How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to Windows 10 Laptop - 4 Efficient Ways

Rob Parsons Updated on Apr 15, 2022 4:19 PM

If you're a photography lover, then it's not surprising that you may have over 25,000 photos housed in your iPhone. But holding such a myriad of pictures in the limited device storage could come with a problem. You'll run out of space instantly, especially when you live with a 16-gigabytes iPhone. One fairly simple resolution to this is to transfer photos from iPhone to your Windows 10 laptop. There're multiple ways to make it a breeze for keeping images stored locally, whether you're using a Windows 10 laptop coming from Dell, Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, or others.

Transfer Photos from iPhone to a Windows 10 Laptop

You can make use of Microsoft's built-in tools - Windows Photos app and File Explorer - to complete the photo transfer, which is still workable in a notebook without Internet service. An outstanding 3rd-party iOS-to-PC transfer utility can also do you a favor for importing photos from iPhone to Windows 10 laptop computer, no matter what the iPhone model is and which OS it's running - iOS 11, 12, 13, or newer. Don't want to leave behind the pictures uploaded to the iCloud Photos library? We've still got you covered!

To master all these details, you'll need to go through this article till end. If you undergo an issue that you can't browse or transfer images from an iPhone to Windows 10, jump to the last section to find the answer.

1. Import Photos to the Windows Photos app

Being secure, free and easy-to-use, Microsoft Photos App is your very first way to copy iPhone photos to Windows 10 laptop. You can transfer multiple photos all at once along with the facility of generating a preview before initiating the transfer process. It also makes you in command to select the desired storage path to save the photos or videos so that you can access them easily.

Now, all you need is a USB cable and the latest version of iTunes installed in your computer to move photos from iPhone to a laptop running Windows 10. Here's the complete procedure:

Connect you phone to the laptop and access the Photos app through the Start menu.
Click on Import option from the upper right corner of the screen.
From its context menu, choose "From a USB device".

Mark the box next to each picture that you decide to transfer.

There's a select box in the upper left of the windows, where you can choose All items, Items since last import or None from its menu list.

Hit Import items button. It'll start transferring iPhone photos to Windows 10 laptop.

2. Transfer iPhone Photos Using File Explorer

Like Photos app, File Explorer is also an official and free trick that you can employ for a quick photos transfer from iPhone to Windows 10 laptop. It'll detect your device as a digital drive, enabling you to save any photos on the machine as easy as copying and pasting. Plus, the Microsoft OneDrive is a nice addition, with which you can synchronize the images to the cloud directly with a great ease.

The time of the transfer process depends on how many pictures you intend to migrate. Here's how:

Plug the device to the computer with latest version of iTunes opened.
Run File Explorer from the Taskbar or by pressing the Windows + E on the keyboard.
Double-click on the "Apple iPhone" drive.
Choose Internal Storage > DCIM.
Double-click on any folder, i.e. "116APPLE" folder as the image shown below.
Select needed photos and copying them using CTRL + C key combination.
Paste in the desired folder using CTRL + V to back up iPhone photos to Windows 10 laptop.

Here's a pro tip: If the computer keeps saying Device is unreachable while the device is connected and unlocked, go to Settings > Photos on the phone, scroll down and stop at the "TRANSFER TO MAC OR PC" section, and have the Keep Originals checked to fix up the issue.

3. Import iPhone Photos into Windows 10 Laptop via iTransfer

Claiming to be the ultimate data transfer software, iPhone Data Transfer is another way to go for the photo transfer. With it, you can comfortably transfer the data from iOS device to the PC or Mac computer, or vice versa. It grants you the full control with regards to photo selection. You can choose certain images, migrate over all photos from iPhone to a laptop running off Windows 10 version, or even save the whole photo folder(s) into the machine's hard drive via only clicking the "Export" button.

Moreover, if you're experiencing a phone switch, the "Phone to Phone Transfer" function that shipped right into the software could also save your efforts and get everything you need transferred between the devices automatically.

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for Windows | for macOS

Precisely, we'll outline the instructions on importing iPhone photos into a Windows 10 laptop below.

Step 1: Launch the software

Upon installation, run iTransfer and connect your iPhone to the machine via a standard USB cable. The software will detect your device automatically.

Step 2: Highlight photo(s) to transfer

When the main window of the application pops up, move the cursor to click on "Photos" tab. Within seconds, all the categories of photos that you have in your device will show up on the left, covering Camera Roll (it's checked by default), Photo Library, Screenshot, Live photos, and more.

You can have a preview of photo files covered in each section on the right of the screen, then select the image(s) that you need to migrate.

Step 3: Export photos from iPhone to Windows 10 laptop

If you need to add one or specific pictures into the laptop: Go to the upper menu line and choose Export > Export to PC and wait until it finishes.

If you need to put the iPhone photos in the folder into a laptop using Windows 10: Locate the folder's name on the sidebar, right-click on it and hit Export to PC in the dropdown menu.

That's it!

4. Download iPhone Photos from iCloud

Now, it's the turn for those who prefer using iCloud Photos and want to archive or make copies of the images seated in the cloud to the computer.

As the all the pictures in the iCloud storage can be easily accessible by logging into the same Apple account, you can sign in to the iCloud.com to download the pictures manually. Aside from this, one more effortless way that you can send images from an iPhone to a laptop running Windows 10 wirelessly is to apply the iCloud desktop application for Windows. Here's what you need to do:

Tips: Make sure that you've turned on the iCloud Photos option on your device first.

Open iCloud software on your computer and sign in with your Apple account.
Put a mark on the box next to the Photos.
In the pop-up, enable iCloud Photos and click on Done.

Hit Apply button. It will automatically sync iPhone photos with Windows 10 notebook.

If you can't transfer photos from iPhone to Windows 10 laptop...

Follow the steps detailed clearly on this Apple Support Page if you've ever run into these problems:

Can't get the DCIM folder show up when using File Explorer
An error message saying "We're having trouble connecting to your device." in Photos app
An unexpected alert of "we can't find any photos on your device. Add some and try again." shows up when choosing photos in Photos app
Only part of images in iCloud Photos has been transferred