Confused about how to sync your Mac or Windows PC photos to your iPhone or iPad? We've got you covered.
Photos app for OS X and iCloud Photo Library are great options for those who want to rely on Apple to store their images. But you're not limited to iCloud: You can instead use iTunes or another third-party cloud service to sync images between your computer and your iPhone or iPad.
So if you want to showcase your computer's images on your iOS devices, never fear: iMore has you covered. Here's a quick tutorial on all the ways you can currently sync your Mac or Windows PC images to your iPhone or iPad.
How to move and view your photos if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled
While I still have some issues with Apple's iCloud Photo Library, it remains one of the best ways to keep your photos in sync between your Mac, PC, and any other iOS devices you may own. There are a few different ways to transfer photos from your Mac, which I'll outline below.
Option one: Use Photos for Mac

If you've upgraded to Photos for Mac and you're running OS X Yosemite or later, you should have no problem syncing your Mac's images to your iPhone or iPad.
- Launch the Photos app.
- Go to the Photos menu and select Preferences.
- Make sure the iCloud Photo Library option is checked.

You'll likely have to wait a little bit for your Mac's images and videos to sync with your iOS devices, but afterward — assuming you have the storage space — you should have all your Mac's images accessible to you on your iPhone or iPad.
For more about iCloud Photo Library, be sure to check out our iCloud Photo Library Ultimate Guide.
Option two: Use iCloud Photo Sharing

If you're just not that into Photos for Mac yet, you can still send some of your Mac's photos to your iPhone or iPad using iCloud's older image-sharing features. It also happens to be my favorite hack for getting images from the now-discontinued iPhoto or Aperture onto your iOS devices.
- Go to Settings > Photos & Camera on your iPhone or iPad.
- Make sure iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Photo Sharing is enabled.
- On your Mac, open iPhoto or Aperture.
- Select the pictures you want to upload.
- With your pictures selected, create a new Shared Photo Stream for them by clicking Add To > iCloud or Share > iCloud.

Name your stream something like "iPhoto Images" and share it with your own Apple ID; within minutes, it should start to populate on your iOS devices under the Shared tab in the Photos app.
From there, you can view the images if you have an Internet connection, and you can download them locally to your device (which will then put them in the queue to be uploaded to your iCloud Photo Library) by selecting one, tapping the Share button, and hitting Save Image. (You can also select multiple pictures by tapping the Select button within a Photo Stream.)
Option three: Upload your photos via iCloud.com

You can also get your Mac or PC's images onto your iPhone or iPad by using the upload button on the Photos section of iCloud on the Web. To access it, you'll first have to visit icloud.com.
Also note that the iCloud uploader only supports the uploading of JPG files at this time; you can't upload PNGs or MOVs through the web.
- Make sure you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your iOS devices.
- Visit icloud.com and log in.
Click the Photos icon.

- Once everything loads, click the Upload button in the upper right corner, next to Select Photos.
- Choose JPG images from your hard drive or Media section that you'd like to upload.

- A processing bar appears at the bottom to upload however many items you've chosen. If you wish to stop the upload, you can tap Stop Upload in the bottom right corner.
And that's all there is to it! Apple's upload script is still very rudimentary — a simple file picker — and as such, you might find it tricky for uploading large amounts of pictures. I managed to get a 940-photo session to upload without problem, but that said, you might want to begin with smaller image amounts, just to be safe.
How to use iTunes (if you don't have iCloud Photo Library enabled)
If you don't yet have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your iPhone or iPad, you can use iTunes to sync your Mac or PC's images to your iPhone. (If you do, skip to the next section.) Here's how.
How to move photos from your Mac to iOS via iTunes

Prefer iTunes syncing to iCloud? No problem. It's a piece of cake to get your images from Photos — or old versions of iPhoto or Aperture — to your iPhone or iPad, and you've got plenty of options for what you'd like to sync: albums, events (dates), and faces (people based on facial recognition), or individually choose a combination of albums, events, and faces that you want to sync.
- Organize your photos accordingly in iPhoto, Photos, or Aperture.
- Plug in your iPad or iPhone to your Mac.
- Open iTunes, if it doesn't open automatically.
- Click on the iOS device icon in the top bar, then click the Photos tab.
- Check the "Sync Photos" box.
- Choose iPhoto, Photos, or Aperture from the "Copy photos from" drop-down menu.
- Select the options you prefer.
- Click Sync in the bottom right corner.
Your iOS device will copy over all the images you've selected, and you'll be set to go.
Move photos from your PC to iOS via iTunes

If you're using external folders on a Mac to store pictures (or a Windows PC), you can instead sync your iPhone or iPad from that specific folder.
- Organize your images into folders and subfolders.
- Plug in your iPad or iPhone to your Mac or PC.
- Open iTunes, if it doesn't open automatically.
- Click on the iOS device icon in the top bar, then click the Photos tab.
- Check the "Sync Photos" box.
- Select "Choose folder" from the drop-down menu.
- Browse to your desired folder.
- Choose to sync "All folders" or "Selected folders", and whether to include video.
- Click Sync in the bottom right corner.
How to use AirDrop to transfer photos from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad

If you have a newer Mac that supports AirDrop, you can wirelessly transfer batches of photos and videos from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad.
- From the Finder, select the photos you'd like to transfer.
- In a new Finder window, select AirDrop from the side menu.
- Make sure your iPhone or iPad is unlocked and awake.
- Drag your selected files to the iPhone or iPad option in AirDrop.
- Depending on your Apple ID, you may need to press Accept on receiving iPhone or iPad.

