM-A840 Menu Tree which should help get you on your way, though literally you’ll be operating in the dark.

It would be much easier I think to buy a cable for a few bucks and then download BitPim to get the pictures to your computer.

Andre

thank you so much for figuring this out; i’ve been searching for something like this as well and did not want to pay sprint for their PCS vision service; i have the samsung A840 and i downloaded bitpim 0.8.12 and had no problem retrieving my photos or phonebook entries from my phone when i downloaded the phonebook and photos; when i tried downloading the phonebook entries, photos, calendar and call history at the same time, i did get an error! you may want to keep that in mind

Brent

This was semi useful but what did you do about the drivers. I’m in the same situation but I cannot find drivers other than that dam* modem driver.

Brent, I didn’t need any drivers. I mean, I installed all the modem drivers first (hoping they’d allow me to just treat the phone like an external hard drive), but when that didn’t work I installed BitPim and successfully got the photos off my phone—on WinXP at least.

mike

Hey, I really appreciate all this info. A little extra info for those who may still be struggling. I couldn’t get anything to work and I was using the USB cable PCB113BBEB and BitPim. Finally I went here I downloaded and executed the driver and tuh duh, it’s working. Thanks Justin.

Ah ha Mike, thanks for that heads up. I installed the drivers–which I found via Google’s cache of a website that no longer had the cables, hence the reason I didn’t link to the drivers in the first place—but had no indication that they were necessary to get BitPim to work. I’ll update the post with your link.

Jay

I still don’t understand what software you used to get it off your phone b/c I have the cable and it won’t work…please help.

Jay, you can download the drivers from this link. In the row for “MA-8212 USB Cable Device Driver & Modem” click the file download icon in the column marked “DRIVER.”

LordLeviathan

It worked for me. I needed the drivers but with the link from Mike I have them now. The only problem that I came across was the install on the drivers said that it could not find my phone. It still works though. Now I need to find some good MIDI’s. Thank you all.

Tara

I have several cables for my phone, bought them on Ebay, has success with my sanyo 8100 but my new phone sanyo MM 8300 said it had a firewall then I tried. Any ideas for me? I appreciate anyone time who could help me!!

stacy

downloaded bitpim for lgvx6100 to download pictures from phone and it failed to do so. any suggestions. thank you

Tara, Stacy, I would suggest you contact the developers of BitPim for more assistance in using it to get data onto or off of your phone.

Tracy

I bought the pcb113ubeb cable because it has charging capabilities. I went to the site and downloaded the drivers and software but they do not talk to each other. Please Help! What am I doing wrong?

Tracy, the short answer is, I’m not sure.

I got the PCB113BBEB cable, and I couldn’t determine at the time if there were any differences between the two. When it’s plugged into my laptop and my phone, I get a message on my phone that says something like “USB Connectivity Mode” or something. I’ll take a picture of that when I get a chance.

Anyway, at that point I open BitPim on my laptop, and I’m able to download pictures off my phone. That’s the only thing I tried to use it for so far, though backing up my contacts would be nice too.

bill c from tn.

great work folks thanks i am saving 15 bucks a month thanks to your help

Zach

hey i just bought a cable for my VX5200 phone, but it is not working. the hardware is installed and everything but it always says my phone is not connected to the PC, but it is. if anyone could help me that would be great.

Doug

I haven’t tried it yet, but from what I read on the BitPim site, phones are real fussy on what cable you use. If you go to the page that tells what phones BitPim supports there is a link by each phone called cable. If you follow that link it will tell you the cable that you need for that phone. They are by no means the same for each phone.

Gene-o

I have a motorola v220 trying to get some pictures off of it, i have the cable just need the driver, found one that makes it a modem, not sure if is what i need, can anyone help, thanks, Gene-o

Gene, I believe you need to install the modem drivers and then install BitPim which will use them to connect to the phone and download the photos.

Bill

I bought the cable. The Samsung website provided a download for the driver. When I plugged in the phone, after running the driver, Windows still went to find the driver again, but succeeded. Once I had that, I wondered how to make it connect. BitPim did the trick. Very happy!

