How to copy pictures from your iPhone to Windows

Submitted by Ricky on Tue, 11/04/2008 - 13:01

The iPhone's built-in camera makes it easy to snap decent quality photos, but the process for copying those photos to your computer using iTunes is clunky and a little different than you'd expect from most digital cameras.

Fortunately it's easy to just copy photos from your iPhone to your PC using Window's photo importer.

How to copy pictures from your iPhone to Windows without using iTunes:

1. Plug in your iPhone to your computer using the usb data cable that comes with your iPhone. Windows will detect your iPhone and ask you what actions you'd like to take:

2. Click "Import pictures" to start the import process.

3. Enter a keyword tag to let you easily find your pictures after they've been uploaded to your computer.

4. Click the "Import" button to start the import process. You can also choose to remove photos from your iPhone once they've been uploaded.

Once your photos have been copied over to your computer, Windows will open the Photo Gallery and will show you the pictures you've just uploaded.

No syncing, no fuss, and no iTunes or extra software required. Just photos copied over to your PC like you'd expect.




Richard (not verified)

Fri, 11/28/2008 - 05:29

Thanks chap that's the first sensible answer I've read and works a treat

Kumar (not verified)

Sat, 01/29/2011 - 09:53

Make sure you open the number lock on the iphone before you use 'import photos' option on windows. otherwise it will simply say no photos found.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 10/02/2011 - 04:03

hi, i have an iphone 3gs and a windows vista computer. i connect my iphone and it shows up on my computer but it says no photos found, i opened the number lock and it still says this. please reply

regards.

Sarah (not verified)

Sat, 02/04/2012 - 06:19

Thank you! It worked :-)

DD (not verified)

Fri, 03/11/2011 - 13:22

YOU ROCK!
I asked the Lord to show me how to do this and within 5 minutes you showed up on the search!! It is exactly as you said and soooooo easy! Sending you a kiss and a hug....it's ok because my husband is happy I am happy transfering the pics. In super grateful appreciation forever!!! DD

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 11/14/2012 - 17:22

Make sure you unlock your phone BEFORE you plug in your USB, then the pictures will show up. Unlocking the phone once its already plugged in wont help, it must be unlocked at the time of connection to the computer.

Ricardo (not verified)

Tue, 12/04/2012 - 03:41

Great advice! Who would have thought it had to be unlocked BEFORE I plugged in the USB.

Thanks so much!

jonathan (not verified)

Tue, 02/05/2013 - 14:06

This was the key I needed. Thanks!!

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 03/10/2009 - 15:37

Rather than photos, how do you import pics located in the galleries of your iphone into vista. It seems not to want to do it for me unless you are importing the camera photos.

elid69 (not verified)

Tue, 11/02/2010 - 12:36

Hi,

I tried this before and it works but now when I'm trying it again it doesn't work. Sometimes I can open the apple iphone icon and all folders but there are no photos nor videos... What do you think the possible reason for this? I also notice that when I click the properties of apple iphone icon, it simply says "battery". do I need to charge it 100% before transferring the photos and vids?

Thanks,
Elid69

sadii (not verified)

Mon, 04/13/2009 - 13:03

my auto-play stopped working. when i plug in my iphone to my computer now, it only opens itunes, not the auto-play anymore.

how do i fix that pleaseee help meeee

Ricky's picture

Ricky

Mon, 04/13/2009 - 13:56

I posted your question in a separate thread, along with the answer:

http://www.rickysays.com/how-to-fix-autoplay-for-iphone

Did that do the trick? :-)

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 11/05/2009 - 16:23

I had that same problem but went to Computer and clicked on my iPhone. It then opened to the folders and I just simply clicked on it to open the pictures and then selected the desired ones and dragged them to the desired folder. Finished in less than 5 mins.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 12/24/2009 - 07:49

Dude - control panel was the only thing that worked for me using Vista, with iTunes working for everything except photos. Thanks soooo much this is just in time to send out my Christmas pix. - Linda

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 09/21/2010 - 12:24

Thanks! This one actually worked after trying hundreds of other suggestions. I still would like the auto-play to work, but my device never shows so it is good to know I can do it this way.

Kim (not verified)

Thu, 05/20/2010 - 08:20

My computer is not detecting my iPhone how
did u fix yours

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 05/02/2009 - 16:25

what about images from an album on the iphone. i have albums that i need to copy to vista but they arent on my pc, if i sync, will it delete the photos off and not copy them to the pc?

