In previous versions of Windows Phone there was an option to easily upload images from your phone to your cloud storage.
Doing that was simple. You just browsed to the album which held the images, selected them and then choose the Upload or Save to SkyDrive option and they were uploaded to your SkyDrive into a folder called Mobile Uploads.
Well on Windows Phone 8.1, which many users have downloaded to their Windows Phones under the Developer Preview Program, along with the latest update to the OneDrive App for the handset that process has changed.
It is still very straight forward and easy enough to do – just requires a few extra steps after the images are selected.
The primary folder of images I use this feature for is the Screenshots since they do not automatically upload to OneDrive. Your Camera Roll already does this after you take a new picture with your phone.
So here is what I do now to send screenshots I have taken on my phone to my OneDrive storage so that I can access them on my desktop and other Windows 8.1 devices.
- Open your Photo Tile and then browse to the album which contains the images you want on your OneDrive.
- Tap the Select icon on the app bar on the bottom of the screen and then tap on the images you want to share. Each of them will have a checkmark in the upper right corner of the thumbnail.
- Once you have selected at least one image the app bar icons will change and you will now have a Share, Delete and Favorite icon.
- Tap the Share icon which is the first one. It is a circle with three arrows around the edge.
- The Share page will open up and present you with all the different methods you have available to share images.
- Tap and select OneDrive and the OneDrive app will open up and present you with your OneDrive folder hierarchy.
- Select the folder where you would like to share, in other words upload, the images to and then tap the Add icon on the App Bar and the images will be uploaded to that folder on OneDrive.
- Immediately after the images are done uploading/being shared you will be returned to the photo album you were sharing from.
You can now close out of the Photo area and you will find your images in your OneDrive storage and accessible to your other devices.
Here are some screenshots, which I actually shared with OneDrive through the above process, that shows the entire sequence you will go through to do this yourself.
It is becoming more and more obvious that Microsoft is removing a lot of functionality from being directly integrated with the OS and moving it into the apps on Windows Phone 8.1. The main benefit to this app-centric approach is that apps can be updated on a much faster timeline than the overall OS can be.
That means we will see new features and capabilities fielded on a more regular basis rather than waiting for the base OS to be updated.
Although this means re-learning how to do some things on Windows Phone 8.1 in the long run it is a better situation for end users and developers.