It's pretty easy to transfer photos from your phone to your laptop. zeljkosantrac/Getty Images
Samsung Phone Appears on Computer. When connection is successful, the screen of your Samsung phone will appear on your computer and you can move, increase or decrease it on the desktop. Drag your Photos from Samsung Phone to PC. In this step, you need to click Samsung phone screen on your PC firstly. Oct 30, 2019 Step 1, Open your email program or email website on your computer. If the phone you are sending the images to supports email, it should be able to download the images as attachments. You can also send email messages to a phone using MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).Step 2, Compose a new message. Most smartphones these days allow you to check emails directly on the cell phone.Step.
Advertisement
These days, there are a lot of different ways to import pictures from a cell phone to a laptop. Some of those methods require just a few touches on a variety of smartphone apps; others are a little more involved. You'll find that the processes are a little different depending on whether you use an Android or iOS smartphone, and whether you're using a Windows or iOS laptop.
If you're using a Windows PC, your phone's USB or charging cable is one of the fastest ways to move a lot of photos quickly to your laptop, and it won't drain your phone's battery in the process. Here's what to do:
- Turn on your phone and your laptop. Unlock both devices, if they are password protected.
- Connect the small end of the USB cable to your phone.
- Connect the standard end of the USB cable to your laptop's USB port (the port could be on the side or back of your laptop.) Windows will automatically detect your phone.
For Android phones:
- You may see an 'Allow Access to Your Data' dialog box. Touch 'Allow' to continue the process. (Windows may prompt you to choose what to do when the device is connected in the future.)
- On your laptop, click 'Import Photos and Videos,' and Windows will begin looking for new images and videos stored on your phone using the Windows Photo app.
- After it locates new images on your phone, you can select which pictures you want to transfer to your computer — you can simply 'Select All' if you like.
- Alternately, you can skip the Windows Photo app altogether, and use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder where images are stored on your phone (they're often in a folder named DCIM, Camera, or Photos). You can copy the images and then paste them to a laptop folder.
For iPhones:
- When you connect your phone's cable to the PC, your phone may prompt you to 'Trust This Computer.' Tap Trust. Your phone will be listed as a device in Windows Explorer.
- Double-click the DCIM folder on your phone and then copy and paste images from your phone to a folder on your laptop.
Note: If you have iCloud enabled, you can't download your photos to your PC as they are saved on iCloud and not on your phone. In that case, use the iCloud app to import your photos [sources: Hoffman, Microsoft].
If you a Mac user, there are also plenty of ways to move pictures from your phone to your computer.
For iPhones:
- Connect your iPhone to one of your Mac's USB ports.
- If your phone prompts you to 'Trust This Computer,' press 'Trust.'
- Start the Photos app if it doesn't launch automatically.
- If you don't see the Import option, manually click Import. Or, in the sidebar of the Photos app, you can click your phone's icon.
- Select the images you want to import. To make things easy, just click 'Import All New Photos.'
For Android phones:
- Use a USB cable to connect your phone to the Mac computer.
- Open the Android File Transfer app. Navigate to the pictures folder on your phone — this will often be the DCIM or Camera folder.
- Select the images you want, and then copy and paste them to a folder on your Mac computer [source: Apple].
For both Android and iOS-based smartphones, there are gobs of free apps related to photo sharing and image transfer, and any number of them will work. And if you just want to quickly send an image or two, you can skip all of these steps and simply send pictures to your laptop via an email app on your phone.
Last editorial update on Jan 25, 2019 04:33:19 pm.
Related Articles
More Great Links
Sources
- Apple Support. 'Move content manually from your Android device to your iOS device.' Sept. 17, 2018. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205063 (Nov. 27, 2018)
- Hoffman, Chris. 'How to Transfer Photos From an iPhone to a PC.' Howtogeek.com. April 10, 2018. https://www.howtogeek.com/345540/how-to-transfer-photos-from-an-iphone-to-a-pc/ (Nov. 27, 2018)
- Microsoft Support. 'Import photos and videos from phone to PC.' Nov. 1, 2018. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027134/windows-10-import-photos-and-videos-from-phone-to-pc (Nov. 27, 2018)
Choose where you want to keep your photos and videos
First, decide where you want to keep your collection of photos and videos. You can make them available on all your devices with iCloud Photos. Or you can choose to store them locally only on your Mac or PC.
iCloud Photos
With iCloud Photos, you can access your photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV, on iCloud.com, and even your PC. Your latest shots are automatically added to iCloud Photos, and any organizational changes or edits you make are always kept up to date across all your devices.*
Before you begin:
- Make sure that the software is up to date on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, your Mac, and your Apple TV.
