Setting up the Canon Content Transfer Professional app for Impulse

Jul 28, 2025

In this guide we'll walk through how to configure the Canon Content Transfer Professional app to upload your pictures to Impulse in real time. This guide assumes you know how to plug in you camera to your phone, if that's not the case checkout this guide.

Overview

The Impulse Canon Content Transfer Professional app lets you hard-wire your camera to your phone which will then receive the pictures as soon as they are taken and transfer them to the Impulse cloud using our SFTP server.

Camera compatibility

Before we get started, you'll have to make sure your camera is compatible with the Canon app. Head to the Official Canon Camera Compatibility page to check your model.

If your camera is not compatible don't worry! You can always upload your picture from our web interface, setup a Google Drive, Dropbox folder or do regular SD card drops to the SFTP. Contact your Impulse point of contact to know more.

Configuring your camera

Canon cameras generally work pretty well right away, but there are a few things you need to make sure a setup right in the camera settings:

  • Make sure to shoot in JPEG, the app will not transfer RAW files.

    • If you are shooting only for Impulse we recommend setting your "Image quality" setting to no RAW + Medium smooth JPEG

    • If you require RAW or big JPEGs for post-processing, the app will automatically ignore RAW files so you can shoot in RAW+JPEG. Be mindful of upload speed: shooting big JPEGs will take significantly more time to upload.

  • Make sure your camera has an SD card in all slots (or at least the slot that the app is looking at, check the server settings on the app). The app will not work if the camera doesn't have an SD card.

Configuring the app

Let's walks through how to setup the app from scratch. First we need to register the SFTP server in the app.

This is what you will see when opening the app

Click on "Transfer settings"

Click "Upload destination"

If you've used the app before this will show a list of the servers you've registered, you can always edit an existing one if you want. If the list is empty, click the "+" button at the top right

This is where we enter our server details:

  • "Setting destination name" is just for you, enter a name you will recognize later

  • Change the server type to "SFTP"

  • Server name: sftp.impul.co

  • Port can be left to default "22"

  • Ignore Destination Folder

  • Enter your username: {var:sftpUser}

  • Enter your password: {var:sftpPassword}

  • Overwrite files can be set to either settings, the default Skip is fine

  • Leave Private key disabled

Once everything is filled, click "Test connection" at the bottom, it should show a success message.

Once the connection is tested, click "Save" at the top right

If you have several servers configured, make sure the correct one has the green check mark by clicking on it

Connecting the camera

Now that we have the server registered on the app, we can plug in the camera. Make sure your Canon camera is turned on and the app is open, then plug the cable between the phone and the camera.

If this is your first time connecting, the system will show you a permission request. Check the box with "Always open" and click "OK"

The first time you connect might take a few tries. If the camera stays more than 20 seconds on the connection screen before showing up on the app, here is a few things you can try:

  • Unplug/replug the cable while the camera is on

  • Turn off/on the camera while the cable is connected

  • A number of Canon cameras disable their USB port (sometimes labelled as the DIGITAL port) when WiFi is enabled, even if you aren’t currently using WiFi. If your Canon camera isn’t being detected, navigate to your camera’s setup menu and set the Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi/NFC setting to Disable, then try again.

  • Newer Canon cameras (starting from the EOS R6 Mark II) have a new setting: Choose USB connection app. This needs to be set to Photo Import/Remote Control in order for the app to connect. You can find out more information on this in your camera’s user manual. If your camera doesn’t have this setting, you’re good to go.

You should now see your camera model show at the top and the "Auto-Transfer" button light up

When you're ready to take pictures, or anytime your camera was unplugged or turned off: Click "Auto-Transfer"

If you've properly put the green check mark on your SFTP server in the previous step you have nothing to do on this screen, just press "Start" at the bottom.

Otherwise select the correct server in the list by clicking the second option from the top shown as "Your event name" on the screenshot

That's it! If you get to this screen you're all setup to shoot and pictures will appear on the app and get transferred automatically.


Handling transfer errors and missing pictures

It's possible to get transfer errors if the connectivity on site is not perfect, or even to have the camera disconnect from the phone while shooting. In that case the Canon app doesn't let you re-transfer only the missing pictures, so you have a few options:

  • Use the manual section mode from the main screen of the app while having your camera connected

  • Do an SD card drop when you get the time, check this guide

In any case, do not worry about re-uploading pictures to Impulse: We automatically detect if the file has the same name as before, and even if it doesn't have the same name we have built in AI picture deduplication.