When you want to transfer photos from your Android smartphone to a PC or Mac computer, you want one thing: to make it as simple as possible. However, if you are not used to this process, you may have wondered why, for example, when you plug in the smartphone, it is not automatically plugged into the computer. Or what folder the photos are in. Or how to make image transfer easier.
Transfer Photos from Android Smartphone to Computer
There are actually two main ways to transfer photos: via USB and via the Cloud, thanks to Google Photos, which is usually pre-installed on smartphones.
To transfer photos from an Android smartphone to a computer:
with USB cable
- Unlock your smartphone
- Plug it into your computer
- Touch notification USB
- To touch Transfer files
Your smartphone storage is then added to Windows and a dialog box may appear asking you what to do. On Mac, you should: download and install Android File Transfer first.
- Open the DCIM folder where your photos normally reside, or any other folder if you’ve changed it.
- Upload your photos
with Google Photos
- If it is not installed yet, install it Google Photos on your smartphone and allow Google Photos to access internal storage
- Check settings that backups are enabled and you’re connected to WiFi (if you haven’t authorized 4G backups)
- on your computer go to:
- Copy your selected photos to your computer
