How to Transfer Photos and Videos From Your Phone to a Computer

Your phone is running out of space, you are moving to a new device, or you simply want years of camera roll backed up somewhere safe. The job comes down to one question: which phone, which computer, cable or wireless. Each of those four combinations has its own trap; on Android the computer sees nothing until you change the phone's USB setting, and on iPhone the full-size version of a photo may not even be on the phone.

The steps below are split by route, so reading the one that matches your setup is enough. Everyone should read the last step, though, because assuming a transfer finished and then deleting from the phone is the most common way people lose photos.

1. Prepare: pick a destination folder and the right cable Before you start, create a single destination folder on the computer and add year-month subfolders inside it (such as Phone/2026-10). Copies scattered across the desktop are the files people lose first. Be ready to unlock the phone: neither Windows nor Mac will show the gallery while the screen is locked. Choose the cable carefully, because Google's own help page tells people with transfer problems to "try a different USB cable, not all USB cables can transfer files"; use the cable that came with the phone, plugged straight into the computer's own port without a hub or extension.
2. Android + Windows: transfer over the cable Unlock the phone and plug in the cable. The phone shows a "Charging this device via USB" notification; tap it and under "Use USB for" choose "File Transfer". Skip this and Windows treats the phone as a device that is merely charging and shows no folders at all. Then open File Explorer, find the phone under This PC, go to Internal shared storage → DCIM → Camera and copy the files into your destination folder. When you are done, eject the device from Windows before unplugging the cable.
3. Windows: import with the Photos app (Android and iPhone) If you would rather not browse folders by hand, Microsoft's own route is faster. Connect the phone with the cable, type "photos" in the taskbar search box to open the Photos app, and choose Import from the app bar. Pick the connected device, select what you want, choose the destination folder and confirm. On iPhone you must answer the "Trust This Computer" prompt with Trust or Allow; on Android, if the list comes up empty, switch the USB setting to File Transfer again. Do not skip Microsoft's warning: if your photos live in the cloud, importing from the device will not work and you have to download them from the cloud side instead.
4. Android + Windows: two wireless routes On Windows 11 phone photos now appear directly in File Explorer instead of inside a Phone Link window: once the phone is paired with the PC, go to Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mobile devices → Manage devices and turn on "Show mobile device in File Explorer". That gives you wireless access to every folder on the phone, not just the camera roll, including videos and audio files; only one phone can be shown at a time. Important warning: what you see there are online-only files, so a file you delete in File Explorer is permanently removed from the phone too. The second route, for anyone moving only 20-30 photos, is Quick Share: install the Quick Share app on the computer from Google's site (on Samsung PCs, the Samsung version from the Microsoft Store), turn Bluetooth on for both devices, and keep them on the same Wi-Fi or Ethernet network within about 5 metres of each other; the computer needs a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or later, and ARM-based machines need Windows 11 or later. On the phone select the photos, choose Quick Share from the share menu, pick the computer from the list, check that the same code appears on both screens, and accept the incoming transfer on the computer.
5. iPhone + Windows: transfer over the cable Apple says to install the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store so that Windows recognises the iPhone; the photo import itself is done with the Windows Photos app, that is the third step above. When you plug in the cable, answer the "Trust This Computer" prompt with Trust or Allow, otherwise the device looks like a locked box. Apple's explicit warning: if iCloud Photos is on, you must first download the original, full-resolution versions, because only a space-saving version may be on the phone. For the fewest headaches on Windows, Apple suggests setting Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible before shooting, which captures photos as JPEG and video as H.264.
6. iPhone + Mac: the Photos app or Image Capture There are two routes on a Mac. To bring items into the Photos library, connect the iPhone with a cable and open Photos on the Mac; if the Import screen does not appear by itself, click the device's name in the sidebar, then click Import Selected or Import All New Items. If you want plain files in a plain folder instead of a library, open Image Capture, select the iPhone under Devices in the sidebar, use the Import To pop-up menu at the bottom of the window to choose the destination, and click Download or Download All. The action button in the toolbar has a "Delete after import" option; leave it off on your first pass. If you do not want HEIC files converted to JPEG during import, choose Keep Originals on the iPhone under Settings → Apps → Photos.
7. iPhone + Mac: wirelessly with AirDrop For a few photos AirDrop is the shortest path. Both devices need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and must be near each other. On the iPhone open Photos, select the images, tap the Share button and then AirDrop, and pick the Mac from the list. On the Mac, use the Accept pop-up menu in the notification to decide what happens: files usually land in the Downloads folder, and for some types you also get the option to open them in Photos. To send the other way, open Finder on the Mac, click AirDrop in the sidebar and drag the file onto the recipient.
8. Wireless: downloading through iCloud Photos If you want to avoid cables entirely, on the iPhone go to Settings → your name → iCloud → Photos and turn on Sync this device, then wait for the upload to finish. Next, on a Mac or a Windows PC, open iCloud.com/photos in a browser, select the items (Command on a Mac, Ctrl on a PC, up to 1,000 at a time) and click the Download button in the top right. Under More Download Options you can choose between Unmodified Originals and Most Compatible; pick Most Compatible if HEIC files will not open on your computer. If you want the whole library kept full-size locally on a Mac, go to Photos → Settings → iCloud and select "Download Originals to this Mac"; on the iPhone the equivalent setting is Download and Keep Originals.
9. Wireless: Google Photos (including Android + Mac) Google's official USB instructions only cover Windows and Chromebook; there is no Google desktop transfer tool for the Mac. That is why the cloud is the most dependable route for an Android phone plus a Mac: open Google Photos on the phone, tap your profile picture, go to Photos settings → Backup and turn the Backup switch on. Setting the quality to Original quality keeps files at the resolution you shot them; Storage saver reduces quality somewhat. Do not move to the computer until you see "Backup complete" at the top of your library. Then open photos.google.com on the computer, open a photo and choose Download from the three-dot More menu; to grab the entire archive at once, use Google's data export tool.
10. Verify the transfer before you delete anything This step is not negotiable. Open the destination folder, compare the file count with the phone, and open 8-10 randomly chosen photos plus the largest video on the computer and play it to the end. Any 0 KB file or file that will not open means that batch is incomplete, so copy it again. Check the total folder size too: if a folder that was 40 GB on the phone shows as 12 GB on the computer, the job is not finished. Only when all of that checks out should you start deleting from the phone, in batches rather than all at once, and ideally after putting a second copy somewhere else such as an external drive or the cloud.

⚠ This guide is general information. Yudum cannot be held responsible for the outcome of following it; for official procedures always rely on the institution's own statement. Steps and fees change over time.

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