How to transfer photos from your iPhone to a computer

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How to transfer photos from your iPhone to a computer

iPhone camera

Sean Wolfe / Business Insider

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  • You can transfer photos from your iPhone to a Mac or PC computer by connecting the phone to your computer's Photos app.
  • Here are the corresponding steps for each process.

If you have an iPhone - particularly any recent model of the phone - you also have a professional-quality camera that can catch great pics wherever you are.

But storage for photos is limited on any device (unless you put everything in the cloud), so you may need to offload those great pics from time to time.

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Here's how to transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer.

Transfer photos from your iPhone to a Mac

Macbook Pro charging iPhone usb c

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Connect your iPhone

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To prepare for your photo upload, make sure your software is up to date. You'll need the most recent version of iTunes (or at least version 12.5.1 or beyond). You'll also need a USB cord to connect your iPhone to your Mac.

  1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac via USB (or a USB-C cord for newer models of the MacBook).
  2. Check your phone. You may be prompted to unlock it with its passcode (your iPhone won't accept touch ID for this verification).
  3. If a screen appears on your iPhone, choose "Trust This Computer." Your iPhone is now connected to your Mac computer.
  4. The Photos app on your computer should pop open. If not, open it manually.
  5. You should see an import screen in Photos that shows the photos you have on your iPhone. If you aren't automatically placed in this screen, click on the icon for your iPhone in the menu on the left of the Photos window. Or go to File - Import to open the import window.
  6. Choose where you want to store your imported photos. At the top of the import window in the center, you'll find a drop-down menu that lets you add the new photos to one of your albums or create a new album for your import. If you do nothing, the transferred photos will go into your Photos app Library. Your photos will also automatically appear in the Import or Last Import album (the name of this album depends on whether you have High Sierra or an earlier macOS).
  7. There are two buttons on the upper left of the import window. "Import All New Items" will transfer every photo you have taken since your last import. To upload only certain photos, click on each photo you want to copy onto your computer and click the "Import Selected" button.
  8. Your import is complete! Go to iTunes and click the eject icon before you disconnect your iPhone.

You can also follow the steps above to import from your iPad, iPod Touch, or your camera's SD card.

Transfer photos from your iPhone to a PC

intel laptop

AP

The steps are similar for PC.

Before you upload photos onto a PC, you'll also need at least version 12.5.1 of iTunes on your computer. Follow the instructions above to connect your iPhone, unlock it, and tell it to trust your computer.

After you are connected, the steps you'll need to follow depend on which version of Windows you have on your PC. Here are the steps for Windows 10.

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  1. Click the Start button.
  2. Choose Photos from the menu that pops up. This opens the Photos app on your PC.
  3. In Photos, choose Import - From a USB device. Follow the instructions to complete your photo transfer.
  4. You'll have the option to choose where you want to put your imported photos. You can also select which photos to import.

Microsoft's support documentation has instructions for how to transfer photos from an iPhone to a PC running Windows 8 or Windows 7.

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