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How do I get photos off my Apple iPhone?

I just upgraded my G5 mac to the latest Leopard software and am leery about syncing my iPhone with my computer because I'm afraid I'll lose data. However, I really need to get the photos off the phone and don't want to email them to myself, one by one. Your suggestion?


Dave's Answer:

I'm really glad you're running Leopard, aka Mac OS X 10.5, actually, because there's one simple change that Apple's made to the way the phone interacts with the Mac that's a huge boon for those of us that actually take pics with the iPhone!

Plug in your phone, and even if you don't want to sync it with your iTunes software you'll find that if there are photos on the phone that Image Capture can now see 'em and grab them for you:

Mac OS X: Leopard: Image Capture lets you get photos off your iPhone

What I've done is set up a new 'iPhone Pictures" folder in my Pictures directory (instead of the default "Pictures, Movies and Music folders", choose "Other..." then navigate to your Pictures directory and click "New Folder" on the lower left).

Click on "Download All" and you've just accomplished the world's easiest cellphone photo sync on your new Macintosh!

If you are running an earlier version of Mac OS X, then I suggest that you let iPhoto do the work: start that up before you plug in your phone and it should see the phone and offer you the opportunity to download your pictures into an iPhoto "roll".



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Comments

You can use iPhoto to get the pictures off the phone.

I understand where your fear is coming from. If you do a restore on the phone, you will lose any pictures you haven't imported yet. It should really warn you about that specifically because most people don't consider that they have any valuable data on an iPod that didn't come from their computer, so it is always "safe" to do the restore. This changes with the iPhone because of the camera. (It also changes a little bit with games on the 5G iPod because there is the potential to lose your high score data, but most people care about their photos a lot more than their high score from a game.)

Posted by: Brant Sears at November 5, 2007 3:00 PM

How getting the photos off my iphone for WindowsXP or Vista?

Posted by: Gregg at November 5, 2007 3:10 PM

I discovered the answer to the above question. When you plug the iPhone into a Windows computer, it will show up in Windows Explorer as a disk drive. The only documents that will show up in Windows Explorer within the iPhone will be the "Camera Roll" photos that were taken with the iPhone. You can just drag them into a folder on the computer.

Posted by: Gregg at November 8, 2007 9:21 AM

Hello is there way i can get the pictures from the iphone to the computer , not the ones in camera roll??

Posted by: OMar at November 14, 2007 10:11 AM

could someone please post an answer to the question above me, how can we get the photos off the iphone that are not in the camera roll(for instance a bunch of iphoto albums that are on the iphone but got deleted from the computer) please, thanks

Posted by: hunter at December 29, 2007 11:39 AM

I too want to know how to get my pictures that aren't in the camera roll back on my PC. I have 600mb of pics on my iphone that got lost on my Pc and I want them back without having to email them one by one...

Posted by: Lance at January 29, 2008 6:28 AM

Hi Dave,

thanks for all the useful stuff on your site... I've googled problems several times and found answers on your pages. V helpful.

I'm just dropping you a line to be a smart arse... you've got header-paper.jpg (your banner image) displaying 70 pixels wider than the image should be... is that on purpose for the jaggy text styling?

Cheers
Bill

Posted by: Bill Unsworth at January 29, 2008 11:55 AM

Thank you Dave!
I found you site very simple, usable and usefull.

This aswer was so "obvious" that I really can't find the solution by myself but you gave me the right answer!

Thank you and congrats for your cool site! :-)

Posted by: cris01 at March 14, 2008 2:57 PM

I'm also wondering how to get non-iphone-taken pictures off of my iphone. My hard-drive crashed and I lost all of my pictures. Fortunately, some were backed up on my iphone, but I want to get them off of there and on to my new computer -- any way to do it???

