Sooner or later you will have to clean the photos and videos you record with your mobileespecially if you don’t depend on a cloud service like Google One or Apple’s iCloud. The normal thing then is to connect the mobile phone to a PC and copy the photos to keep them safe, although there is an alternative way to do it.
Instead you can use the power of USB OTG and a pendrive that already has the connector for your mobile, whether USB-C, Lightning or Micro USB. It’s easier than using a normal USB OTG cable, which means you already carry two additional things with you in addition to your phone.
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Pendrives for mobile
Surely you already have a good number of pendrives at home, although the vast majority of them with the usual USB A connector, which you can plug directly into your computer. Technically you can reuse your pendrives to backup your photos by connecting it to your phone with a USB-OTG cable, but there is a better way.
It is more practical to use a pendrive that also has the connector of your mobile, so you can save the cable. These types of pendrives have proliferated a lot in recent times and it will not be difficult for you to find one for the USB-C connection, which is the most common today, and Lightning or Micro USB, in case your mobile uses this connector type.
You will find all kinds of pendrive options with USB-C, Lightning or MicroUSB connectors on Amazon, depending on the price mainly on storage space, connector type and brand. There are USB-C options for less than ten euros (64 GB).
Lexar USB Flash Drive 64 GB, Cle USB C & USB A, USB 3.2 Gen 1, Memory Stick with reading speed up to 100 MB/s, OTG support, metal JumpDrive for Laptop, PC/Car, Tablet, Smartphone/TV
*Some prices may have changed since the last review
The average price is around 30 euros, although it depends a lot on the amount of storage you want. If you are only going to use it to transfer your photos from time to time, you don’t need it to be huge. It will surely work for you with 64 or 128 GB, although this depends on your budget and how you are going to use it. A 512 GB one, which is usually more than most mobile phones have today, can cost you just over 30 euros.
Pendrive 512 GB USB C Memory Dual Drive 2in1 Android PhotoStick Flash Drive External Memory for Type-C Smartphones new tablets Laptops Computers SDBKB 512GB Silvery
*Some prices may have changed since the last review
With Lightning connector, for older iPhones, it is more common to find them for more than 30 euros, with the average price around 50 euros. It is the price to pay (literally) for Apple certification, which verifies that it will work without problem on iPhones or iPads.
USB Flash Drive 512GB for iPhone, Mfi Certified Lightning External Memory Pen Drive 512GB USB Pen USB Flash Drive Pendrive 4 in 1 for iPhone, iPad, iOS,Macbook,Android,Pc – Gray
*Some prices may have changed since the last review
It is recommended that The pendrive also has a USB A connection (the standard connector), so you can plug it into your PC at any time without having to juggle. If your PC has a USB-C plug at hand and your mobile does too, then you can opt for a pendrive with only this connector.
The best of all is that with the pendrive in your hand, you don’t need to do much more than plug it into your mobile and that’s it. The system will notify you that external storage is connected and available for use.
What you will have to do next is use a file manager to transfer photos from your mobile storage to the pendrive. On Android you have many options to choose fromwhile on an iPhone you can use the Files app.
In both cases the procedure will go through copy photos from the internal storage of the mobile and paste them on the pendrive. In this way, you can free up space on your mobile wherever you are, without having to use any cloud, cables or a PC.