From there, all selected photos and video will transfer. This works better for small batches of images, rather than your entire photo library; if you want to transfer all your Mac's photos, you may be better off using iTunes.
How to use Dropbox to transfer photos from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad

If you're not interested in using iPhoto, iTunes, or iCloud Photo Library, you can still view and share pictures from your Mac or PC: Just use Dropbox.
Dropbox actually has a pretty good walkthrough and upload tool for adding iPhoto images to your online storage space; alternatively, you can even drop your iPhoto library into Dropbox whole-hog and have those images show up in the Dropbox app — though I'd recommend doing that to a copy of your iPhoto Library, not the original, so as to prevent any potential sync errors.
How to use other services to transfer your Mac or PC's images to your iPhone and iPad
If you prefer using Google Photos, Amazon's service, or any other third-party provider, you can do so pretty easily. It usually involves syncing the images you'd like to sync via your Mac or PC, then downloading the iOS app in question on your iPhone or iPad. Here's a roundup of our favorite image backup and sync services if you're looking for an iCloud Photo Library alternative.
Any other questions?
Have a weird Mac to iPhone or iPad photos question we can answer? Something not working for you above? Visit our Q&A forums or sound off in the comments below.
Reader comments
How to transfer photos from your Mac or PC to your iPhone and iPad
This reminds me of an existing frustration point of iOS. If I want to move photos from my PC to my iPhone via sync cable, I can't just browse to my phone's photo folder via USB and drop photos in there. No, I have to use !@#$% iTunes instead. I don't care what the theoretical reasons are for why this is a 'good' thing, it's still a major pain in the rear.
Yes, I know you can do it by cloud as well. That's not the point. My point is in the clunkiness of getting photos on outside of cloud storage.
Yea, getting it OUT of iCloud and onto Windows (without destroying all your metadata) is the issue. This article totally misses the point. iMore seems to miss the point a lot more than any of the other Mobile Nations sites. So much fluff here.
Really, I cannot believe she said iCloud Photo Sharing. It resizes photos and re-encodes/compresses 1080p video to 720p...
I actually think they should force themselves to use any other mobile platform with a Windows Machine and OneDrive and see how... literally foolproof those platforms/services make this stuff compared to Apple.
Apple has complicated things with dumb services/software. What a freaking accomplishment that is.
It compresses photos via Photo Sharing, for sure, but this isn't designed to back up your Mac images to your iPhone, it's designed for you to be able to view them — in retina resolution! — on your device.
If you want to get camera roll images off your iPhone, you can just use the "Import pictures and videos using Windows" option.
I completely agree with all the points you've mentioned. Not to mention it's a pretty time consuming process too. Why can't we simply drag-and-drop the photos and video from computer to our iPhone?
To avoid such problems to some extent, I'm using this iPhone manager to manage my iPhone transfer content between my computer and iPhone: http://www.easyphonerecovery.com/how-to-transfer-ios-devices-data.html It makes it little easy to transfer content between a computer and an iPhone.
The photos that will not import are in the camera roll, correct? You aren't using iCloud Photo Library or so I would assume. Can you provide any more details about your work flow? Have you tried using iPhoto simply to eliminate issues with Image Capture?
I us an app called Wireless Transfer App ( http://www.video-converter-mac.org/transfer-photos-from-mac-to-iphone/ ) as well as importing via the cable and it works very well. As Icavanne stated above, there are a number of WiFi transfer apps available in the App Store. I also use DropBox from time to time.
Thank you for the helpful info. Actually, there's a much easier way to transfer photos to your iOS device. Use this wireless app AirMore to scan a QR code on web. Then your mobile will be connected to PC or Mac immediately. Transferring is super simple and fast.
http://airmore.com/
Nice article!! I would be interested in seeing a story where there is not a PC/Mac involved. I have been looking for some way to back up photos from iphones and an ipad to a single spot. I use Dropbox as you noted above to get all our IOS device photos in one spot. The challenge is getting these to the hard drive in my home. Ideally I would like to do this without a computer attached and more of a Dropbox appliance. I can dream.
With the FileBrowser app, you can transfer photos (originals) in either direction from your Mac, PC, NAS drive or cloud. All done wirelessly and using your iPhone/iPad. Hope this helps!
One Drive from MS is the best solution. They offer lots of free storage. Upload all your picture there, then install the One Drive App on your iphone or Android phone and you're set. You can also access it from any computer with internet. I wouldn't even bother with icloud drive and their low 5gig storage option. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me considering what everyone else is doing.
