I just accidentally ran into this very simple way to transfer photos from
your phone to Windows (and back) without installing anything on either
1. I gave a few $130 LG Stylo 3 Plus phablets as gifts over Christmas and
as a direct result I inherited a handful of new-to-me older Android phones,
even though my main phone is a circa 2012 S3 which works just fine for me
but which I mount on Windows to use in the native Windows file explorer
using the Windows "Add a network location" wizard.
2. One of that handful of old phones is a circa 2014 Moto G, running
Android 5.1, which I just plugged into Windows where I was surprised the
phone immediately showed up as its own "XT104" USB drive.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/1xt104_a.jpg
3. Clicking on that drive shows the entire available file system mount
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/2xt104b.jpg
4. That allows two way drag and drop between Windows and the phone
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/3xt104c.jpg
5. Plugging it in again, I noticed an option pops up for something called
"Photos", which, seems to search the Android phone for photos to upload.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/4xt104d.jpg
6. That native "Photos" app then provides thumbnails to select which photos
to upload to previously defined directories and file name conversions on
Windows.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/5xt104e.jpg
7. The result is that, without installing anything on either the phone or
on Windows, it seems I can import anything I like using this Photos native
app.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/22/6xt104f.jpg
Generally I don't use Windows native apps (because they generally suck),
but this one doesn't seem to show any obvious drawbacks yet.
So I simply present this as a working system, that just works without
installing anything on either the phone or Windows, and ask if you know of
a better method of bi-directional drag and drop between your phone &
Windows?