Bill, thanks for the link—glad BitPim worked out for you.

Rogers Cadenhead on Road Testing the Samsung SPH-A920

I’m writing this evening from Interstate 95 in Georgia, seven miles (and counting) from the Florida border. While we’re driving, my laptop is connected to the Internet using the EVDO modem capabilities of the Samsung SPH-A920, a multimedia phone Sprint sent a bunch of bloggers for review.

Hmm, I wonder why I didn’t get one. These days I don’t have very much nice to say about Sprint, especially after getting several “do you want an extra cellphone” calls at 6:30am!

Nitha

Excuse me, but I’ve been looking all day at (free) programs that I can upload my photos from my Cingular Motorola V220 to my Windows XP Home Edition Computer. And so far I can’t find a damn thing that works! I eventually got here because of Google and I was like “What the hell I’ll leave a comment asking for help” So does anyone know anything else that might work or what version of BitPim I have to use for a Cingular Motorola V220? I have the USB cord and everything.

matt

I have a problem. I dont know what to do next, i have purchased a USB cord for my phone to the computer but i dont know what next to do, because it says i need software but the cable never came with a disk. i have a motorola v220 if that helps. i downloaded bitpim but i dont think it has the v220 on it. any ideas?

Wow I just realized someone else had the same problem as I did. if anyone DOES know how to work this thing please leave a comment.

RYAN

i just want to take pictures from my sprint samsung sph-a900 cell phone and put them on my computer,i have the usb cable it came with but it wont work without a driver can anyone help

Ryan, you can get the drivers for the A900 here.

Jill

Justin,
I am also trying to move pictures from my Samsung A840 to my laptop. Do I need the data cable and also a driver? I am new to this photo thing and am not quite sure what I need to do or purchase. Also, I have another A840 that no longer works as a phone (due to dropping in some liquid)but has some pictures I am trying to save. Do you think I will be able to transfer the pictures? The camera on that one still works fine, I just can’t receive a signal for phone usage.
Thanks for the help!

Jill, yes you need both the data cable (I’ve linked to one you can currently buy for $9.95 via WirelessGround.com) and the drivers installed on your computer which you can get from here.

Then just install BitPim, and you should be able to download data from your phone, possibly even your dead one. Feel free to send email if you have any more questions.

Jeremy

I just switched from Sprint to Tmobile on Friday the 13th. Before leaving the parking lot I uploaded all my pics to my Sprint PCS account thinking I’d be able to get them when I got home. Wrong! Called Sprint and they said when the account was deactivated so was all my access. While I was on the phone with the customer service rep who was giving me an earful about not being able to do anything for me, I found this site doing a google search (http://tinyurl.com/y5xhfq). It showed up as lucky number 13! Downloaded the software, installed it, connected my phone and had everything!!! Phone numbers, images, ringers…all of it!!! I’m lucky in some way I guess since I purchased the data link cable and driver when I first bought my Samsung 8100 phone 3 years ago. Thanks for having the info. :)

Rich

Hey. Found the site, bought a USB cable for my Samsung A640, and tried some software, but can’t get anything to work. Anyone here have any luck pulling pictures of this phone?

e40

i have a samsung d407 and i cannot install the driver for it.i have the cable and the software but it doesnt work,any help out there

Lisa

I have the Sanyo Katana. I just bought a USB cord for my phone/pc so I can download pictures from my phone to the PC. I tried using the links listed but Microsoft keeps blocking the download as malicious. Suggestions? Help? I don’t want to buy the Vision plan with Sprint, just want to download pictures from my phone. Thank you.

Lisa, try downloading them with Firefox?

Crystal

I Wish someone would of told me whne I spent 30.00 on a USB cable I had to pay agian just to get them off the phone Nextel and sprint suck and the bad part is I work for Nextel….

Crystal, I’m not sure I understand what you mean. If you have the right cable, a computer, and BitPim, you should be able to download the pictures off your phone for free—provided that BimPim supports your cell phone model.