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 07/01/2009 - 00:38

I am familiar with the idea that plugging the usb into to port on my comp is supposed to help me upload my picts. The problem is my iphone is not being detected by my computer. The device is not detectable. What is wrong?

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 07/01/2009 - 00:41

My computer is not picking up my iphone as a device when it is plugged into the usb port. What is wrong?
I looked at my autoplay. The itunes application can id my phone, my computer, sony vaio, running vista, cannot detect my iphone when plugged into the usb port.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 08/10/2009 - 16:57

Thanks man. It helped.

Best Regards.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 09/01/2009 - 15:26

my computer doesnt detect my iphone!? that box doesnt pop up when i connect it with the usb!?

Cat (not verified)

Mon, 09/07/2009 - 11:41

I had success by deleting my iphone from Device Manager's Portable Devices, then replugging in the iPhone and using Windows Photo Gallery, I was able to import my entire camera roll with no problem.

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 10/05/2009 - 08:25

I can see the dialogue box saying "Import pictures" , but after that it's saying that no new pictures.... and opens nothing.Even if there are new camera foto's

JC (not verified)

Sat, 10/17/2009 - 23:01

Plug the Iphone in... go to device manager and right click on portable devices... select scan for hardware changes... then go back to my computer

David (not verified)

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 22:45

Thanks a lot. finally I can see iPhone on "My Computer". Why they made is so complicated?

stevie (not verified)

Mon, 11/07/2011 - 08:12

that didn't work for me. I did exactly as you said and it still says no new pictures are on this device when I just took pictures of my son's birthday party and his halloween costume. What else can I do?

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 11/04/2009 - 01:25

both 'device manager' option and 'control panel' option works. Catch here is that after changing the settings when u connect iPhone ensure that it is not locked. If it locked, still iTunes alone open up, otherwise it prompts from Import pictures.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 11/14/2009 - 13:09

this was really helpful, and I followed the steps exactly, but I could not add a tag to my imported iphone pics. Is there something i could be doing wrong?

Renae (not verified)

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 18:57

Hi, i can get the pics on the camera roll by doing this but my other pics in my iphone photo albums wont come up. These weren't taken from the camera on the iphone (and they're the important ones lol). Any ideas? Cheers

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 12/08/2009 - 21:55

i disabled my apple usb thing from the device manager - portable devices and now it wont let me enable it!! HELPP!!!

louise (not verified)

Fri, 01/29/2010 - 07:16

Hi,

My autoplay does not detect any devices that are plugged in, my iphone shows in 'my computer' and portable devices and also sync's fine with itunes. The autoplay box does not pop up when i plug it in, nor can i add it as a device from the autoplay set up.

Please help as this is really annoying me!!!

Many thanks.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 02/14/2010 - 17:43

THANKS!! Finally a way to move pictures from my iPhone! Didn't realize that the autoplay option had been disabled...once I changed that, everything worked!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 02/26/2010 - 07:23

Yup I connect iphone (running vista) and box pops up. I click on import pictures and it says no new pictures have been found.

In my computer you can click on iphone icon, goes to DCIM, goes to Apple100 but folder is empty (it cant see the pics) there are 200 pics on camera roll but Vista cant see them! Any ideas ?

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 03/05/2010 - 12:23

my vista doesnt even acknowledge my iphone anymore help

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 03/08/2010 - 15:02

I have the tmobile tap and I have no clue on how to import pictures from my phone to the computer I plug it into the computer with the usb cable but i dont know how to find the option of importing anyone able to help me??

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 11:19

ok i have transfered my pictures from my iphone onto my computer by the way u have vista ok so now the problem is that once i click on my pictures it will show how many pictures i have but there is no image only some pictures show not all. What can be the problem how to do i fix that help please

Anonymous (not verified)

Mon, 03/15/2010 - 10:10

hello, how about transferring photos from pc to iphone..how would you do that?

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 04/15/2010 - 20:12

hi, my iphone shoes up in itunes but nowhere else. it doesnt even show up in device manager or my computer, not does the dialog box with the import picture option pop-up. HELP! plz and thanks

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 04/17/2010 - 00:14

My computer, running 32bit Vista, used to treat the iphone like an external HD in the past. Just wiped my drive and now it will not show up. I checked all the autoplay tabs, right clicked on portable devices in the device mgr, checked and re checked my computer to see if it was recognized.

