Import photographs from an iPhone to an off-line computer

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

A few ideas:

Apple devices can use Airdrop (Bluetooth).

With the appropriate app on each device, you can transfer files locally using WebDAV, SMB, HTTP, FTP, etc. Some of these capabilities are built into a PC/Mac. You’ll need an app on iDevices.

You could transfer the images local to a wireless thumb drive like a SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick (requires a free app on each device) and share the stick.

You could plug the iPhone (USB) into a PC/Mac, browse/copy files or move to another storage media.

seeblue said:

A few ideas:
...
You could plug the iPhone (USB) into a PC/Mac, browse/copy files or move to another storage media.

Click to expand...

When I connect the iPhone to Linx PC, the iPhone asks the user to confirm that the host computer "can be trusted" by providing its login code. Upon confirming this, the device is mounted, the iPhone icon appears on the PC desktop, but its filesystem is not visible to the host. (That host is otherwise quite capable of mounting external media with Apple hfsplus filesystem, though in read-only mode, which is however quite sufficient for the purpose at hand).

To the undersigned, an innocent in Appleland, it appears that the iPhone (once activated, of course) does not offer its filesystem to the host (not even in read-only mode, which would be all we need here), but instead requires something more on the host side?

p.s., I can install anything that is available for this purpose on the Linux (or Windows?) PC, but the iPhone owner is not at this point prepared to bring the device on-line or install any additional software to it.

I have an iPhone (6S right now) and have a program which I use regularly to do what seems very much as you ask about. I'm not sure if you are prepared though to PAY anything for this privilege , as the program I use is indeed a bought one.. but for me..it does a very excellent job exactly as I want..not only for such as pic transfers but in my case I use it for other kind of transfers between iphone and computer. I tried a few other free and dubious things but frankly.. as you may well understand .. iphones are pretty well 'closed' to let anybody do what Apple doesn't really like !!

This one works excellently for me though and my thoughts are always that if you want to do a difficult job well.. you very often have to be prepared to buy if necessary a program that wholly does the job well .. and often will do other things you may never have thought of.

When installed, you connect your iphone to computer and it will auto recognise it.. scan the phone to see everything you have on it in various types... then you run the program from such as a Desktop icon shortcut... When both your phone and computer are setup and ready, you can then highlight to note what pics or other things you may want to transfer EITHER way and it will do it.. quite simple..

Anyway have a look and see what you think... personally I'm quite happy with it but that is not the question here of course...

http://www.imtoo.com/iphone-transfer.html

P.S. - In case your friend is bothered.. when the phone is plugged into your computer to be recognised ready for transfer TO IT from your computer..it is NOT putting it online.. just plugging it in sort of like an outside drive or such...

--
/eric
Staffordshire, UK

Nansen said:

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

Click to expand...

Yeah, just use the USB charger cable to connect it to your computer, and import the pictures like you would from any other digital camera. The owner of the phone may need to login to the phone and hit a security prompt or two, but that's really it.

They could also download the images to their own computer and then use a thumb drive or DVD-R, etc, to transfer them to you without the internet.

tkbslc said:

Nansen said:

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

Click to expand...

Yeah, just use the USB charger cable to connect it to your computer, and import the pictures like you would from any other digital camera. The owner of the phone may need to login to the phone and hit a security prompt or two, but that's really it.

They could also download the images to their own computer and then use a thumb drive or DVD-R, etc, to transfer them to you without the internet.

Click to expand...

Excuse me for asking.. but do you actually have an iPhone ?? If so.. certainly unlike anything I get.. when you plug the phone into your computer it simply just does not act like an ordinary external drive !!.. it right away looks for iTunes and expects you to log into that.. it does not really allow ME to do any very same kind straight and simple file transfers like any regular external drive ...

I would expect the OP has already tried that obvious one and is why he is asking what he does...

ericN2 said:

tkbslc said:

Nansen said:

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

Click to expand...

Yeah, just use the USB charger cable to connect it to your computer, and import the pictures like you would from any other digital camera. The owner of the phone may need to login to the phone and hit a security prompt or two, but that's really it.

They could also download the images to their own computer and then use a thumb drive or DVD-R, etc, to transfer them to you without the internet.

Click to expand...

Excuse me for asking.. but do you actually have an iPhone ?? If so.. certainly unlike anything I get.. when you plug the phone into your computer it simply just does not act like an ordinary external drive !!.. it right away looks for iTunes and expects you to log into that.. it does not really allow ME to do any very same kind straight and simple file transfers like any regular external drive ...

I would expect the OP has already tried that obvious one and is why he is asking what he does...

Click to expand...

