Did you know you can extract photos and videos on a phone that you don’t even have access to? Confused? We know that you never imagined that it could happen, not even in your wildest dreams. But thanks to the advancements in technology, extracting photos and videos from a phone without accessing it is possible. In this article, I will show you the 3 ways you can easily do this.
What Are The Methods To Extract Photos & Videos Without Having A Phone?
Currently, there are three methods to extract photos and videos without having access to a phone. These are:
- XNSPY
- iCloud
- Google Photos
Now let’s take a look at all of these in detail.
1. XNSPY
XNSPY is an app to remotely spy on photos that is compatible with most Android and iOS devices. It is used to circumvent a phone’s security without needing special hardware or hacking skills.
XNSPY is specifically designed with end-user requirements in mind and is great when you want to remotely spy on photos. It even bypasses antivirus and firewalls so users can bypass specific security algorithms found in the latest versions of the Android operating system.
Let’s take a look at how the app gets around the Android operating system and device-specific cybersecurity measures. After unlocking the target device whose photos and videos you want to extract, you simply need to download and install XNSPY on it.
Once you have installed the app, you gain administrative rights and bypass local restrictions imposed by the phone’s operating system. This means that you will no longer require local permissions and the device will be controlled remotely.
You may be wondering if, if the app is installed on the device, the actual owner will be able to detect it. Yes and No.
XNSPY is able to hide from the list of running apps on Android devices due to posing as a system file during run-time execution. This security loophole enables this app to disappear from the list of installed apps.
As a result, the user continues to extract photos and videos and other data from the target device while using the app and its entire features.
Let’s see how you can extract photos and videos using the app.
How to Extract Stored Photos & Videos Via XNSPY?
XNSPY is extremely easy to use and set up because the installation process only takes a few minutes. But remember that it may take up to two days for the app to synchronize with the target phone’s data.
But once done, it will give you real-time and near real-time updates by auto-extracting data in the background. So let’s see what steps you need to follow to accomplish this:
1. Sign up for XNSPY
Once you’ve decided on an XNSPY subscription plan, sign up with your email.
2. Set up XNSPY
Install the spy app’s APK file on the device from which you want to extract the photos, then allow XNSPY to synchronize with the device.
3. Start tracking
You can start tracking the device data after XNSPY and the device are synced with XNSPY’s servers.
4. Login
Now log in to your online account at cp.xnspy.com (the credentials will be emailed to you once you purchase the subscription).
Select Videos/ Photos from the drop-down menu containing XNSPY’s monitoring features depending on what you want to extract.
XNSPY Limitations
With XNSPY, you once need to physically unlock the device whose photos and videos you want to capture. And it isn’t free either. But these limitations can be ignored given the advantages it has.
XNSPY Advantages
XNSPY can monitor seamlessly and doesn’t need user input. It means even if the device goes to sleep, XNSPY keeps monitoring in the background. And to top it off, it provides real-time and near-real-time updates.
2. iCloud
iCloud is Apple’s proprietary cloud storage service that saves photos, videos, locations, contacts, and texts. The service works by creating an online access portal to this data so the owner can access it from anywhere using their login credentials as long as they are connected to the Internet.
But iCloud has been involved in its fair share of controversies in the past as many users cited the cloud service to have poor security measures. But Apple has increased the security of its cloud platform so it is serviceable for most users.
How to Extract Stored Photos & Videos Via iCloud?
To use iCloud to extract photos and videos from a device, you first need to upload/save them on the iCloud platform. Here’s how you can get started with iCloud Photos:
- Tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos.
- Tap Sync this iPhone. In iOS 15 or earlier, tap to turn on iCloud Photos.
- Select Optimize iPhone Storage to save space on your device.
With this, when you optimize the storage, full-resolution photos and videos will be stored on the cloud while those that do not take much space will be saved on the device. So not every photo will be available on iCloud when this feature is turned on.
Now to extract the photos and videos from iCloud
- Go to iCloud.com and login using your credentials
- Press Photos.
- Tap Select, then tap a photo or video. To select multiple photos or videos, tap more than one. To select your entire library, tap Select All.
- Tap the More button.
- Choose Download, then tap Download to confirm.
iCloud Limitations
For iCloud to work properly, it has to be in sync with the device at all times. Sometimes the user has to manually turn on syncing and transfer their photos and videos to the cloud which isn’t the issue with XNSPY or other similar methods. iCloud only works with Apple devices.
iCloud Advantages
Free and is officially licensed by Apple
3. Google Photos
Google Photos is part of the Google Drive suite and it saves photos and videos from Android phones to their online Google Drive account. Users can easily share their photos with others by creating a link to a specific album or by sending individual photos or albums to specific people.
Google Photos also offers free unlimited storage for high-quality photos and videos. However, if you want to store photos in their original quality, you need to upgrade for additional storage space which has a monthly fee.
You can choose to enable automatic backup, which means that any new photos taken or saved to a device will be automatically uploaded to Google Photos. Another cool feature of Google Photos is that it uses machine learning algorithms to automatically organize photos into different categories such as people, places, and things. This makes it easier for users to search for specific photos.
How to Extract Stored Photos & Videos Via Google Photos?
Here’s how to use Google Photos to extract photos and videos from a device:
- On your computer, go to photos.google.com.
- Select a photo or video that you want to download
- Click More and then Download.
Move all photos to a different Google Account
If you accidentally backed up your photos on the wrong Google Account, you can move them to a different account.
- Share your photo library with that account.
- Sign in to your second account.
- Go to “Sharing.”
- Open the sharing conversation.
- Click Save.
Limitations Of Google Photos
It has the same limitations as iCloud as it needs an active internet connection to access photos and videos and it doesn’t automatically sync devices which can be difficult when a person doesn’t have a speedy internet connection.
Google Photos Advantages
It is free, has great support from Google, has a lot of storage space, and has built-in editing tools that are quite advanced and powerful.
Which Method Is The Best?
iCloud and Google Drive have their advantages when it comes to offloading data from your phone to the cloud. They are both quite popular methods of saving data to the cloud for easy access, but they are not as powerful as other solutions out there.
And due to the advantages I have mentioned earlier, great pricing, and high compatibility plus seamless and automatic extraction of photos and videos, XNSPY has an edge over both iCloud and Google Drive.