When I plug the phone in, it charges and Windows says that it is searching for a driver. Eventually I am told that a driver was successfully installed and recognizes my digital camera. The only problem is that nowhere can I find I way to take the pictures from my phone. I go into Adobe Bridge CS3 and it does not recognize my Iphone.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 04/28/2010 - 16:22

I have a Dell computer with Vista on it. I followed the instructions above but Auto Play did not come up. Searched for Auto Play in Start -- it came up but the iPhone was not there. Apple says it is my computer, Dell says it's the phone. I really need the pics on the phone for a presentation. How else can I get them into the computer? Help!

bg (not verified)

Sun, 05/02/2010 - 09:09

I have an iphone and a Dell laptop w/ Vista. Iphone shows up in itunes, but not ANYWHERE else. Using same cable and my wife's iphone on my laptop, her phone shows up. My phone also does not show up on her computer with either her cable or my cable. So, it's not my computer or my cable. I've uninstalled and reinstalled everything. I've tried all the tricks I've found on the web. Vista will not acknowledge my iphone even though itunes does and it works fine in that respect. Any suggestion?

Courtney (not verified)

Sun, 05/09/2010 - 11:23

I have been able to upload pictures from my iPhone to my computer (running on Windows Vista) one time and that's it. Since then I always get a message that says "No new pictures or videos were found on this device," even though I've taken a ton of new pictures. Help?!

Tammy (not verified)

Wed, 05/26/2010 - 07:49

My iphone shows up in device manager but it has the yellow explanation point on it (Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19))- it also does not show up in my computer nor does the auto play start when I plug it into my computer (itune atomatically starts. Can u give me some direction on how to fix this problem? Thank you!

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 06/01/2010 - 15:11

So I Read ALL these, and I simply deleted my 550 photos down to 495. It worked. Even people who emailed me photos and photos from other places were ok. Just make sure you delete any of them down to 195. Dont think it matters where the original source is from.

Thanks guys

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 06/10/2010 - 17:29

If you can't import photos from your iPhone to your computer (whether Mac of PC), you might want to check to see if you have any photos in the camera roll on your iPhone that did not originate from the iPhone camera (i.e. someone emailed you, taken on another camera, received from your computer, copied from the internet, etc.). If you do then Apple disables your ability to import or sync ANY photos contained on your iPhone until the non-originating photos are removed from the iPhone camera roll. The only work around is to email those non-originating pictures to yourself and then delete them to re-enable your ability to import/sync the remaining photos. I know it's a pain. Of course you could let Apple know how unsatisfactory this is at: http://www.apple.com/feedback

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 06/10/2010 - 17:31

If you can't import photos from your iPhone to your computer (whether Mac of PC), you might want to check to see if you have any photos in the camera roll on your iPhone that did not originate from the iPhone camera (i.e. someone emailed you, taken on another camera, received from your computer, copied from the internet, etc.). If you do then Apple disables your ability to import or sync ANY photos contained on your iPhone until the non-originating photos are removed from the iPhone camera roll. The only work around is to email those non-originating pictures to yourself and then delete them to re-enable your ability to import/sync the remaining photos. I know it's a pain. Of course you could let Apple know how unsatisfactory this is at: http://www.apple.com/feedback

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 09/03/2010 - 20:46

if you cannot see your "Apple Iphone" in Portable Devices or it doesn't show up in My Computer, then this is the problem. i tried everything and nothing worked. when i deleted all the pictures saved from e-mails and messages from my Camera Roll, my computer started recognizing my Iphone again. THIS WORKS. just copy all your the non-iphone pictures and email them to yourself. that way you still have them.

CL (not verified)

Fri, 06/11/2010 - 20:01

"No new pictures or videos were found on this device"

I deleted pics to under 195, but photos still cannot be found. Yet I'm LOOKING at them!!! So frustrating. Apple troubleshooting tips are not on point. Any ideas??

Thanks!

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 07/14/2010 - 17:01

Same here! Wish someone would tell us whats the matter! Its never done this before..

Anonymous (not verified)

Sun, 06/13/2010 - 06:56

When I connect the iphone and the import wizard comes up, when I click import it says access denied on each picture. However I am able to go to the phone thru My Computer and navigate to the folder on the phone and copy them that way to my pc. Any ideas why they would say access denied? I am stumped

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