Shunt your beautiful pictures from iPhone or iPad to your Windows PC with these simple steps.
You've been taking some beautiful pictures with your iPhone or iPad, and you want to be able to see them on your Windows 10 computer. Maybe there's some tweaking you want to make before sharing them, or you want to have a long-term archive for your shots. Whatever your reason, we'll help you move those photos painlessly.
The easiest way to go about this process is to set up an automatic sync between your iPhone or iPad and your Windows computer. This will make sure your photos transfer to your computer without you having to do anything other than open the folder they're supposed to go into. This can also make sure your Windows pictures show up on your iPhone or iPad. Take a look at our guide on setting up an iTunes sync for Windows to see how this works. If you would rather have manual control over how photos move from your iOS device to your computer, we'll show you how here.
How to transfer iPhone or iPad pictures to a Windows 10 computer using File Explorer
- Install iTunes, If you haven't already. This will ensure your computer can communicate with your iPhone or iPad.
- Plug in your iPhone or iPad with your Lightning to USB or 30-pin Dock to USB cable.
- Open Windows File Explorer. It's the little yellow folder icon on the bottom taskbar. You can also press the Start key on your keyboard and "E" at the same time to open File Explorer.
- On the left pane, look under Desktop. If there's nothing below it, the file tree may be collapsed. Click the right-pointing arrow next to the Desktop icon to see everything contained inside.

- Under This PC, you should see your iPhone as a drive. Again, This PC may need to be expanded to see everything inside.
- Double-click the icon for your iPhone here. You will also need to open Internal Storage, then DCIM, then another folder inside to get access to your photos.
- Photos and videos take on your iPhone or iPad should now be visible. Select the items you want to copy to your computer. Hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and left-click each item you want to include. Previously selected items can be unselected in this way as well. You can also select multiple items by left-clicking and dragging your mouse to form a box over photos, or hit Ctrl and "A" on your keyboard to select everything.
- The top bar in the window should have a menu that says Copy To. Click it, and click the destination where you want your selected files to be copied to. The Desktop is a nice, easily accessible spot, provided you aren't copying too many photos. If your preferred location isn't listed, click Choose Location… at the end of the list. Try not to use the Move To option unless your iPhone or iPad is running out of storage space and you want the photos removed altogether from the device.
How to transfer photos from your iPhone or iPad using the Windows 10 Photos app
If you're feeling adventurous, there's also the new Windows Photos app. It isn't quite as precise as manually picking your pictures to copy over, but it does a fine job of doing it in bulk, and the app is very nice for looking at your pictures.

- Plug your iPhone or iPad into your computer over the Lightning cable.
- Open Photos. Again, this can be found by typing "Photos" into the search bar at the bottom of the screen in Windows 10.
- Click the button at the top-right of the Photos app to import. It's just to the left of the three dots.
- Select your iPhone from the options that appear.
Remember, having an automatic sync over iCloud or iTunes is leagues easier than these options, though you enjoy less fine-tuned control over what transfers and when. If you're having any trouble at all getting photos off your iPhone and onto your Windows computer, let us know in the comments and we'll do our best to help.
Reader comments
How to transfer your iPhone and iPad photos to Windows 10
Very clear steps and advice. Thanks. Just one problem for me--my iPhone does not appear as an external drive under This PC since I upgraded to Windows 10. I really want to make sure I have all my pictures, and I need to delete them off the phone to save space. I'm afraid iTunes and iCloud will delete them once I delete them from my phone. And I don't use Windows Photos.
You should install drive for your iPhone, and in this article, it said that you'd better install iTunes, which is a good way to install drive for your iOS device, and make your windows 10 show your iPhone as external drive. In my opinion, not better than using some third part software, such as copytrans or anytrans, also helpful for transferring some other types of files on your iPhone.
I solved this simply by installing Apple's iPhone Windows Compatibility Pack on my PC:
http://www.video-converter-mac.org/how-to-transfer-photos-from-iphone-to...
Yes, I know it says Windows 8.1 but it worked on Windows 10 too.
