How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB

If you have an iPhone, you know how quickly your phone storage can fill up if you take photos consistently, and an excellent way to counter that issue is to transfer your pictures to your Mac to free up some space on your iPhone. 

There are many ways you can transfer photos from your iPhone to your Mac. However, most methods require connecting your iPhone physically to the Mac. We have listed multiple ways by which you can import photos from iPhone to Mac without a USB cable

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How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB

You can use AirDrop to transfer photos between your iPhone and Mac. It is very efficient as you don’t need to perform any complicated setup or install any application.

All you need is WiFi and Bluetooth turned on between both the Apple devices. Read the steps mentioned below for the rest. 

  • Open your iPhone and head over to the Setting app, click General, and choose AirDrop from the list. Make sure Everyone is selected so that your iPhone can be located via AirDrop. 
Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB
Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB
  • Do the same thing on your Mac. Sign in to it and open a Finder window from the dock. Click on AirDrop from the side menu and select Everyone in the Allow me to be discovered by section. 
  • Now ensure both your iPhone and Mac are on the same WiFi network. 
  • Now, head back to your iPhone and open the Photos app. Choose all the photos and videos you would like to transfer to your Mac and click the Share button.
How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB
Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Without USB
  • You should see your Mac’s name come under the AirDrop section. Select it, and the files should begin transferring right away. 
  • You can delete the photos from your iPhone after the transfer has finished.  

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How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Using iCloud

You can switch on sync between your iPhone and Mac so that whatever pictures you click on your iPhone are automatically synced to your Mac using iCloud. iCloud offers only 5 GB of free storage space so you might need to purchase additional space if your files exceed that size.

 However, you have to make sure that you use the same Apple ID to log into iCloud on both devices. Read the steps provided below for the rest of the steps. 

  • Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Scroll down and select Photos from the list. 
  • Turn on iCloud Photos; you can also turn on the Shared albums setting if you want to share entire albums of photos.
How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Using iCloud
  • Now, over to your Mac. Sign in to in and open the Photos app from the dock, or you can use a Spotlight search to do the same. Press the Command-Space shortcut to open Spotlight and enter “photos” in the search bar.
  • Once the Photos app is open, move the cursor over to the menu bar, click on Photos, and select Preferences from the list. Subsequently, you can also use the Command-comma shortcut to do the same. 
  • Click on the iCloud tab inside the Preferences window and click the check box next to iCloud photos. 
Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Using iCloud

The photos and videos will begin transferring from your iPhone to your Mac shortly. In the future, whenever you take a picture from your iPhone or shoot a video, it will be synced onto your Mac automatically. 

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How To Import Photos From iPhone To Mac Using Google Drive

Transferring your photos using Google Drive is just as easy as the other methods. Technically, you can use any cloud storage service you want to share your photos. We chose Google Drive because it offers 15 GB of free storage space. Read the instructions given below to learn how it is done.

  • Sign in to your Mac. 
  • Head over to this site to download the desktop app for Google Drive. 
  • After installing the app, enter your details to access the Drive and make sure you turn on backup and sync.
  • Now head over to your iPhone and install the Google Drive app from the AppStore. 
  • Enter your details to access the Drive. Once you’re logged in, click the plus “+” icon at the bottom of the screen and select Upload
  • Select the photos and videos you want to transfer and upload them. 
  • After the uploading is complete, you will now be able to access those Photos using the Google Drive folder inside the Finder window.

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Why Won’t My Photos Import From iPhone To Mac

Now, if you have already tried all the method above mentioned, some of you still might be facing certain error or issues while importing photos. Here are a few things you can try out to fix the issue.

  • Check whether both your devices are using the same Apple ID or not. Ensure they are connected properly in order to import files.
  • Ensure Mac has enough space to save the files sent to it from your iPhone. Free some space and try importing photos again.
  • Update both your system software on iPhone as well as Mac.
  • Importing might not work if you do not have space on iCloud or Google Photos. Hence, you either need to get more space or delete unwanted files.

Try these fixes out and hopefully all the above methods will work out for you too.

Conclusion

Transferring photos from iPhone to Mac is relatively simple, even when you do not have a USB cable. Of all the methods, we recommend using iCloud to transfer your photos from your iPhone to your Mac, as it is the fastest and most efficient way to do so.

A lot of users might have their iCloud storage full or even Google Drive, this is where AirDrop comes to the rescue especially when you do not have a lot of photos to import.

Hence, make sure both devices have their AirDrop switched on before trying to send any of the files.

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