I have a new Apple iPhone and am having fun with it, but I can’t figure out how to download photographs or pictures onto it. Is there some trick or technique? Also, in case it makes a difference, I don’t use iPhoto to manage my photo albums.
Like getting photos onto a video iPod (see how to add photos to your ipod), the only way you can add pictures to your new Apple iPhone is through iTunes. But iTunes is a bit fussy about what it will and won’t sync. You can choose a “roll” of pictures from iPhoto but since you — like me — don’t use iPhoto, you’ll need a workaround to get this going.
Fortunately, it’s pretty darn easy!
What I do to manage my iPhone photo album is create a new folder in my Pictures folder called “iPhone Pic Sync” and then copied the photos I wanted to have on the iPhone there (you copy a file, rather than moving it, by holding down the Option key while dragging and dropping):
Notice here that I not only have a new folder in my Pictures directory, but I also dragged the folder onto the left navigational shortcuts area in the Finder too, so the folder is easily accessible anywhere I’m working on my Mac. Saves finding that folder again, ya know!
Now you can simply drag and drop images in that you’d like to have on your phone and eventually you’ll have a nice little library, as I do:
When you have a bunch of pics you like, hook up your iPhone to your computer and after it autosyncs, it’ll show you the Summary view of how things are set up:
Click on the “Photos” tab here and by default it’ll offer up the ability to sync your iPhoto library:
You don’t want that, though, you want to choose “Select Folder…” from that pop-up and select the new iPhone photo sync folder. Once you do that, it’ll look like this:
That’s all there is to it. Click on “Sync” and you’ll see that iTunes is smart, it even adjusts images to work optimally on the iPhone. The sync flies past:
and now your iPhone has a spiffo new photo library of the images you desire.
Want to add or delete images? Just add or delete them to your new iPhone Pic Sync folder and they’ll automatically be synchronized with your iPhone every time you plug it in.
Still learning about your iPhone? We have lots of iPhone help here on the site!
Just got some free help from apple and found out my photos were actually syncing 🙂
I was checking my camera roll but the images were under “photos” on the iphone which is different from the camera roll 🙂
Dave, look around on google. Tons of people having a problem with syncing pc/mac photos to iphone. Think it would be a good idea to do an article on this problem. People think they’re not syncing when they actually are. they’re just looking in the wrong place like I was!!
Doesn’t work with my iphone 4. Do exactly to instructions and it says it’s syncs the 4 photos but the don’t appear in my camera role 🙁
Apple care with help me for £61… don’t think that’s an option as I think it might be their fault
Finally.. thank you! Cant believe something so simple took me a google search to figure it out! Cheers for this.
That’s genius! Thank you.
Thank you so much! Worked great and solved my problem.
how do i sync pictures to my iphone 4?
i’ve tried to sync it through photos tab
but i cant….
i always get the revert and apply button while i sync. when i click apply… i get the instruction that tells me i will delete all my apps…
what should i do?
can u please teach me step by step?
I have a new Iphone(s)
I had alot of photos on the 1st one…
someone “helped” me & told me to “synch” my photos (1st phone) when I get home…I did
plugged in new phone…now my pictures are all on albums….where is my camera roll….I loved camera roll….albums don’t let me get rid of pictures I never wanted on my new phone..
please help!
my laptop doesnt have all this i try to download them all but it says i have no pictures or vidios on it could you please help me im trying to work this thing and im struggling :S
I did this and got a new photo library on my iPhone 4. However it erased all the photos in the cameraroll!! Just the pictures, not the thumbnails!!! so they appear to be there till you try to look at one. Good job I’d copied them off as a remote drive earlier. I’m using Win7 Pro via VirtualBox 4 on a Linux Ubuntu 10.10 machine. Never trust Microsoft with your hardware, lol
Thanks for the update, Alan. Makes me think I should get a Verizon iPhone so I can add new, updated how-to articles. Hmm….
I just activated my Verizon iphone 4 and these instructions are not applicable anymore. When you have your iphone plugged into the computer, make sure you’re viewing your iphone under “Devices” and it will show the Summary tab. Then just click on the Photos tab, which should be on the far right. If you have it set to manual sync (which I do), then you just click on “Synch Photos” and you can select which photos to transfer. It will even show you how much memory the transfer will take before you verify it. Couldn’t be simpler, another excellent product.
Hi Dave,
I was successful transferring my photos from my mac to my iPhone4 using your clear instructions, however, i noticed that I can use those photos for all functions that are available to “camera roll” except the Delete function. Delete function is not available for the photos transferred from mac to iPhone. Is there a way around this? Am I missing something?
Also, when I transferred two sets of photos in two different folders using iphoto and itune from my mac to iphone4, in addition to placing the two folders as individual albums the phone also generated another album called “Photo Library” the contents of which is the compilation of all photos in my two other albums i just transferred. This consequently takes up twice as much room in my iphone and I cannot get rid of it. Would you happen to know why iphone generates that additional album? is there a way to delete the photo library and leave the individual albums?