The other really useful tip was to unlock the iphone with password - it won't recognise a locked iPhone.
Wondering if in Itunes is there a way to export from my Ipod vs importing via Itunes?
Also in old Windows, it used to pop up as you plug in your Ipod etc, asking if you wish to download your pics...why can't we just get that again? Or where, how?
I don't have Windows 10, I'm still on 8. I want to copy the photos from my photo stream onto my PC harddrive and save some onto memory sticks for digital frames the family have, as well as onto external harddrive (I want multiple back ups). However, I cannot seem to do this. I've installed iCloud on my laptop, set it up as per the instructions on apple site and nothing. Getting really frustrated as also have 11 days left to build a calendar that is being printed as Xmas presents but can't get to my photos unless I email them - rather lengthy as some months have 3-5 pics..... HELP - Please
Yesterday I followed your instructions for loading my photos from my iphone6 to my windows 10 photos app. All went well, I was able to remove photos not wanted to import and ended up with what I wanted have in the windows photo program. Today I opened photos and saw them briefly then they were gone. I connected my iphone again and tried to download as done previously but the program would not recognize my phone. My phone is recognized by itunes so I know it is connected. Don't know where to go from here.
mikeislost : did you get a reply from anyone?
I have the same darn problem with Windows 10 Photo App on as mikeislost!!! Had to replace my iphone 6 with a duplicate, so first tethered up to Photos, and transferred 3,963 photos. I actually SAW all 3,963 photos IN THE PHOTOS APP, closed it, and the erased the old phone to send it back. Activated the new phone, and there are only about 1,100 pics in the Photos app!!! Says I have like 13 for November 2015, yet I know I took 200 at our Thanksgiving Dinner 2 weeks ago! What the heck is going on here! Had a LOT more pictures that were important to me. This is unacceptable. What did either I or the app do wrong??? Thanks for anyone's response. Appreciated.
I have tried the Windows Photo app to transfer from my iPhone, however it only shows 341 photos. I want to transfer 1000+ Are they in the cloud and if so how do I expose them to the Windows Photo app for transfer ?
Thanks
Having the same problem not all my photos and videos are showing up on my windows 10 PC.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
I have over 1,400 photos and some videos. The storage on my iphone 6 is almost full. I have tried everything that I can think of to download this stuff to my dell windows 10 desktop so that I can delete this off of my phone to free up storage space but when I do import it only selects a random few things and not all of the things to download and then there is not an option of way of getting the things not selected to be able to download. PLEASE someone HELP!!!!!!!
Hey I'm in almost the same boat. I'm basically doing everything recommended on this site with Windows explorer and iTunes but of over 2000 pics on my iPad only 80 come across and most of those are quite recent pics.#*!
Help
I can't transfer My Photo Stream pictures from my iPad to my PC (Windows 10). I see them in the iPad, but when I plug it into the PC it's like the pix don't exist. This is the case whether I use the desktop files or the Windows 10 Photos App ("there is nothing to download"). Help!
P.S.-Is anyone monitor this thread, or it is just an open forum?
Very nice presentation of instructions--thanks! It all worked well for me when I transferred a single image from my phone to computer (Windows 10). But, when I tried to attach it to an email, there was a message that indicated a problem, and that it failed. I tried both inline and as attachment, but it still failed. Yet, as I attempted again just now as I was writing this, it was successful! So, all's well that ends well, and I thank you for guiding me through this otherwise impossible task for tech-challenged me : )
Very nice, but I couldn't find a way to erase from iphone the imported photos.
Every time I try to import photos its says there's a problem and then it just stops importing....
I have been having the same issue and cannot resolve. c2000 photos and videos on iPhone 6 Plus, trying to save them to my Windows 10 PC, the windows photo app constantly fails. I click import, it finds all the files and then says it wont work, try again..and again...and again
I have also tried manually accessing the files when linked via lightning cable and copying and pasting to my pictures folder, says access denied!!
What can I do to move my pictures before i lose them?