Steve G

Rich, I also have an A640. It’s not directly supported by BitPim, but you can weasel it around to still use it. I found the info here and used BitPim with my A640:
Using BitPim with Samsung A640

Johnny

Thank you for the info. I’ve had my phone (MM-8300) for almost a year now. I paid the $15 service but it was just a waste for me since I only wanted the pics so I cancelled it, then they charged me a LOT for uploading the individual pics so I gave up. I used Bitpim and a USB data cable and I can get my phone book info but I don’t know how to get the pictures out. If anyone know what commands or instructions to follow please let me know. I have googled many times the topic but I don’t seem to find a clear answer or procedure. Thank you.

Johnny, I added a section to the bottom of my post entitled “How to download cameraphone photos using BitPim.” I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

anita

i just love my pic. on my cell phone i would like to put them on my computer. so i can save them.

Anita, well, you’ve come to the right place. Read this blog post and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Johnny

Hey Justin thank you for the instructions. It finally worked! I had tried that before but it crashed and i gave up. Now I kept trying until it worked! Thank you again.

Amanda

I have a tmobile motorola camera phone. Company gave me an USB cable but I can’t get it to do anything. all it says is removable diskE: insert disk. What disk? How can I get my pictures off my phone onto my computer without paying? I’m at lost. thanks

Jeanette

When I opened up the data box, I can’t check to wallpaper box. Do you know why & how I can get it to be checked? All help is greatly appreciated!

Jeff

Anyone know if there’s a cable for a Motorola Razr serviced by Cingular? Jeff

jeff d.

I have a tmobile motorola camera phone. Company gave me an USB cable but I can’t get it to do anything. all it says is removable diskE: insert disk. What disk? How can I get my pictures off my phone onto my computer without paying? I’m at lost. thanks

alan

There was not a 640 phone in the BitPim index, but I selected the 740 and was able to download pictures from the A640. Picture format shows as “jpg” but Adobe Photoshop was the only program that would open them.

dj

I have a sanya katana. I can’t get my computer to recognise the port where my phone is plugged in…. I tried different ports… still nothing. The hardware wizard says I need a disk, what disk? I have a headache… any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanx

CB

I have BitPim & just got my usb cable and have been able to get it connected. I have the Katani 6600 and want to send some images to my phone. Can this be done?

atique

Dude! you are a life saver, i have the exact same model and your trick worked like a charm. I didn’t want to pay Sprint for this sucky service either.

Thanks again for sharing this.

Tony

Did anyone have success in getting photos transfered from a Katana using USB or Bluetooth transfer?

Dror

Is there a way to download pictures without a cable if ones phone has bluetooth technology ?

Patrick

http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/702937-1.html
I followed the discussion here on configuring my Katana and did get it to work with BitPim.

Duane

Awesome software guys … best way to get photos off your phone. Works well with a Samsung a680

vjd

I got the PCB113BBEB cable from Wireless Ground, downloaded & installed Bitpim. Got a message that my A640 is not recognized. Went looking online for drivers, no luck.
Tried to use the link on this page from Mike for a “more permanant link
to drivers, link doesn’t work. any sugguestions? Thanks

vjd

p.s could you possibly post the url for the link to the drivers source that Mike sugguested? The links in the text keep
timing out.

vjd

I finally got it to work! Thanks again for your input. We win again! Bitpim says it still doesn’t recognize the phone, but nevertheless I can still extract the photos out and copy them onto my laptop, go figure. The problem was that my pc wasn’t finding the phone, so I had to use the install hardware wizard to properly install the phone, drivers, etc. Although you can only open the pics with photoshop, once you re-save them as jpgs under a new name, you can open them with the other media apps. just as you would any other jpgs.

VJD

P.S.
The pic transfer seems to be the only one that works. If you’ve had any success loading ringtones onto your phone from your pc, could you give us some info on how you do it?

vjd, glad to hear things worked out. Nope, never tried to load ringtones on my phone. I’m a fan of vibrate.

