The best ways to transfer photos from an Android to a computer

We may earn revenue from the products provided on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›

The fastest way to transfer photos from your Android phone to your computer is to use the Google Photos app – but that’s not for everyone.

You may not want to store all your personal media files on Google's servers, or you may refuse to pay for cloud storage. For whatever reason, you may want to move photos from your Android device to your laptop or desktop via a USB cable.

Be sure to choose at least one alternative storage method for photos and videos - so that your precious digital memory will be saved forever if your phone is lost, stolen, or severely damaged.

We will focus on manually transferring files without Wi-Fi, so you need a USB cable with one end connected to your Android phone and the other end connected to your PC or Mac. For the latest computer and mobile models, a USB-C to USB-C cable should solve the problem.

[Related: USB-C is expected to become the European Union's charging cable standard]

When using Windows and macOS, you may need to put your phone in file transfer mode. To do this, connect your Android device, click the to charge this device over USB notification, find using USB for , and select File transfer .

How to transfer photos from Android to Windows

After connecting your Android phone to a Windows 10 or 11 computer with a suitable USB cable, File Explorer should automatically open a new window to display the contents of your mobile device. If this does not happen, you can find your phone by viewing the left navigation pane of File Explorer or by clicking

This PC to view a list of connected drives and devices.

Once found, you can browse your Android smartphone like you would any other folder on your Windows system. You usually find photos and videos in a folder called DCIM, so you can move them to your computer as needed: drag and drop,

Ctrl C and Ctrl V, Or the Copy (two rectangles) and paste (clipboard and one rectangle) icon at the top of the File Explorer toolbar.

You can also right-click the name of your phone in File Explorer and select

Show more options > Import pictures and videos to move the files. You can select the photos and videos you want to copy, or you can copy everything at once. By default, the file is saved to the Pictures folder of the Windows user account, but the destination location of the file can be changed by selecting More Options.

We recommend you back up your photos and videos to a third location outside your phone and computer just in case. An external hard drive is a good choice, but there are also many third-party applications to choose from, including the file history backup tool that comes with Windows. You can search for it and start it from the Start menu. If you do want to store at least some photos in the cloud, you have other options outside of Google, too.

How to transfer photos from Android to macOS

To make Android and macOS communicate with each other, you need a small free software tool from Google called Android File Transfer. After downloading the package, drag the Android File Transfer Application icon to the application folder and you can launch it from the App screen in Finder or via Spotlight (Cmd Space) .

Since this is a newly downloaded program from the internet, you will receive a pop-up dialog asking you to confirm whether you want to run it. Once done, connect your Android phone to your Mac using the appropriate USB cable. You should then see a pop-up window asking if you want to allow "accessories" (your phone) to connect to macOS. Select Allow to continue.

You will then see a list of all folders on your Android phone – your photos and videos may be in a folder called DCIM. Open it to access your files and drag and drop them anywhere on your computer. If you want to use them with the macOS Photos app, open the program and click File and then click Import to point it to your photos and videos.

As always, it is best to back up your photos (and other data) to an external drive just in case your phone and Mac fail. To back up files to another location, you can choose one of the many third-party programs available, or use the Time Machine tool that comes with macOS. As always, cloud storage is also an option if it works for you. Don't skip this step - it would be a tragedy to lose all transferred files just because of a hard drive crash.

This story has been updated. It was originally published on December 8, 2022.

The above is the detailed content of The best ways to transfer photos from an Android to a computer. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!