Posted by: Lisa at April 30, 2008 11:03 PM

Hi, I used to be able to get pictures from my iPhone by the means above, however for some reason when I plug my iPhone into my computer, I click on my iPhone in my computer to just drag the pictures across and now it won't show any of them up, I'm really frustrated and hate technology as it is, please help :P

Posted by: Kat at May 15, 2008 2:31 AM

I have a very big problem with my iPhone.
I snap and capture images with my iphone camera but it doesn't display on the CAMERA ROLL folder. Does anybody know what i'm supposed to do about it.
Thanks

Posted by: Pete at June 10, 2008 6:09 AM

Pete, it looks like you might need to backup your phone data and "restore" your iPhone. See here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1183455&tstart=0

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 10, 2008 12:37 PM

I just had a similar problem to some of you, in which my hard drive crashed and i lost all my photos. i searched around on how to get them off my iphone and back on to my iphoto, and finally cam across this program. $20. its worth it.

http://www.jaredmendelewicz.com/blog/how-to-get-photos-music-notes-and-data-off-of-your-iphone/

Posted by: geoff nolan at July 20, 2008 12:45 AM

My computer was stolen and I needed to get photos (not in Camera Roll) from my iPhone. I just paid the $20 for the PhoneView program and it worked like a charm.

Thanks

Kevin

Posted by: Kevin at September 5, 2008 12:56 PM

It is worth noting that Dave's solution also works on Mac OS 10.4.11. Thanks Dave.

Posted by: Niles at October 26, 2008 1:55 PM

I found "Image Capture" (you didn't mention it was an application, so I searched and found it) and tried what you suggested. When I click on download, however, nothing happens. Tried this with just one photo selected, as well as "Select All."

Any suggestions?

Posted by: William Harris at November 7, 2008 9:31 AM

William, I readdressed this topic in another blog post that has more troubleshooting advice too. Hope this helps you out:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_get_pictures_off_apple_iphone.html

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 12, 2008 9:42 AM

if you are windows platform try "uTunePhotos" that can add,delete,export,rename, reorder,backup and restor phto albums and camera roll.

Posted by: se13311 at November 14, 2008 12:57 PM

How do I get the photos off my iPhone(3g)? It does not show the photo folder it used to show every time i plugged my phone in.

Thanks

Posted by: Samy at January 2, 2009 1:13 PM

Can you retrieve a photo that you have accidentally deleted from your iphone?

Posted by: Greg at January 4, 2009 7:52 AM

i erase all setting and file in my iphone. but after erasing, the phone just showed apple icon (black background screen) for long time and shows no progress. How the iphone will de-activate? or any other should be done? pls help. tq

Posted by: hilman at January 24, 2009 4:16 AM

hello, im trying to download my pictures off my iphone to my computer windows xp, but when i plug it in nothing comes up, not even in my computer, they used to come up before i downloaded itunes, now absolutley nothing comes up, it is not even in my files no where to be seen, please help, no wizard comes up, i have tried everything.

Posted by: ves at February 9, 2009 11:32 PM

Hey Thanks A LOT!!!!! Greg from Nov 8th 2007 HELPED ME A LOT!!!!!!! Thanks Again, it's too bad Windows did'nt run IPHONE! THX 4 the advice!!!

Looking for the iphone in Windows is EAZY!

Posted by: Chris Sartain at April 4, 2009 6:33 PM

I have vista. I was able precviously to just plug in my iphone and my pictures downloaded. I have tried all of your suggestions and nothing is download; I just went on a trip and have several photos I want to put on the computer. They are in the camera roll but will not go on my commputer. I have looked in windows explorer, etc.

Posted by: Marcy Orosco at April 7, 2009 1:15 PM

Hi!

Iwas browing through the chain on how to download pics from my iphone to my laptop- I saw someone write that when plugged-in to a windows laptop it will show as disk drive and i can simply copy-paste the photos!! For some reason though I am not able to see any additional disk drives when I plug in my phone and dont know what to do- Could you please help/clarify!!??

Posted by: rahul at April 10, 2009 9:01 AM

a friend of mine dowload her pictures in my computer(HP) she has a mac. Now her camera is no longer working. How can you help me help her?

Posted by: Angie at May 6, 2009 12:42 PM

Thanks for this tip, now do you or anyone else out there know how to retrieve photos that you DIDN'T take on your iPhone from your iPhone. My computer died and I want to get the photos that I had previously sync-ed to my iPhone back onto my new MacBook.

Posted by: marcus at May 10, 2009 10:49 AM

Thank you so much. This app (image capture) is the easiest way ever to get all your pictures from your iphone to computer
it works great... and by the way the apple retail employees don't know ANYTHING!!!

