Help transferring all my iPhone pics/videos to a Windows PC
July 5, 2024 7:29 AM Subscribe
I have an iPhone SE that's about four years old. I've never been able to get my Windows 10 PC to recognize the phone via a USB Lightning cable. I want to transfer all of my pictures and videos to my Windows PC, and then delete them from the phone.
My iPhone keeps running out of storage. A few days ago, I reluctantly upgraded to the 2TB iCloud plan so that I could continue taking new photos and videos. My goal now is to move everything over to my Windows 10 PC, wipe the phone clean of media, and then cancel my iCloud plan.
The challenge is that my computer will not recognize the phone when I plug it in. This has been a long-standing problem and is the reason why I keep needing to buy more iCloud storage. Recently, for a few brief moments, the phone showed up in Windows Explorer. I was then able to navigate to the DCIM folder and copy a few pictures. Then something glitched, and no number of reboots and restarts would fix it. I've followed all the advice I found online, but none of it worked. The computer stubbornly refuses to recognize that the phone is connected to it.
I don't have access to a Macintosh computer. What is the simplest way to grab all those photos and videos?
My iPhone keeps running out of storage. A few days ago, I reluctantly upgraded to the 2TB iCloud plan so that I could continue taking new photos and videos. My goal now is to move everything over to my Windows 10 PC, wipe the phone clean of media, and then cancel my iCloud plan.
The challenge is that my computer will not recognize the phone when I plug it in. This has been a long-standing problem and is the reason why I keep needing to buy more iCloud storage. Recently, for a few brief moments, the phone showed up in Windows Explorer. I was then able to navigate to the DCIM folder and copy a few pictures. Then something glitched, and no number of reboots and restarts would fix it. I've followed all the advice I found online, but none of it worked. The computer stubbornly refuses to recognize that the phone is connected to it.
I don't have access to a Macintosh computer. What is the simplest way to grab all those photos and videos?
On your PC, log in to your iCloud plan and pull down the photos.
posted by at at 8:14 AM on July 5 [4 favorites]
posted by at at 8:14 AM on July 5 [4 favorites]
If you always use the same cord, try another one. Power and data are two different "wires" and sometimes the data one is missing or broken. Also, try another USB port on the PC if you have options, even if that means removing a mouse or something. If you do get it to work, the Windows app Photos usually does a good job importing pics and videos from my phone. There is a checkbox to remove them from the phone after importing.
If you have an Amazon or Google account, they both have photo storage apps that you can use on your phone. Like the iCloud suggestion above, you can upload to them and then download to your PC. Dropbox would work the same way.
posted by soelo at 8:16 AM on July 5
If you have an Amazon or Google account, they both have photo storage apps that you can use on your phone. Like the iCloud suggestion above, you can upload to them and then download to your PC. Dropbox would work the same way.
posted by soelo at 8:16 AM on July 5
Response by poster: With regard to the iCloud portal: Can I delete all the photos from iCloud, and then have them also be deleted from my iPhone? I have a vague memory of trying to do this once, and it worked for about ten minutes, and then all of the photos weirdly reappeared, like they were being synced from somewhere.
posted by akk2014 at 8:18 AM on July 5
posted by akk2014 at 8:18 AM on July 5
Best answer: If your photos are in iCloud and your phone is set to "Optimize Storage" then connecting the phone to your PC via cable is not going to do you any good. You won't see any photos to transfer since they aren't actually on the phone, they're in the cloud.
Can I delete all the photos from iCloud, and then have them also be deleted from my iPhone?
Yes, if your Photos app on your phone is set to store your photos in iCloud, then deleting them from iCloud will delete them from your phone. iCloud is like the official data source and your phone is basically just showing thumbnails, which is why adding iCloud storage space helps you save physical storage space on your phone.
You can test this by downloading a dozen photos from iCloud.com and then deleting them. They will disappear from your phone a while later, once iCloud syncs again. It's not instantaneous and you should have the phone charging and connected to wifi for the quickest result, as iCloud will delay sync to save on both cellular data transfer and power.
When I have a lot that I want to clean out, I usually download/delete chunks of like 100 photos at a time from iCloud.com, especially since that way I can confirm by eye that I have downloaded what I expect before I delete it.
posted by bcwinters at 10:36 AM on July 5 [2 favorites]
Can I delete all the photos from iCloud, and then have them also be deleted from my iPhone?
Yes, if your Photos app on your phone is set to store your photos in iCloud, then deleting them from iCloud will delete them from your phone. iCloud is like the official data source and your phone is basically just showing thumbnails, which is why adding iCloud storage space helps you save physical storage space on your phone.
You can test this by downloading a dozen photos from iCloud.com and then deleting them. They will disappear from your phone a while later, once iCloud syncs again. It's not instantaneous and you should have the phone charging and connected to wifi for the quickest result, as iCloud will delay sync to save on both cellular data transfer and power.
When I have a lot that I want to clean out, I usually download/delete chunks of like 100 photos at a time from iCloud.com, especially since that way I can confirm by eye that I have downloaded what I expect before I delete it.
posted by bcwinters at 10:36 AM on July 5 [2 favorites]
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2. There's an app called iMazing that you can buy that lets you basically treat your connected phone like any other external data source. It looks like it does need to use a cabled connection for the initial setup, but will work over wifi after that.
3. Assuming all this stuff is uploaded to iCloud, you can log into iCloud.com on your PC, navigate to the folder, select all, and click the Download button (the cloud + down arrow button at the top). To select all, click on the first item, scroll to the bottom, and shift-click on the last item.
posted by adamrice at 8:02 AM on July 5 [3 favorites]