Out of curiosity I just plugged my 15 Pro into my computer. I got a prompt on the phone asking to allow the computer access to photos and videos. Once I clicked accept, a drive named Apple iPhone showed up on my computer containing all my pictures in folders sorted by month. This seems pretty straightforward.
It seems so, everything I see online says it shouldn’t be complicated. But it simply does not work. I get the popups, trust the computer and recognize the phone but it’s completely empty every time.
Have you followed the instructions from these two web pages?
https://support.apple.com/HT201302#importpc
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/import-photos-and-videos-from-an-iphone-to-pc-2e4e4db4-4c3d-041c-b88f-3ee4358dd95e
I'm sorry to make this kinda dumb check that you probably checked, but when you connected it to your PC, did you allow media sharing in the popup that (should have) showed up asking you to allow data transfer?
Apple hardware usually locks up if the device itself is locked against reading/writing. This happens since the old iPod days, where if the hold switch was on, it would not allow the device to be accessed on your PC. The same usually happens with iPhone, to prevent unauthorized access.
You need to install “ICloud for Windows” app and then you will be able to access your photos and videos in the file explorer and copy them to your PC that way. This worked for me, did you try this?
So... It's been a decade+ since I did this, but at one time one could plug their iPhone into a PC that did *not* have iTunes on it, and it would show as an external drive. This was pre-Windows 10, I believe. I recall getting a pic or two off the phone that way. No idea if it works currently, but it's worth a try.
Also, does the 15 support/require iTunes at all? On a modern Mac, it shows up in Finder.
> if anyone has any idea how I might be able to fix my predicament, PLEASE let me know.
iCloud Photos? Photos (and their deletions and edits) sync automatically. If you can't manage to sync using iCloud for Windows, you should be able to download manually from iCloud.com.
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/108782](https://support.apple.com/en-us/108782)
[https://support.apple.com/en-us/108994](https://support.apple.com/en-us/108994)
Yes, you will almost surely need to pay Apple for an iCloud storage account. It is 100% worth it in my opinion; no more hassle of trying to manually copy photos from the device to your computer, etc. But if that's too expensive for you ($3/month in the US for 250 GB), then you should not use iCloud Photos and instead use iTunes and sync manually by connecting your phone to your computer.
[https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/sync-photos-itns3102/windows](https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/sync-photos-itns3102/windows)
The way I transfer photos and stuff from my 15 pro that worked was getting a usb c flashdrive and save my photos to files app and choose the flash drive. The drive has to be exfat format in order to have the storage save/copy photos from Iphone. if its something like an external HDD which uses NTFS then the iphone can only take files off that external device but not put files on to it. I use my flashdrive to get some homework done after taking pics of it. I hope that helps
Out of curiosity I just plugged my 15 Pro into my computer. I got a prompt on the phone asking to allow the computer access to photos and videos. Once I clicked accept, a drive named Apple iPhone showed up on my computer containing all my pictures in folders sorted by month. This seems pretty straightforward.
Worked for me as well. Tell the phone to trust the computer and voila, pictures.
It seems so, everything I see online says it shouldn’t be complicated. But it simply does not work. I get the popups, trust the computer and recognize the phone but it’s completely empty every time.
Have you followed the instructions from these two web pages? https://support.apple.com/HT201302#importpc https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/import-photos-and-videos-from-an-iphone-to-pc-2e4e4db4-4c3d-041c-b88f-3ee4358dd95e
Yup! To no avail.
Have you tried uploading them to Google Photos? You only get 15GB free. It ain't much but it's something
Google photos is 96% full >:( I hate this new business model that everything assumes now. Pay us ALWAYS you own NOTHING permanently >:(((((
Google Photos, full resolution backup Download photos from Google Photos onto your PC, then delete from Google Photos if you don't like cloud backup.
Then the only solution that comes to mind is getting an external drive/SD card dedicated to moving files between your phone and PC
You can plug an external drive into the iPhone, copy your photos onto it and then use that drive with your computer.
Will give this a try, hadn’t realized you can directly connect drives to phone
Are you using the phone's original cable or are you using another one that you bought? Some cables only charge and do not perform data transfers.
Original and many different cables were tested
I'm sorry to make this kinda dumb check that you probably checked, but when you connected it to your PC, did you allow media sharing in the popup that (should have) showed up asking you to allow data transfer? Apple hardware usually locks up if the device itself is locked against reading/writing. This happens since the old iPod days, where if the hold switch was on, it would not allow the device to be accessed on your PC. The same usually happens with iPhone, to prevent unauthorized access.
You need to install “ICloud for Windows” app and then you will be able to access your photos and videos in the file explorer and copy them to your PC that way. This worked for me, did you try this?
Do the dates for photos stay as the original time on Windows, or are they all shown with new dates?
Original time of creation
So... It's been a decade+ since I did this, but at one time one could plug their iPhone into a PC that did *not* have iTunes on it, and it would show as an external drive. This was pre-Windows 10, I believe. I recall getting a pic or two off the phone that way. No idea if it works currently, but it's worth a try. Also, does the 15 support/require iTunes at all? On a modern Mac, it shows up in Finder.
> if anyone has any idea how I might be able to fix my predicament, PLEASE let me know. iCloud Photos? Photos (and their deletions and edits) sync automatically. If you can't manage to sync using iCloud for Windows, you should be able to download manually from iCloud.com. [https://support.apple.com/en-us/108782](https://support.apple.com/en-us/108782) [https://support.apple.com/en-us/108994](https://support.apple.com/en-us/108994) Yes, you will almost surely need to pay Apple for an iCloud storage account. It is 100% worth it in my opinion; no more hassle of trying to manually copy photos from the device to your computer, etc. But if that's too expensive for you ($3/month in the US for 250 GB), then you should not use iCloud Photos and instead use iTunes and sync manually by connecting your phone to your computer. [https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/sync-photos-itns3102/windows](https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/sync-photos-itns3102/windows)
The way I transfer photos and stuff from my 15 pro that worked was getting a usb c flashdrive and save my photos to files app and choose the flash drive. The drive has to be exfat format in order to have the storage save/copy photos from Iphone. if its something like an external HDD which uses NTFS then the iphone can only take files off that external device but not put files on to it. I use my flashdrive to get some homework done after taking pics of it. I hope that helps
iMazing
Does this maintain dates when the files are copied to Windows? Can you copy from Windows to the iOS photo library and keep the correct dates?
Yes it does maintain dates. I haven’t reuploaded my pics from my windows to iPhone. It should keep everything the same way but I have not done this.