How to Get Photos Off iPhone (Easy Tips)
Why Do You Need to Get Photos Off Your iPhone
It's needless to stress the importance of your iPhone photos that carry your precious memory. However, they can also be annoying when they take a large portion of your iPhone storage and give rise to issues like the iPhone running slow or iPhone running out of space.
That's when you need to get photos off your iPhone. By doing so, you can transfer photos from your iPhone to a computer to make a backup. Afterward, you can delete these pictures from your iPhone to free up your device if you need to.
Then how can you get photos off your iPhone? Depending on the computer you use, be it a PC or Mac, there are different ways for you to save your iPhone photos elsewhere. Specify your situation and apply one of the ways below to get pictures off your iPhone effortlessly.
How to Get Photos Off Your iPhone via a PC
Although a PC doesn't work so seamlessly with an iPhone as a Mac does, there are still quite a lot of ways to upload photos from an iPhone to a Windows computer. Whether you'd like to use a third-party data transfer tool or not, you can find a way you like.
Method 1. Get Photos Off an iPhone with File Explorer
When you want to get all photos off your iPhone at once without any third-party software, using File Explorer is a suitable choice. As long as your iPhone can be recognized by the computer, you can access and copy your iPhone photos freely.
To use this way, you need a USB cable to help. Prepare it and follow the steps below to transfer your iPhone photos to your computer:
Step 1. Connect your iPhone to the PC with a USB cable.
Step 2. Unlock your iPhone and click "Trust" to trust the computer.
Step 3. Go to any File Explorer windowand click "This PC" > "This PC" > "Apple iPhone" > "Internal Storage" > "DCIM."
Step 4. Select the photos or folders you want to get off from your phone and then copy them to your computer.
If you want to get more iPhone space, you can choose to delete photos from your iPhone after the data transfer completes.
A similar way to get pictures off your iPhone on Windows is using Photos. This built-in app on Windows allows you to import photos from your iPhone to the computer all at once or selectively. Besides, you can delete the original items after the import finishes by checking the "Delete original items after import" option.
Method 2. Transfer Photos from iPhone to PC with iPhone Transfer Software
Although File Explorer performs well to get your iPhone photos onto a PC, it won't help when you need to add photos to your iPhone or transfer other types of content between an iPhone and a computer.
Thus, if you want to manage your iPhone data better, you are recommended to try the iPhone transfer software - Qiling MobiMover. It's an all-in-one iPhone toolkit that has features including:
- Data transfer
- Device backup
- WhatsApp management
- HEIC to JPG conversion
- Video to MP3 conversion
With Qiling MobiMover installed on your PC or Mac, you will be able to get photos off your iPhone and do many other things to manage your data better.
To transfer photos from your iPhone to a PC:
Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a USB cable and run Qiling MobiMover. Choose "Phone to Mac" from the main screen and click the "Next" button to continue. You can also go to "Content Management" > "Pictures" > "Photos" to transfer photos from iPhone to Mac selectively.
Step 2. Make sure the "Pictures" category is selected. Other than photos, you can also transfer videos, music, ringtones, contacts, messages, and other supported files from your iPhone to the Mac. Also, you can change the position you want to house the files you transfer.
Step 3. Click the "Transfer" button to start transferring photos as well as other files from your iPhone to Mac at a fast speed. Depending on the size of the files, it may take seconds or a while to complete the process.
Some of you may prefer to transfer photos from an iPhone to an external hard drive. If you do, you can use Qiling MobiMover to do it directly. Before the data transfer starts, you can select a folder in the external hard drive as the destination to transfer photos from your iPhone to the external drive safely.
Method 3. Get Pictures Off iPhone via iCloud
Both iCloud and other cloud-based services are helpful to transfer your iPhone photos to a PC. By turning on iCloud Photos on the iOS device, you can sync photos from your iPhone to iCloud. Afterward, you can go to iCloud.com to download iCloud photos to your PC. After you download these iPhone photos to your computer, you can now freely clear your iPhone photos to get more storage.
Step 1. Go to the Settings app to enable iCloud Photos.
Step 2. Go to iCloud.com and sign in with the Apple ID you use on your iPhone.
Step 3. Go to "Photos," select all items, and then click "Download" in the top right corner to save them to your PC.
How to Get Pictures Off iPhone on Mac
Since both iPhone and Mac are Apple devices, it's even easier to get your iPhone photos onto a Mac. On Mac, there is more than one built-in app that allows you to import photos from your iPhone. In addition, the tool introduced above - Qiling MobiMover is also compatible with macOS. Let'sdelve into the details.
Method 1. Get iPhone Photos to Mac via Photos
Just like Windows, there is also a Photos app on Mac that enables you to manage and transfer photos on Mac or import photos from an iPhone. Without any software installation, you can use this pre-installed app to get pictures off your iPhone easily.
Step 1. Unlock your iPhone and connect it to your Mac.
Step 2. Click "Trust" on your iPhone and then enter the passcode as required.
Step 3. Launch Photos and click on your iPhone from the left panel.
Step 4. Now you can see all your photos on your iPhone. Click "Import All New Photos" or select the items you want to transfer and then click "Import [number] Selected" to transfer photos from iPhone to Mac.
Method 2. Import Photos from iPhone to Mac with Image Capture
Image Capture is another app available on Mac that works well to move photos from an iPhone to a computer. It works similarly to Photos and only needs a USB cable to get it done.
Step 1. Connect your iPhone to the Mac and make sure it is recognized by the computer.
Step 2. Open Image Capture and select your device in the window.
Step 3. Select photos and click "Download" or click "Download All" to import photos from your iPhone to the Mac.
Method 3. Send Photos from iPhone to Mac with AirDrop
AirDrop is an exclusive method for Apple devices to share files with each other, including photos. With AirDrop on, you can send photos from your iPhone to your Mac wirelessly. Convenient it is, if you have numerous items to transfer, it may take you a long time to finish the data transfer, depending on your network speed.
If you prefer a wireless solution to get pictures off your iPhone, follow the steps below.
Step 1. Enable AirDrop and Bluetooth on your iPhone and Mac.
Step 2. On your iPhone, open the Photos app and select the photos you want to transfer.
Step 3. Tap the "Share" icon, choose the "AirDrop" option, and tap the name of your Mac.
Step 4. In the AirDrop window on your Mac, click "Accept" to receive these pictures. Afterward, you can go to the "Downloads" folder to check the photos from your iPhone.
The Bottom Line
Whether you prefer a wired or wireless solution to get photos off your iPhone, you can find it from the methods above. By the way, photos are precious files. Even if you don't want to free up your iPhone space. It's necessary to back up them regularly since data loss happens often.
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