CB

I was finally able to get the pictures off my phone (Sprint, Sanyo Katana). Now, is there anyway I can send images to my phone to use as screensavers? Can I do this through BitPim?

Eric

I have an A640 Sprint phone. I cannot get BitPim to see my phone connected through USB. Tried driver from ‘Justin’ on 1/27/07 but that didn’t install the driver. Any help appreciated.

vjd

There’s a way to make ringtones using Bitpim and get them onto my A640. On the Bitpim main screen, doubleclick on the ringers icon on the menu to the left of the screen to open the ringers main screen. Copy and paste an audio clip onto the main screen (so far I’ve only done it with .wav files, and there are tons of free downloadable ones on the net.). Before it pastes the file in,
Bitpim brings up a dialg box that prompts you to convert the file into a usable ringtone format. Click convert. (At this point Bitpim searches for the appropriate conversion program for your phone. If it doesn’t find it, a dialog box pops up which tells you how to download the proper conversion software.) Download the conversion software into one of the directories that Bitpim
looks in. Once you’ve done this, paste the audio file in again and
click “convert”, then click OK after the conversion is done, and the file should show up as a ringtone on the screen. Highlight the ring tone by clicking on it. Then click on “data” on the main toolbar, then click on “send phone data”. A dialog pops up in which you choose what kind of data you want to send. Click on “ringtone”. Then click “OK”, and the ringtone should upload to your phone. So far I’ve loaded in a screaming cat, a barking Bassett hound, an old-time phone ringer, and some ducks quacking.

P.S TO ERIC,
Bitpim always says it doesn’t recognize my A640 either, but I’m still transferring pics and ringers like mad. When the box pops up that says, “no phone detected/recognized. Run settings?” I ignore this, click “no” and go on with my business. Sometimes after this, a box pops up that says “cannot locate usable port” or some such thing. Either unplugging the phone and replugging it, or restarting the computer
fixes this. Hope this helps.

vjd

P.P.S. to Eric,
The web address that brought me right to the driver download for my A640 is as follows:
http://ds.my-mam.com/CDMA/USB/PureModem/ModemSetup_Pure-CDMA_V92.exe

steve

i have the sprint a900m phone and am trying to get pics from my phone to my computer. I downloaded bitpim and my phone isnt even on there, so then i downloaded the driver, but now i dont no what to do, is there a way to open the driver program and do something with that because i can still not get my phone recognized. Any help would be much appreciated

GEE

I downloaded the drivers and have the “madrvtemp” folder on my desktop. How do I start BitPim?

heather

for those of you who have the Katana, where did you find the USB?

charlie

Can someone help me? I have the Katana phone. I can get the images off my phone to my computer, but have not figured out how to send photos to my phone from my pc. I have the usb cable (which I purchased on Ebay) and have downloaded and installed BitPim.

I would also like to know how to send ringtones from my pc to my phone?

Is there anyone here that would be willing to explain this? Thanks so much.

J

Having a problem getting pictures off my phone i have followed instructions from below is there any other way?

Hi, I have a bad cell phone problemm with my a-900 samsung.I need to get my pictures off the phone before it gets sent back to sprint to get another a-900. My bluetooh caused the problems. What a Bummer,ehh!

J

I found out the the Sanyo 3100 you can not pull pictures off. Also the Sanyo 8400 any idea if there our any updates in the works?

Hi I own a Samsung A900M and I cant seem to find the driver needed for it. Could someone please help me with this Its not connecting and I need to get these pictures off my phone. Thanks,

mark r

good article, however do you need to download the driver that comes with the usb cable first, and then the bitpim software? or just the bitpim software?

mark r, you’ll need the driver first, at least on Windows. I haven’t tried BitPim on Linux yet.

jamie

does this also work with katana phones?

µ_pRO

We all need to sue *expletive deleted* Sprint with a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT! Verizon Wireless Users Sued Over Disabled Bluetooth Features and WON. See: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1751567,00.asp

Penny

Katana, I have cable, how do I get biptim to find this phone, the model number is not listed. The phone has a batt # of scp-23lbps but the phone has no model # anywhere to be found

Paul

Is it true that you can’t download photos from a Sanyo 3100 with BitPim? I have it working with ring tones, everything but photos. Any thoughts? Thanks

T

I have a Mac, what do you suggest, do you know of any software I should look for?