- Set up iCloud on all of your devices. If you have a PC, download iCloud for Windows. Make sure that you're signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all of your devices.
- Make sure that your device is connected to Wi-Fi.
Turn on iCloud Photos:
- On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on iCloud Photos.
- On your Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud. Click the Options button next to Photos, then select iCloud Photos.
- On your Apple TV, go to Settings > Accounts > iCloud > iCloud Photos.
- On your PC, follow the steps to set up iCloud Photos.
If you've already synced photos to your iOS device from iTunes, and then you turn on iCloud Photos on your iOS device, you'll see a message that says 'Photos and Videos Synced from iTunes will be Removed.' The photos and videos that you synced from your computer will stay on your computer, but they're removed from your iOS device.
You can get these photos and videos back onto your iOS device by turning on iCloud Photos on your Mac or PC. When you do that, the photos from your computer upload to iCloud so that you can access them on all of your devices. After you turn on iCloud Photos, all photos are in iCloud and accessible from the Photos app on your Mac or a folder on your PC.
You can get more help using iCloud Photos on your Mac or PC.
* The photos and videos that you keep in iCloud Photos use your iCloud storage. Before you turn on iCloud Photos, make sure that you have enough space in iCloud to store your entire collection. You can see how much space you need and then upgrade your storage plan if necessary.
Import to your Mac
You can use the Photos app to import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac without using iCloud Photos. These steps also work for importing images from digital cameras and SD cards.
- Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac. Importing photos to your Mac requires iTunes 12.5.1 or later.
- Connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or digital camera to your Mac with a USB cable. If you're using an SD card, insert it into the SD slot on your Mac, or connect it using a card reader.
- You might need to unlock your iOS device using your passcode. You might also see a prompt on the iOS device asking you to Trust This Computer. Tap Trust to continue.
- On your Mac, the Photos app automatically opens. If it doesn't, open the Photos app.
- The Photos app shows an Import screen with all the photos and videos that are on your connected device. If the Import screen doesn't automatically appear, click the Import tab at the top of the Photos app, or click the device's name in the Photos sidebar.
- To import a selection of photos, click the ones you want, then click Import Selected. To import all new photos, click Import All New Photos.
- You can now disconnect your device from your Mac. If you imported photos from an SD card or other USB device, safely eject the device first.
In macOS High Sierra or later, imported photos appear in the Photos app's Import album. If you're using an earlier version of macOS, you'll find them in your Last Import album.
Photos and videos that you sync from your computer to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iTunes can't be imported back to your computer.
Learn what to do if you can't import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer.
Import to your PC
You can import photos to your PC by connecting your device to your computer and using Windows Photos app:
- Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes on your PC. Importing photos to your PC requires iTunes 12.5.1 or later.
- Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your PC with a USB cable.
- You might need to unlock your iOS device using your passcode.
- You might also see a prompt on the iOS device asking you to Trust This Computer. Tap Trust or Allow to continue.
Then, follow the steps in these Microsoft knowledge base articles to learn how to import photos to Windows Photos app:
When you import videos from your iOS device to your PC, some might be rotated incorrectly in Windows Photos app. You can add these videos to iTunes to play them in the correct orientation.
If you have iCloud Photos turned on, you need to download the original, full resolution versions of your photos to your iPhone before you import to your PC. Find out how.
Photos and videos that you sync from your computer to your iOS device using iTunes can't be imported back to your computer.
Learn what to do if you can't import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer.
Get photos from your computer to your iOS device
You can choose among several options for transferring photos and videos from your computer to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
- Use iCloud Photos with Photos for macOS or iCloud for Windows to keep your photos safely stored and up-to-date on all your devices.
- Use AirDrop to wirelessly send photos and videos from your Mac to your iOS device. This is a quick and easy Mac-only option for sending a few items. When you send photos and videos to an iOS device via AirDrop, they appear in the device's Photos app.
- Sync your photos manually with iTunes. Each time that you sync your iOS device with iTunes, the photos and videos on your iOS device update to match the albums on your computer.
Learn more
- Use Time Machine to back up all of your files, including your photos and videos, to an external hard drive.
- Import photos and video from storage media, like a hard disk or SD card, to Photos for macOS.
- Use a scanner and Image Capture to import photos that were taken with a film camera.
- Use the Move to iOS app to transfer your photos from an Android device to an iOS device.
- Import your images directly to a folder on your Mac with Image Capture.