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Transfer iPhone photos and videos to computer

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Chris Devor
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iExplorer can easily transfer your Camera Roll, Photo Library (albums synced from iTunes) and Photo Stream from your iPhone, iPod or iPad to your Mac or Windows PC.  This includes both your pictures and videos. Here's how:
 
  1. Open iExplorer and connect your device.
  2. Navigate to Photos in the left panel or Photos & Videos on the Device Overview screen.
  3. Use the Export buttons at the bottom of the window to export selected photos, a selected album, or all photos at once.
    • Hold the Command (Mac) or Control (PC) keys to select multiple image items.
    • To export a specific album, you must highlight the album in the left panel under Photos (you may need to click on the disclosure triangle to see it).
    • You can also directly drag and drop any photos or videos from your device in iExplorer to your computer.​

If you are wanting to keep the original date taken information for your photos or videos, on a PC, you'll want to use the Export buttons, and on a Mac, you'll want to drag/drop. The location (GPS) data will also be retained. If you use the Export button on a Mac or drag/drop on a PC, then the date metadata in each file will change to the date of transfer from iExplorer. Using drag/drop on a Mac will also keep the original file names for your photo and video files. 

If you have any issues access photos or recorded videos in the Photos section or if your see white thumbnails for any of them and can't preview them in the right panel, try going to the Media folder instead where the photo and video files are actually stored as individual files in iOS. The Media folder has a house icon next to it in the left panel of iExplorer. You'll find them in the folder's below:

Camera Roll: Media/DCIM folder (look in all of the 100APPLE subfolders).
Photo Library albums synced from iTunes: Media/PhotoData/Sync folder. 
Photo Stream: Media/PhotoStreamsData folder.
iCloud Photo Library: Media/PhotoData/PhotoCloudSharingData folder (and look for 30 digit subfolder names such as "5AFB7555-5CAA-43A0-8D50-75D884301C96" and open them to look in the 100APPLE subfolders for your photos.

Then, just drag/drop any of the files or entire folders to your computer or right-click on one and choose Export to Folder. Hold Control (PC) or Command (Mac) to select more than one. 
 

​​Additional Support Information: 

Need more help? We've also got several iExplorer tutorials including these: 


 

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