Paul

Hi,
The BitPim WEB site says that downloading pictures from a Sanyo 3100 is not supported. I don’t want to give Sprint a dime for their service. Does anyone know of another way to get photos out of this phone directly to a PC? Thanks

brad

I have a Samsung A900m and I can’t connect my phone to BitPim either. Anyone know any other programs to try?

mark r

Yes, It works on Katana phones.

Katana model # is scp6600.

When you buy your USB cable it should come wiyh a driver disk. This disk may or maynot work with your model phone. If it does not, just do a google search for free drivers usb

brent

Great article, on another note I hate being held hostage to Sprint, all I want to do is send pictures without going through the Sprint hub. Is there a program (Im on a MAC) that I can use to send my computer pics to somebodys cell phone?
Much appreciated. If you can send any answers to nufc1944@hotmail.com
thanks

jarico

I have a katana also and didn’t want to pay for the sprint option so I got software/cable from cellphoneshop.(datasuite)Wouldn’t install or recognize my phone. Driver wouldn’t install. Software appeared to load, but kept saying: trying to connect to phone & never did. Waiting for cust support from mobileaction. May try BitPim if I don’t get this resolved. Also, I have Qwest and it wasn’t listed in the carriers box that I needed to select to proceed with install.

jarico

Is it possible to download or sync my Katana phone if Qwest is my carrier?

Pam

I also have a sanyo 3100 but i have qwest as my carrier. All I want to do is get the pictures off my phone and on to my computer. Please help

toniu123

i have a samsung your system states that i need and agere usb port? even though my model t-509 and isp t-mobile are not even list it.open to sggestions. thanks p.s. i almost send a donation now is not so fast

Ben

I have followed the procedures indicated. Downloaded Bitpim, and the modem_setup_Pure_CDMA. Plugged in the PCB113BBEB cable into the Katana and a USB port. Opened Bitpm, and found that it could not detect the phone. Message “failed to auto detect the port to use.”

What have I done wrong?

Help

robert

Have katana
loaded bitpim and drivers necessary but when i go to get pictures off it says that the com port is locked whats up with that?

Justin Webb

Hey how are you. I was wondering if you sound a way to put custom wallpapers ON the phone rather than taking the picture off. I can do that pretty good.

Misti

Ok I have a Samsung A900 phone that is no long on is there anyway I can get the pics. off my phone using the USB cable? Or am I SOL!!! Thanks

Misti, probably not.

Jenna

goto sprintusers.com they have all the tricks for sprint cell phones.

Jchris

Downloaded BitPim but wont recognize my Sanyo 6600 (Katana). You stated that Mike said the drivers are necessary for BitPim to communicate with the phone. You did not specify what drivers or how you downloaded them. Can you provide the driver info so BitPim casn recognize my cell?
Thanks
Jchris

Thanks so much for the tip! I’ve got 2 years worth of pics that I’m going to get off my phone now! FYI: It’s on sale through April for $9.99. Can’t wait to try it out. :)

lisa

I just tried to retreive photos of my samsung a840. have the data cable (pcb113bbeb)anf bitpim. am currently receiving ‘FAILED TO AUTO DETECT THE PORT TO USE. I COULDN’T DETECT ANY CANDIDATE PORTS’ message. Can someone please HELP!

Thanks

Kano

Lisa…this is what I did…I have an A640 also…since BitPim doesn’t support phones..I choose the A650 model…went to Get Phone data…choose wallpaper..it took all images from my phone…but didn’t display them…I saved them a to a directory and used a shareware program called IrfanView…it was able to open and display the images..I saved them again..it worked…

Daryl

I have a Sprint PCS Vision Katana 6600 and I cant get my photos to upload to my pc…any advice?