Posted by: Works GREAT at May 14, 2009 5:55 PM

Hello,
I erased the pics in my iphone using image capture, but now, after that when i try to make some photos they don't appear in the camera roll.
WHAT CAN I DO?
(The rest of the Photo albums are still there.)

Thanks,
Ja'el.

Posted by: Jael at June 19, 2009 7:50 AM

I made an app - PhotoToMac - to transfer iPhone camera roll photos to your Mac over WiFi.

More info about PhotoToMac: http://www.galarina.eu/PhotoToMac/Home.html

Posted by: Chris at June 30, 2009 4:19 AM

I just restored my iPhone back to factory settings and then downloaded my photos from iTunes back onto the iPhone. They are no longer in camera roll and now I cannot delete any photos. How do I delete photos on my iPhone now?

Posted by: Cindy at July 7, 2009 4:08 PM

Thanks, Dave -- this was so super easy and helpful! I just downloaded 1K photos off my phone in about 5 minutes. You're a lifesaver. :)

~ M

Posted by: Melissa at July 17, 2009 7:16 AM

Hi Dave,

1. What are the steps to be followed to download photos from my iphone to my HP laptop with XP windows .

2. Steps to download songs from my Computer into IPHONE.

Please provide me step by step procedure for my above questions to my mail id yajaman_83@hotmail.com. Thank u sir.

Regards,
Y.Pravin.

Posted by: ypravin at July 27, 2009 12:08 AM

you can take a screenshot of each photo on your ihone and it will appear in ur camera roll

Posted by: shane at July 28, 2009 2:51 PM

Wow. I love you. I detest iphoto with a passion, the image capture thing works amazingly.

Thank you so much!

Posted by: Taso g at August 4, 2009 1:29 AM

Help!!! I can take pictures on my iPhone 3G, and i can download them off....BUT....the new ones do NOT show up on the camera roll on the phone. They are there, but I cannot see them on my phone - why not????? Pls help!!!!

Posted by: Geoffrey at August 7, 2009 9:44 PM

hi,i can't transfer photos from my iphone(camera roll) to my windows vista and i have installed itunes but it ddoesn't seem to help.pls help.thanx in advance

Posted by: glory at August 16, 2009 4:58 PM

Hey! Serious problem... I bought a new HP Pavilion Entertainment PC with Windows Vista. But now when i connect my I phone to it it just opens Itunes and not anything that says download photos... like my old laptop did... Now is there any way I can get my Pictures down?
Thanks for the Help

Posted by: fabi at August 18, 2009 1:36 PM

Hi, thanks for this tip, works great, simple & effective file transfer!

I really hate i tunes sync thing & eventually worked out how to turn it off.

Posted by: Steve at August 24, 2009 1:29 PM

nothing is showing up when i connect my iPhone 3GS into my windowsXP laptop. there's the iPhone icon as a drive but no files/pictures.

thanks,
Sirjune

Posted by: sirjune at August 25, 2009 9:16 PM

Dave just upgraded to new iphone and cant get photos off my old iphone. i thought this was not probem but on old iphone i see there is no service up top. i was told i could still get these photos off old iphone to itunes?

Posted by: pete at August 29, 2009 12:55 PM

Pete, plug your phone into your computer and - if you've a Mac - run ImageCapture. It should see all the photos on your old phone and let you copy them onto your computer itself.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at August 30, 2009 10:28 AM

thanks so much for the info; how funny to realize i didn't know how to get pics off my iphone other than email...
muchos gracias

Posted by: courtney beth at September 12, 2009 9:28 PM

I followed the instructions for the XP Camera Wizard, downloaded my camera photos from the camera roll to a folder, now all the pictures show up in the folder, HOWEVER they are no longer in the order (sequence) they were taken. They are now in no order. Its as if the pictures have been downloaded based on some other sort order. Nothing is in sequence. I now have to go in and sort them and rename them to keep the order they were taken. Why did the download do this?

Posted by: Tron at September 17, 2009 10:38 PM

I have noticed a number of people have been trying to get photos OFF their iphone (that AREN'T in "Camera Roll") and onto their computer.

Dave, you suggested "Image Capture" but that seems to only select the photos that are in "Camera Roll" NOT my various Menus/albums of photos on my iphone.

Is there something I need to select in Image Capture so that it will let me copy the other images across?

Posted by: Mel&Nath at October 27, 2009 4:40 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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