Also, though not as critical as the issues above, I noticed that I can only transfer the photos in folders whether there is just one photo or several photos in the folder, can single photos be transferred to iphone without having to place them in folders?
Thank you
Riko
I am not familiar with the mac yet, how do you create the folder in the Pictures directory? Thanks!
I have an older IPOD and have down loaded many pictures in the past, now cannot remember how to do it. ITunes does not seem to help me and I cannot seem to create a folder. It asks if I want to import but does not find the pictures. Won’t let me copy/past or drag and drop. Any ideas would be appreciated. thanks, Carol
@Tam : I have the same problem. I did everything like it’s sad, but photos are not appearing in “Photos” or “Camera”
BUT, i can find them and see folders in Settings when I’m seting my wallpaper…
What to do? Heelp! 🙂
I am also trying to get photos from my PC to my iPhone. As far as I can tell I have done all the right steps. However, no photos appear on my iphone in the photos nor camera icon.
Thank you
You can connect the USB cable directly to the PC and get the pop-up as shown in the below URL. I was doing like suggested by many but in vain. Luckily the solution in below URL gives solution on where most of them go wrong. If you dont log in the password i found the pop doesnt come up.
http://zaakh.blogspot.com/2010/11/copy-photos-and-videos-from-iphone-to.html
hope it helps some of you…
Just wanted to say thanks for a very helpful article!
“PhotoSync for Lazy” is a new app that wirelessly and automatically synchronizes photos from PC to iPhone.
uare amazing!!!!!
it took me ages and every one else never explained it as good as u !!!!!1
thankyou!!
Hi. Thanks for a great tutorial!
I supoort the input posted by Jon at May 20, 2010 5:34 AM.
I too feel that it’s a problem that I need to have a duplicate on my harddrive of every photo that I want to put on my iPhone.
I tried this: in my “iPhone Photo Sync” folder I place a folder alias pointing to another folder containing the photos I want on my iPhone. This was to prevent making a copy and to make it easy to keep my “iPhone Photo Sync”-folder syncronized with that other folder – so the contents always match.
But I can’t make it work. iTunes and iPhone will not read the folder alias and doesn’t display the photos in the folder pointed to…
Can anyone offer a workaround or a solution to this?
Thanks, Thomas
Connect I Phone, ignore i tunes and click on my computer there you will see your I-Phone just onen the file select the photos and copy and paste onto PC….
Thank you ever so much pal! You’re a genius! Great tip.
Okay, I have an issue: I upgraded from an iPhone 3G to a iPhone 3GS. I have no problems transferring/syncing my photos from my computer to my phone, but they seem to be resized so small that when I veiw them on my iPhone, the images are pixilated and grainy. I never had this problem on my 3G, only on the 3GS. I’ve tried deleting them from the iPhone and re-transferring them, but that did not fix the problem. Any suggestions?
Thanks!! This worked perfectly. 🙂
Your advice for “How do I download photos to my Apple iPhone?” worked great for me, but how do I view them once they are transferred? Where do I find them?
Worked it out. Seems the iPhone 4 has a bug ( http://discussions.info.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11874873 ) that requires you to restart the phone before the changes will appear.
Hello Dave,
Everything is configured correctly. I was actually using your technique over a year ago on my previous iPhone with no problems, I picked up the new iPhone 4 and it simply doesn’t work with it – the images show up under the wallpaper settings and can be used as such but do not show up in photos at all.
Regards, David.
David & Elizabeth, please make sure that you have things configured properly in iTunes on the “Photos” tab when you’re looking at how things are set up for sync with your iPhone plugged in. Good luck. 🙂
“I have a brand new iPhone4, and I am a new iPhone user. I managed to download a lot of photos from my Mac, though directly (not via a special folder, but from existing folders under Photos). I also hate iPhoto. They are on the iPhone, but the photo app on my phone won’t show them, it just says there are no photos or albums. I can use them as wallpaper, and some automatically attached themselves to appropriate Contacts, but I can’t see them as photos! Help!
Posted by: Elizabeth at June 27, 2010 2:31 AM”
Elizabeth, I too have exactly this problem using the new iPhone 4 – I can select them as wallpapers but they show up nowhere else. I think this system breaks on the iPhone 4 for some reason.
Worked Like a Champ For ME!!!! THANKS!!
Hey, i just kept trying with the Itune preferences, changes alot and somehow, my iphone is now recognized my phone, infact my computer gave me a listing of 4 programs that could open the folder and view the files. 🙂
so all ok, now 🙂
Hey, anyone can help me with this Iphone 1g, i used in in the USA for 2 years, and then when my vodafone contract ended, i stopped using it, then I moved to Europe and seems that it doesnt work here,, as I cant use another ‘Carrier’. I just had a friend crack the phone, but now its always asking me to update the firmware, but I did this once and then the phone stopped working. Any advice or comments?