Mr Finn

Can I take pictures off my Sanyo Katana phone to my computer Is there software to do this? If so where can I buy it?

joe

u r all gay stupid geeks

joe

u r all gay stupid geeks

ronnie

I have samsung sph-a840, and when i use bitpim, I can only get phonebook and calendar (no wallpaper). I followed the instructions I saw somewhere on the web, and used filesystem, and I can see files named “Image###”, but I can’t view them. They don’t have extensions. Anyone knows how to maybe convert the images to like a jpeg?

my first guess: edit the filename and add .jpg to the end.

ronnie

yup already tried that. I tried opening it with many diff image viewing programs… none of them seems to recognize it.

Bigmac

RPI wireless has a cable/software combo for $25 that works with the Katana

Fede

Hey Kano!
I have an a640 as well, installed the drivers that I found on the internet, my phone is recognized and it shows under COM4 in BitPim, but I cannot download my pictures, it gives me an error message when syncing, any ideas?

Erin

I have a Samsung A740 but my service was cancelled a while back. I have the usb cord for my phone and i can still view the pictures on my phone. Is there anyway of getting the pictures onto my computer without having a cellphone service?

FRED

Answer to Fede — i have an a640 Samsung as well and i think i read on the BitPim’s website that their program will not download the wallpapers or photos from this phone. Bummer.

silverspur

Katana….

OK, I am completely lost. Using BitPim, Sprint drivers, usb cable. BitPim detects the phone on com port, gives green light (Ready). When I select wallpaper, then hit icon to transfer I get message: “phone not responding when transitioning mode from none to phonebook.”

The Sprint Drivers download site have been listed here several times …but never the actual selection to make from their list…any suggestions? Thanks

Hello: I have a Sprint A900M phone, but I don’t see it on the dropdown list for BitPim. Is there something else that I can select? Thanks! LD

jesse

another response to Fede:
I have an A640 phone. No, there’s no official A640 support, but here’s the deal:
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=983423
those methods work for me.

AEL

Does anyone know if you can use BitPim for 2 different phones? I have 2 Sanyo Katana phones & it does pull pics off 1 phone but not the other … Any advice? Thanks

AJAXOFTROY

With little finagling I finally managed to get to work with my Sprint Katana. Definitely need drivers, and get data, wallpaper and presto. It works. To bad the Katana takes such lousy pics.

laurie

I have a motorola i850. i just recieved the disk and USB cable, i downloaded the hardware to transfer pics but when i go to upgrade it says error, cannot communicate with phone, check the connections and make sure the phone is powered on and fully charged. It is and its not working. any help suggestions….

Ray

I have a Katana and my pictures are on the Sprint album, but when I try to transfer them into my computer pictures, when I hit the transfer of all the pictures, the pictures just get real dim and will not transfer. I called Sprint and the gal said to boost the megapixels, but I don’t know what she is talking about. Can somebody explain to me what she is talking about?

Becca

Ray… sorry to tell you but there is no way to “boost” megapixels. Megapixels are a fixed property of a camera. You may have guessed this though. No clue what the lady was trying to tell you to do.

Linda

Sanyo MM8300 cell phone – having problems getting pictures from the phone to my computer. Using a cable. May need device drivers but not sure I have the right ones. Get an error when trying using BitPim on Com 1. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Alan

Super hearty thank you to the Mac developer. This app is EXACTLY what I wanted and it worked like a charm right away. I got all my contacts and photos off my Sanyo Katana phone without a problem. Again, thank you!

Lacey

umm..
well is it at all possible to frikin see yerr pix on the computer without downloading them..
because i would like to know why it says online albums..
does tht not mean you have just put pictures on yerr cell phone accout which is on the internet..
i just want to go on the home page of my sprint accout and see my pix some way..
is that possible or not..?
plz get tht question answered.. please and thankyou so much.. Lacey.

rivereye

my samsung sph-m610 doesn’t work with bitpim either,but i’m plowing thru all the free drivers on the net,and if i find something i’ll post detailed instructions here for hopefully all the samsung m-series phones…

rivereye

lacey,
be careful,what they mean by “online albums” is they want to charge you to upload(at@1.50 a pic)through your phone service, not a usb cable!

