Once iOS created the ability to import files from iCloud and third-party apps into Safari, I was closer. I found apps to change the size and the name of the photos, but they would still import into WordPress as “image.jpg.” After many nights of figuring out the problems, I finally came up with the answer: keep the image out of Apple’s hands. With the right apps, we can now upload an image into WordPress (or any other site) on an iPad and retain its image name. Here are the steps.
Apps That We Use
This process involves using three third-party apps: Image Size, Dropbox, and Chrome. Download these to your iOS device.
You will also need a Dropbox account. You do not need to sign up for a premium account unless you would like to. For this purpose, the free version of Dropbox works just fine. Once you open the app either “Sign Up” for a new account or “Sign In” to an existing one. If you do have an existing account, you do not have to physically have the app on your iPad.
Changing the Image Size
This is required only if you need your image to be of certain size. Sure, you can import an image into WordPress as is, but many times, the images in your Photo Library are huge. You won’t be using as much space on your server if the files aren’t so much larger than they need to be. And sometimes, you need a very specific size if it’s going to be displayed in a slideshow area of your WordPress theme or used as the Featured Image. Technically you can change the size from within WordPress, but then you are still using the space to store the larger file. Open the Image Size app and click the Photo symbol in the far-left corner to import your photo. Tap on the desired photo in your Photo Library to import it, then click the arrow at the top-right of the screen.
Input your desired size in the following screen. The image area in the bottom half of the screen will change to fit those parameters. Drag your photo to get it placed right within the image size, then click the arrow at the top-right of the screen.
This screen shows the finished image. Tap the upward arrow in the bottom-left of the screen to upload the new image into your Dropbox. Tap on the option that reads “Save to Dropbox.” You can move through your folders in Dropbox to have it saved in the correct place. Additionally, this is when you change the name of photo. Just replace the word “image” with your desired name.
Upload Image to WordPress
Now that you have a photo that has the correct name and size, you can import it into WordPress. However, you do not want to use the Safari browser to access WordPress, otherwise it will still upload the image with the name “image.jpg,” despite your work to change that name. For this, you’ll want to use Chrome. This process has not been tested with other browsers, but it could work in others as well. Using Chrome, go to your Media Library in your WordPress site and Select “Add New,” followed by “Select Files.” You can see that Dropbox is one of the options. Select that and navigate to your image. Tap the image to import it.
Once the image has downloaded to WordPress, open it, and you will see that it has kept your correct size parameters as well as the new title.
Conclusion
While you should be able to do this photo management using Apple’s native apps, for some reason, it just doesn’t work. However, it’s only a few extra steps to get it to work the way it should and only takes a few third-party apps and a Dropbox account. Do you know of another way to import an image into WordPrress on an iPad yet still keep the size parameters and photo name? Let us know in the comments below.
