How to Transfer Photos From a Computer to an iPhone

This article explains how to transfer photos from a Mac or PC to an iPhone, using the Finder app, iTunes for Windows, iCloud, and Google Photos.

How to Transfer Photos From a Mac to an iPhone

If you've got a Mac full of photos that you want to transfer to your iPhone, it's a pretty simple thing to do. Just follow these steps:

1. Begin by connecting your iPhone to your Mac. This can be done via the cable that came with your iPhone or over Wi-Fi. You may be prompted to "trust" the iPhone to sync with the computer. If so, follow the instructions on the iPhone.

2. Open a new Finder window.

3. In the left-hand sidebar, click your iPhone.

4. Click Photos.

5. Check the box next to Sync photos to your device from: to enable syncing.

6. In the drop down menu, choose the program that contains the photos you want to sync to your iPhone. In most cases, this will be the pre-installed Photos app.

   You can also choose to sync photos from a folder by clicking Choose folder... and navigating through your hard drive.

7. Choose your sync settings. You can choose to sync All photos and albums or Selected Albums. If you choose Selected Albums, check the ones you want to sync in the box at the bottom. You can also choose to sync favorite photos and to videos.

8. When you've chosen your settings, click Apply to save your settings and transfer photos from your Mac to your iPhone.

   If the photos don't start to transfer automatically, click the Sync button at the bottom right to start the transfer.

How to Transfer Photos From a Computer to an iPhone Using Windows

Transferring photos from a PC to an iPhone is pretty similar to using a Mac, except that you use iTunes instead of the Finder. To do this, you need:

• iTunes 12.5.1 or higher installed on your PC. If you don't have it, you can download it for free.
• The photos you want to transfer stored in the pre-installed Windows Photos app.

Once you've got that, here's what you need to do:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Windows PC using a cable.

2. If iTunes doesn't open automatically, open it.

3. If prompted, unlock your iPhone using your passcode and "trust" the phone by following the onscreen prompts.

4. In iTunes, click the iPhone icon just beneath the playback controls in the top left corner.

5. In the left-hand sidebar, click Photos.

6. Check the box next to Sync photos to enable syncing.

7. In the drop down, choose the program that contains the photos you want to sync to your iPhone. This should be the pre-installed Windows Photos app.

   You can also sync photos from a folder by clicking Choose folder... and navigating through your hard drive.

8. Choose your sync settings. You can sync All photos and albums or Selected Albums. If you choose Selected Albums, check the ones you want to sync. For either option, you can also sync favorite photos and to videos.

9. When you're done, click Apply to save your settings and transfer photos from your PC to your iPhone.

   If the transfer doesn't start right away, click Sync at the bottom right to start transferring photos.

How to Transfer Photos From a Computer to an iPhone Using iCloud

If you store your photos in your iCloud Photo Library, getting them from there to your iPhone is so simple you hardly have to do anything at all. Just set up your iPhone to sync with your iCloud Photo Library once and then all of your uploads will be automatically synced to your iPhone. Here's how:

1. On your iPhone, tap Settings.

2. Tap your name at the top of the screen.

3. Tap iCloud.

4. Tap Photos.

5. Move the iCloud Photos slider to on/green. When you do this, photos will sync from your iCloud account to your iPhone. How long this takes depends on how many photos and videos you have and how large the files are.

6. Whenever you next want to sync photos from iCloud to iPhone, just add the photos to iCloud via the web or your Mac's Photos app. Once they upload to iCloud, they'll automatically download to your iPhone.

How to Transfer Photos From a Computer to an iPhone Using Google Photos

If you store your photos in the cloud, but prefer to use Google Photos instead of iCloud, you can still transfer photos to your iPhone. To do this, you'll need:

• A Google account.
• Photos stored in Google Photos.
• The Google Photos app from the App Store (it's free!).

When you've got these three things, simply add photos to your Google Photos account from compatible apps or by dragging and dropping photos onto Google Photos site from your computer.

Then, the next time you open the Google Photos app on your iPhone, the new photos will sync to the app and be transferred to your iPhone. It's that simple!