rivereye

this worked for the samsung SPH-M610-but i think it’s a generic solution-try this:go to the “tools” part of the main menu on your phone(possibly “connections”)click down to “mass storage”(or equivalent)-select”connect to PC”-(possibly connect/enable usb port)-then connect the usb cable to the computer and your phone, and push the “menu ok”(or select)button-and the computer will see it and prompt you thru the rest

Kyle

Just a response about “boosting” the megapixels on a Katana II. IDK if it works on a regular Katana, but you can try! :) You just will lose the zoom capability:

-Turn on the camera
-Hit “Options”
-Go to “Camera Settings”
-Choose “Resolution”
-Choose the largest resolution possible, usually it says “High – 640 x 480”
-Take and upload your pictures!

mark

Trying to access my Qwest Sanyo Katana II on my laptop via USB cable, I was unable aquire it. After scouring the internet looking for a Qwest Katana driver, I called customer support. They say that the phone cannot be plugged into a computer. Seems that this feature was dissabled by Qwest (to force the use of their data transfer service?)! I hope this post will save someone the frustration that I’ve been dealing with for hours.

Natalie

I have a Sanyo Katana (Sprint) too, you have to open the pic and send to an email address. It will give you a link in your email to click on to see the pic. Mine come out clear.

Howard

My wife has a Katana from Sprint. Got BitPim, cable, drivers, etc. Problem 1 – the drivers have to be resinstalled after every bootup. Problem 2 – I was bale to get a connection once, but then BitPim says it can’t find the phone ever since. Any help? Please?

Samantha

Bitpim worked very well with my Samsung A740. Thanks so much for the help.

Teresa

The information on the program BitPim is excellent. Thank you for posting. It works like a charm. I have a Sanyo PM-8200.

ken

i have tried and tried again…my SPH-a920 and cord becomes a modem such as the story on left, and im using that same cord. can anyone suggest a different approach? many thanks..ken

Ginger

Thank You, Thank You for the BitPim referral. took some patience to install the driver for a direct USB connection, but was worth it. downloading pictures from my M300Media phone is a breeze. couldn’t have done it without you :)

kingpin742

I just downloaded pictures off of a Katana that had service through qwest. To get it to work I used the newest bitpim and the data pilot software. You will have to setup up the phone in the data pilot and after that in control panel under phones and modems. The pictures then had to have the .jpg extension added once they were downloaded.

Warren

My girlfriends Katana suffered major damage and now has the display part seperate from the battery and keypad (CPU) part, please don’t ask…Can information be extracted without powering the unit on?

Nerd

Just wanted to let someone know the Get photos off your cell phone without paying Sprint $15 a month article was great, I tried the suggested method and it worked the first time. The phone camera Motorola V324i is new to me, But It was great trying this and have it work the first time, Thanks

confused

I’m confused. This article sounded so promising. I have spent hours downloading all kinds of crap trying to get BitPim to recognize my Sanya Katana LX (3800), but it just can’t find it. I’ve searched all over the Internet for drivers, and the only answer I find is that they don’t exist. How are you all able to get yours to work? I’m so curious.

ic408

If you’re using BitPim and your phone isn’t supported, choose “View Filesystem” (it’s one of the submenus). A new folder should appear and you may be able to browse that way. You should at least be able to get your photos.

northey

Good articles, got me one step further. Ive got the katana lx, tried bitpim, the view filesystem option, and it still doesn’t work, any suggestions?

Katrina

Thank you so much for having this blog. I had some pictures on a Sanyo Katana phone and could not figure out how to get them off. I bought a data cable only to find out that I still needed software to get to my pictures. I have been all over the internet trying to find the proper software to be able to upload the pictures from my phone to my computer. Your link and information on BitPim was wonderful. I hope other people come across your blog so that they can enjoy their pictures as well.

Katrina, glad you found the post to be a useful and empowering starting point.

