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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Apps / Saving photos to phone...
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Saving photos to phones camera roll

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Posted on by 14
Hi there
 
I have an app which is being used on mobile phones.  It has an AddPicture control and saves photos to a collection.
Once all required details on that screen have been filled in, the collection and details are written to a sharepoint list.
 
However if a call or text comes in, the app loses focus so when they come back to that screen, the photos have been cleared.
 
The easiest solution would be to be able to save the photos automatically to the camera roll as they get saved to the collection?
 
Is there a way I can do this?
 
Appreciate any suggestions.
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  • ronaldwalcott Profile Picture
    3,847 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    Why don't you upload the photos as you capture them then assign them, if there is such a high possibility of loss? There isn't an automated way to download photos to the camera roll.
  • Suggested answer
    Nandit Profile Picture
    1,568 Moderator on at
     
    How about you replace the AddPicture control with an attachments control? Let the users click a lot of pictures on their phone which then end up in there Camera Roll, then they can open the app and attach all the images in the attachments control, and finally press a button to upload everything in the SharePoint list using Power Automate. 
     
    Hope you like the idea. Happy to assist further. 
     
    Kind regards, 
    Nandit
     
    If this answers your query, please mark this response as the answer.
    If its helpful, please leave a like. Thanks!
  • DLWilliams Profile Picture
    14 on at
    Thanks for the suggestions Nandit and Ronald.
    Unfortunately neither of the suggestions are ideal - but good ideas.
     
    The users really like taking photos through the app, seeing them in a gallery and then submitting them all at once. I don't want to force them to have to take the photos outside of the app and then come in to the app and attach them.  Some users are not that technical so could get confusing for them.  
    And my preference is to do a single write rather than multiple updates to the list as they take their photos.  Also because they get to check the final set of photos before saving.
     
    But you have given me an idea - perhaps I could do a save to a temporary sharepoint list as they take them.  Then remove the temporary list photos once they are submitted properly as a final write.  Bit complicated plus many more writes/deletes and might have a performance impact.
     
    I suppose I was just hoping there might be some new app functionality allowing one to save to the camera roll at the same time as saving to a collection.  But perhaps that is just wishful thinking.
  • Nandit Profile Picture
    1,568 Moderator on at
     
    Yes, this sounds like a good idea to get around this issue. Give it a try and share any other issues you face along the way. I will try to think of an easier way too.
     
    Kind regards, 
    Nandit
  • timl Profile Picture
    36,383 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at
    Hi DLWilliams,
     
    What I would suggest is that you save the collection to the local device when items are added to the collection, by calling the SaveData function.
     
    You can retrieve the data when the app starts by calling LoadData. When you patch the collection to SharePoint, you can clear the local data by calling ClearData.
     
    By writing the collection to the device, the images will persist following the app restart that occurs when a call comes in. 
     
    The documentation provides an example of how to write collections with images to the device by calling SaveData.
     
     
     

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