Please, i have the Iphone 1g and everything is syncing ok on my PC, but the folder of photos I took on the I phone ‘Camera Roll’ is not syncing? never did, or at least im cant view ITHMB file formats on my PC. As I cant find this on my computer, I do find the folder ipod photo cache.
I used to be able to just to to ‘my computer’ and see that the computer recognized my Iphone, and then I could move or copy my photos over to my PC, in JPG format. But now for some reason, its not working since about June 2010. My computer is XP , i also connected it to another PC with Windows 7, it found the iphone but said there are no photos accessible?
I think it works differently in this part of the world….firstly there is no “Photos” options in my iTunes store…hence no chance to sync photos…iPhone is a bit handicapped at getting information from any other devices…
can you help me i’ve just got an iphone i put itunes on my laptop but i don’t say owt about photos. what do i do. cheers
Hi Dave – I have an iphone 3gs, but just updated my software to 4.0 so, now when I look on itunes, I can see that I have about 900 pics, but only 30 miscellaneous pictures show on my phone. I have synced several times with no luck. The back up and software update took forever, but everything else worked fine. I just can’t see my pictures.
Thanks
Hmmm…. trying to understand what’s going on, Elizabeth and Jeffery. When you’re looking at Photos on your iPhone, you understand that there are both Albums ad Events, and they’re different, right? If you’re looking at an Album, click on the “Albums” button on the top left corner to make sure you step back to where other albums might be displayed…
Good luck, I have to say that I do wish there was a nicer photo management tool for iPhones. I use Aperture, and it’s *still* confusing.
Elizabeth, did anyone reply to your question? I’m having the same issue and it’s driving me crazy! Thanks!
Hello.
I have sync iphone a lot of times and had no issues. Now what has happend is i had to change my hard disc for some reason.
i had backup all the data and copied again on the new hard disc. i use windows.
i have downloaded itunes again the latest version.
Now when i have tried to sync, the message i get is that the data ie applications, photos, songs, videos all will be replaced by data on the computer. but i do not have all that data on my computer.
i am more concerned about the applications & the data i have in the applications.
how do i copy the data from iphone to a blank harddisk lets say using itunes.
I have a brand new iPhone4, and I am a new iPhone user. I managed to download a lot of photos from my Mac, though directly (not via a special folder, but from existing folders under Photos). I also hate iPhoto. They are on the iPhone, but the photo app on my phone won’t show them, it just says there are no photos or albums. I can use them as wallpaper, and some automatically attached themselves to appropriate Contacts, but I can’t see them as photos! Help!
Thank’s. Your article very usefull…
🙂
dhäníztíç
My hard drive crashed and I have a ton of photos in the “photo library” in iPhone, none of those pics are in camera roll, how can I move them to my new hard drive? Thank you!
Thank you very much for your post.
The problem with this workaround is that for every photo you want to have on your iPhone you have to have a duplicate on your PC in a special “iPhones photos” folder as well as the original photo stored elsewhere on your computer. You can’t delete photos from your specialist “iPhones photos” folder or else when you sync up with your iPhone it will also delete those photos from your iPhone.
Personally I don’t want to create an extra folder on my PC specially for my iPhone photos. And I shouldn’t have to. I should be able to just transfer a bunch of select photos (from different folders if I want) from my PC to my iPhone without all this faffing about with workarounds and this syncing bullsh**.
I’m amazed Apple don’t just provide drag and drop photo transferring. It’s insane that with the most advanced phone in the world you can’t just drag and drop photos on and off’ve it.
P.S: I’m having a go at Apple here, not the writer of this article, as obviously the writer is just trying to help, and evidently has helped, various people.
Come on, Apple, sort your sh** out.
Thanks for the info. you make it so simple to understand.
Thanks, your advice is great and EASY to follow.
Tom
Hi, I might be being an idiot, but I have no ‘photo’ tab on my iTunes, so I can’t follow your instructions. Under “Jeff’s iPhone”, I have ‘music’, ‘movies’, and ‘tvshows’ but no tab for ‘photos’, nor do I have one under the summary. What’s going on?
Hi Jeff!
I got the same problem. I solved the problem by expanding the Itunes (and so Iphone) window which then will show all the tabs beyond Itune-U on the right side. You can do expand the window by going to “window tab” of Itunes menu bar on the top and select “Zoom”. This will show all the tabs for iphone sync.
I got 2 more tabs; Books and photo.
Yojajiji
Hello everyone,
We just released Photo Transfer, an iPhone app that lets you transfer photos from your computer to your iPhone or iPod touch over wifi.
The app it’s very simple to use and makes transferring photos super easy without having to use iTunes. You can also transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer or from one iPhone to another.
I hope you can check it out and find it useful:
http://www.phototransferapp.com/
Let us know if you have any comment or suggestions.
Cheers,
Enrique R
Photo Transfer App
what if i want to add pics from another computer like my work pc or a pc with out itunes? THIS IS WHY APPLE & ITUNES SUCKS BALLS AND THE MAIN REASON I WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM APPLE!