Teresa

My mother had quest service for her Samsung SPH A-640 but she couldn’t afford to pay her bill so the phone was turned off. She has some very sentimental pics on there. We were told to get the USB Data Cable which we did only to find out that we needed the software, i ran across another blog that says how to get the pics using BitPam which i installed. The person said to change the phone to SPH-840 then go to data>get phone Data then check wallpaper box only then press ok. I did this and got 164 pictures of the wallpaper transfered to my computer. blah!!!!! So anyway the blogger didn’t mention that when you go to get phone data and check wallpaper there are also two options to click on one to add and one to replace all. When you check wallpaper it is preset to replace all and wont allow me to select add, hence 164 pics of wallpaper. Does anyone know how i can select add to add the pictures so i dont replace all my pics with lovely wallpaper. Any help would be MUCH APPRECIATED! With hugs and kisses if i could give them to you! lol

beetzme

Could you tell me where I can get the driver that jives with windows XL and Bitpim?

beetzme

I made it to MA(Mobile Action) now what drivers am I after? I’m in WinXL, have Bitpim and USB cable for my LG VX5300. I get an error with port 5 and windows questions my usb driver not passing logo testing???

Brian

My friend’s phone is about to die and she doesn’t do backups to sprint, but she wanted to save her photos. Her phone came with a cable that’s has the connectors for USB and cell phone. Press the Menu button, Tools, Mass Storage. Your PC will detect the phone as a mass storage drive. Locate the correct lettered drive by double clicking My Computer. You can download anything saved in the folders visible.

baudeagle

looks like my Sanyo LX wont do it. Not supported on your list. Any idea.
nice piece of work Justin.

MK

I just found an easy way to get my picutres of my Sprint Katana phone. There is a mini sans disk in the phone that actually stores the picture. I noticed in the box my phone came in is a converter for the disk to make it regular SD size. I took this out and put it in my camera, and BINGO, I was able to copy off my pictures onto my laptop. Goodluck

Jgro

MK- please can you tell me where on earth the miniSans disk is located in the Katana?? I have a 6600 (the original), can’t find the miniSanDisc anywhere.

also, tried to usb cable thing, bitpim, downloading various drives, trying to get my PC to recognize the phone as a mass storage device… none of that worked, so your solution is my last hope (aside from caving and giving sprint my money!)
thanks!

Bell_A640_owner

my problem is that windows is not recognising my Samsung A640… I plug it in the USB port, and nothing happens … I have installed drivers from a few differerent places, but it does not work … does anyone have any ideas what I can try next?

Travis

Or just ‘text it’ to your email and then ‘save as’ on your computer. A lot more simpler,

TMS

Amanda

please help the link for the drivers did not work

Amanda, I’d suggest directing your attention to mobileaction.com, the website hosting the driver file.

Chris

Hey is that occidental road in santa rosa?!

Chris, yup, it is.

Evan

IMPORTANT NOTE: BitPim also can download text messages (called sms) and contact information as well as pictures.

This really saved me when my screen broke but the phone still fundamentally worked. I needed the data off and this came through. Thank you.

mag

you know what? the msvcr71.dll keeps saying corrupt or missing, when i try to download the bitmin program. I keep trying to download it again, but got the same errors. My computer downloads the bitmin program but gives that error every time. PLZ post help on this. Im tired of cleaning my OS everytime some virus or spyware gets in…its such a hassle to download all my programs and cam software when this happens.

mag

and also when i download the missing dll files and put them in the specified folder in system32, i STILL get an error when downloading and installing bitmin program. The error says missing or corrupt msvcr71.dll file…help..i just want to get my pics from cell to pc …i have a sanyo katana 6600 ….geez sprint wants too much money for their services…..

Todd

BitPM worked great with my old samsung a740. Retrieved all pictures. Justin, you rock!

Sanyonomore

I was having issues with Bitpim not running because of a missing msvcr71.dll file. I kept unzipping it to the System 32 file (as originally instructed) and it never worked. Finally I tried unzipping it to the Bitpim Program File directly (C:Program Files (x86): Bitpim) and then the program worked!