How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to Mac?

Earlier days people used to take digital camera for trips and picnic to snap photos. However, this has been changed now with the smartphones. Almost, every smartphone out there offer high-end camera. The latest iPhone 11 Pro Max offers tripped 12 megapixel camera to work together and allow capturing wide images. After taking beautiful pictures, you may be interested in transferring them to your Mac. In this article, we will explain how to transfer photos from iPhone to Mac.

Related: How to transfer photos from iPhone to PC?

Transfer Photos from iPhone to Mac

You can follow one of the below option to send the pictures from iPhone to Mac.

• Using iCloud account on Mac
• With iCloud web access
• From iPhone to Mac using AirDrop
• Transfer photos using lightning cable in Mac
• Using third-party apps

1. Using iCloud Account on iPhone and Mac

You need iCloud account in order to use any Apple devices like iPhone, Mac or iPad. It helps to use the continuity features like Handoff or Universal Clipboard. After setup Apple account, you have to manually enable the iCloud photo sharing option in iPhone.

• Tap on “Settings” app on your iPhone and then tap on your Apple ID shown on top.
• Select “iCloud” and then tap on “Photos”.
• Enable “iCloud Photos” option.

This will help you automatically synchronize all your photos in iCloud account. After taking photos with your iPhone, open “Photos” app to see the status of sync.

Open “Photos” app in Mac, to instantly view and download the pictures from “Photos” app on your Mac. Remember, you should use the same iCloud account on Mac and iPhone in order to view the pictures.

2. iCloud Web Access for Mac

Instead of viewing the pictures using “Photos” app on your Mac, you can also access them using icloud.com website. This is rather useful in Windows PC, as Mac has Photos app to sync your pictures from iPhone.

• Open icloud.com website.
• Click on Photos app.
• View and download your pictures and videos.

3. Using AirDrop to Transfer Pictures to Mac

AirDrop is useful to transfer any files on your iPhone to Mac. Again, you should use the same iCloud account and keep the devices within the Bluetooth range for AirDrop to work.

• Open “Photos” app on your iPhone and tap on the picture you want to sent to Mac.
• Tap on “Share” icon on the bottom left corner and choose multiple items to send at once.
• Now tap on “AirDrop” app that normally shows in first.
• Select your Mac name to start sending the photos.
• You will see the notifications on the Mac when receiving files.

4. Transfer to Mac Using Cable

Earlier iTunes was popular to sync content between iPhone and Mac. However, Apple removed iTunes on macOS Catalina and allows you to access the photos using “Finder” app.

• Connect your iPhone with your Mac using the lightning cable. If you have iPhone 11 or later, you need to have a converter to connect the type C cable to the thunderbolt USB slot.
• Launch “Finder” and click on your iPhone name.
• Go to “Photos” tab and manage your photos.

In order to use this, you first need to disable iCloud sync on your iPhone as explained above.

5. Using Third-party Apps

The problem with iCloud is that the free account limits the size to 5GB. You have to upgrade to premium plans in order to store more than 5GB data. It is not convenient to pay money, especially when you have no other content to sync. In addition, you can have separate hard disk for using with Mac to store your photos or have different cloud storage account.

If iCloud is not your choice for whatsoever the reasons, then you have to look for third-party apps that will help to transfer photos. Fortunately, there are many photo transfer apps available on iPhone App Store for this purpose.

• Apps that allow to share with passcode.
• You can share the URL or IP address to download the selected pictures from iPhone to Mac.

You can try Photo Transfer App or Share – Anywhere to transfer photos and files to Mac.

Final Words

Nowadays, continuity is the key to success. With the smart iPhone, you can easily share the photos to Mac. We recommend to use iCloud as it offers other continuity features. However, you can try apps, AirDrop or cable transfer if you don’t want to use iCloud.