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How to transfer files from an SD card onto a Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 doesn't have an SD card slot, but it's easy to use an SD card reader to transfer your photos.

Andrew Lanxon Editor At Large, Lead Photographer, Europe
Andrew is CNET's go-to guy for product coverage and lead photographer for Europe. When not testing the latest phones, he can normally be found with his camera in hand, behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food. Sometimes all at once.
Expertise Smartphones, Photography, iOS, Android, gaming, outdoor pursuits Credentials
  • Shortlisted for British Photography Awards 2022, Commended in Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022
Andrew Lanxon
2 min read

Google's Nexus 7 is both cheap and powerful and its small size makes it easy to carry round. It has no SD card slot as standard, but with only a few steps and minimal fuss, you'll quickly be able to transfer your images from your digital camera's SD card.

You can then review, edit and quickly share them without needing to boot up your PC. It'll also allow you to watch videos stored on the card, meaning you don't need to clog up your precious internal storage with huge video files.

Apart from your Nexus 7 and your SD card full of great photos, you'll need three things:

From here, the process is delightfully simple. Download and install the NMI app. Next, insert the OTG USB cable into the micro USB port at the bottom of your Nexus. That then leaves you with a full-size USB port, into which you'll pop your SD card reader and of course, your SD card.

Nexus Media Importer

You can then open the NMI app (it will ask you if you want it to automatically open when you connect an SD card) and browse your files, saving the ones you want to your device.

From there, you can open any of your photos as normal with apps like Snapseed or Instagram to edit and share to your heart's content. If you're a budding photographer, being able to quickly review your images on a bigger screen -- to check for correct focus etc -- could be invaluable, especially as the Nexus is much easier to haul around than a laptop.

It'll work with the Nexus 7 and the bigger Nexus 10 and the cable works with the Samsung Galaxy S3 without needing the app -- a browser automatically opens to show your snaps. I don't have every Android phone made to hand so I'm not sure what the results will be on other devices, but for the cheap price of the cable, it's probably worth a punt anyway.