That's not an option, because of the way iOS handles some things. For example, when you record Slow Motion in iOS, it records it and then it inputs cues to automatically slow down where the option is. If you're using your phone to record higher FPS footage for input into desktop analysis software like Dartfish (which only works on Windows), then you want the source video played back at 1x speed with all the extra frames so that you can scrub through sports maneuvers with a higher resolution.
What the iPhone outputs, is a file with the slow motion embedded into the video, which is worthless.
Apps like Coach's Eye hide down higher FPS export behind a paywall, and they cannot export beyond 60 FPS. The whole point of getting an iPhone 6 Plus was the superior Slow Motion Recording (Resolution in FPS), but it has largely turned out to be useless, so I'm using 60 FPS 1080p (which causes performance issues when you're working with a lot of video, unless you have a machine specced very high).
Additionally, the way iOS handles background processing forces you to babysit your phone while it's uploading large payloads to OneDrive. If you take a lot of video during a training session, you end up with failed uploads because the phone will shut down the background task.
I don't foresee this phone (6+) surviving spring cleaning, and I'll have to buy a Point and Shoot to rid myself of these "issues" until then.
Just AirDrop your photos from your iPhone to your Mac. Or vice versa. Pretty easy. I do it all the time. That said, patiently waiting for Photos to be released for Mac. For PC users, just use DropBox as the middle-man.
I know it’s really basic, but I use the Image Transfer App on OSX... Option 4 maybe?
I use Image Capture too. Very easy. Heck of a lot simpler than using iTunes.
This. Image Capture is the most unsung app on the Mac. I just slap in my SD card if I'm using my Nikon or plug my iPhone in and open Image Capture.
Just changing the subject slightly. I have Windows 10 running through Parallels and I noticed a couple of days ago that one of the share options within IE11 is to Airdrop. I tried it and successfully sent a file to my iPhone. It looks like Microsoft may include Airdrop into Windows 10, I'm sure that it had nothing todo with the fact the OS was running on a Mac.
Interesting...
I'm a Elements user and like to keep my photos in folders, with the tag information stored IN the photo's metadata. I want to use Photos and move completely to the Apple Ecosystem, so it's easy for me to put those pictures I want to have with me on my iPhone or iPad.
The problems I see are that iPhotos keeps your pictures in it's own container (so you can't batch rename, look for dups etc) and you can't keep store tag information in the photos without a lot of additional steps. Also, it doesn't look like I'll be able to create Albums of say this years 4-5 Star ski vacation photos in the new Photos app.
Are there any ways to do this?
Thank you,
Barney
BTW, Elements for Windows is better than for the Mac, because you can create an Album and then when your iOS device is connected to the PC, iTunes sees the Elements Albums and lets you copy any/all of them over. Elements for the Mac doesn't see the Albums
My iPod 5 has an inbuilt camera so why is there no 'Photo' icon under Devices in iTunes? I take it it's the reason that this article completely ignores iPods. I have a Sony camera which utilises downloadable apps. The Remote Control app can be installed on an iPad or iPhone but NOT an iPod. I'm annoyed that iPod owners are treated so shabbily as there appears to be no real reason for this discrimination by Apple.
Any suggestions on how I can put photos on my iPod that DON'T involve me compulsorily using iCloud / Dropbox would be welcome. Cheers.
For the Mac uses, iPhoto is a good solution
This is such a waste of time, so complex just to transfer from a computer to a phone. Good thing I have an android to cut thru all the BS. I love my macbook but it's only useful for itself and the internet, forget about devices connected.
Shocking!!!! Just one more thing that an Iphone cant do without a big PITA production. How many years now and still can not collapse email folders?
I have iCloud Photo Library enabled and needed a way to temporarily put about 1000 photos from my Mac onto my iPad to show family members a while back. I found an app called "Another Photo Viewer". This app uses iTunes File Sharing so you can drag photos to that app using iTunes. I then showed the photos to the family and deleted them using the app afterwards. Worked perfectly.
How can I transfer my photo library located in my Photos app on my old iPod Touch running iOS 6 to my iPad Air Photos app running the latest iOS? I want the photos to be located on my iPad device and not just seen by using Photo Stream?
Sent from the iMore App
What about iPhone to PC?
Hey S!
This article has good info but some people, like me, have some other issues not mentioned here:
Issue:
- I have 2 iPad 1s that I am trying to use as photo frames. I have 20K photos on an external drive. This same external drive has all my movies and music on it and is the default iTunes Media Folder. I have iTunes running on a dedicated MacMini and this is where I backup all devices and use HomeSharing to allow all my AppleTVs access to all my content.
Problem:
- iPad 1's only have iOS version 5.1.1 on them. Using the steps outlined above for transferring via iTunes 12.4, everything works perfectly until the sync is done, then there are NO photos on the iPad. No errors but no photos either.
Solution:
- is there one? And please don't recommend iCloud photo library..that option was good for the first 18 months that it was created, but then Apple modified it and turned it into a ****-sandwich....
Any help is appreciated.
P.