Sync full resolution photos to SkyDrive with Camera Roll Sync

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Windows Phone includes a handy feature that allows you to automatically sync photos to the cloud (SkyDrive). However, with an aim of keeping data usage reasonable, it will downsize any photo to a lower resolution when doing so. There are various work arounds (sync via desktop, upload manually via SkyDrive app), but a new app, Camera Roll Sync, offers an easy to use alternative.

Camera Roll Sync uses SkyDrive's APIs to directly interact with the cloud service. Once you have linked the Camera Roll Sync app with your SkyDrive account, it can be used to automatically upload all photos, taken after a user specified date, at full resolution, to a user specified folder on SkyDrive. On subsequent syncs it will check which photos have already been uploaded and only sync those that have been added since the last sync.

The main benefit of Camera Roll Sync, compared to other phone based full-resolution-photos-to-SkyDrive work arounds, is that, after an initial set-up, it is a one tap process. All you need to do is press the "Start sync" button to get the upload process under way.

Camera Roll Sync ScreenshotCamera Roll Sync Screenshot

There are a number of limitations to consider when using Camera Roll Sync. In contrast to the built in background photo sync functionality it is not automatic. That means you will have to remember to periodically open the applications and start a sync process. Moreover Camera Roll Sync must be left running, in the foreground, while the sync takes place. However, it is still much easier than manually uploading photos to SkyDrive.

If you do use Camera Roll Sync you may want to consider turning off the built in automatic sync (via the pictures+camera page of the Settings app). On the other hand you may want to leave it in place, so as to have an up to date as possible backup of your precious photos.

We already know that one of the features of Windows Phone 8 is the ability to automatically sync full resolutions photos to SkyDrive, but for Windows Phone 7 users looking for the same functionality Camera Roll Sync is a great solution.

Marketplace description:

Sync your camera roll folder to SkyDrive in high quality. Windows phone built-in auto-upload has two limitations. It only uploads pictures if connection is available when the picture was taken and it downsizes the pictures to low resolution. This application is intended to solve both issues.

Camera Roll Sync can be downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace for free.

Source / Credit: AAWP App Directory