Works that way for me for photos. You can't browse the whole structure of files (like you can on Android), but you can see the photos and videos.

I have an iPad and my wife has an Iphone

tkbslc said:

Works that way for me for photos. You can't browse the whole structure of files (like you can on Android), but you can see the photos and videos.

I have an iPad and my wife has an Iphone

Click to expand...

What program do you use on the host? What is the OS of that host computer?

tia

Seconding what tkbslc stated. You don’t need anything other than the standard Lightning to USB cable and the password to unlock the phone and grant access to the PC. The phone should present itself as standard removable storage after the prompts are acknowledged.

EDIT: I should note that I have no file transfer utilities or any Apple software installed on this PC.


6S+ connected to Win10 Pro 1709

iPhone 6S+ on iOS 11.2.6
64-bit Win 10 Pro 1709

Several ways to do this w/o using iTunes:

I know nothing about this, but this link references a Nautilus app on Linux:

ericN2 said:

ericN2 said:

ericN2 said:

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

Click to expand...

Yeah, just use the USB charger cable to connect it to your computer, and import the pictures like you would from any other digital camera. The owner of the phone may need to login to the phone and hit a security prompt or two, but that's really it.

They could also download the images to their own computer and then use a thumb drive or DVD-R, etc, to transfer them to you without the internet.

Click to expand...

Excuse me for asking.. but do you actually have an iPhone ?? If so.. certainly unlike anything I get.. when you plug the phone into your computer it simply just does not act like an ordinary external drive !!.. it right away looks for iTunes and expects you to log into that.. it does not really allow ME to do any very same kind straight and simple file transfers like any regular external drive ...

I would expect the OP has already tried that obvious one and is why he is asking what he does...

Click to expand...

Tonight I encountered this exact problem Eric described, trying to get some photos off my son's iPhone 7. The funny thing is, in the past I've gotten photos off my wife's iPhone 7 about like tkbslc described. My takeaway is that:

(1) newer versions of iOS complicate this transfer and prevent what I did before and/or

(2) some setting on my son's iPhone is blocking such simple, direct transfers.

I don't know which / what is the problem. I do know that I think Apple is a bureaucratic PITA.

NAwlins Contrarian said:

NAwlins Contrarian said:

NAwlins Contrarian said:

NAwlins Contrarian said:

I have been approached by an iPhone user, who would like to pass on to me a large number of photographs from an iPhone, without going through any kind of "cloud" storage, e-mail or similar, i.e., "device-to-device" instead of "device-Internet-device".

Is there any way to do that?

TIA

Click to expand...

Yeah, just use the USB charger cable to connect it to your computer, and import the pictures like you would from any other digital camera. The owner of the phone may need to login to the phone and hit a security prompt or two, but that's really it.

They could also download the images to their own computer and then use a thumb drive or DVD-R, etc, to transfer them to you without the internet.

Click to expand...

Excuse me for asking.. but do you actually have an iPhone ?? If so.. certainly unlike anything I get.. when you plug the phone into your computer it simply just does not act like an ordinary external drive !!.. it right away looks for iTunes and expects you to log into that.. it does not really allow ME to do any very same kind straight and simple file transfers like any regular external drive ...

I would expect the OP has already tried that obvious one and is why he is asking what he does...

Click to expand...

Tonight I encountered this exact problem Eric described, trying to get some photos off my son's iPhone 7. The funny thing is, in the past I've gotten photos off my wife's iPhone 7 about like tkbslc described. My takeaway is that:

(1) newer versions of iOS complicate this transfer and prevent what I did before and/or

(2) some setting on my son's iPhone is blocking such simple, direct transfers.

I don't know which / what is the problem. I do know that I think Apple is a bureaucratic PITA.

Click to expand...

I don't know, man. I just tried it again to make sure I'm not crazy. This is on Windows 10 and our iOS devices have most recent updates. On both my wife's 6s and my Ipad 9.7, all you gotta do is connect the USB cable, unlock the phone and then answer the prompt on the phone to allow it to connect to the PC. Then it just shows up under windows explorer like it's a USB drive with your phone's DCIM folder. Drag and drop or use your favorite photo software to import the files to your PC.

I don't think there is any settings that change this behavior.

Thanks to all for comments and suggestions.

In this case, an absolute requirement was that the iPhone owner wanted an off-line archive of some photographs on a current model, disconnected iPhone before the device is connected on-line.

After many failed attempts - some following suggestions in this thread - it finally worked using Linux PC with Nautilus "file navigator". Nautilus is one of a number of equivalents of the Windows Explorer, it is not a "native" utility program on all variants of Linux, but can be (I believe) installed on most of them.

DCIM (image directory) was the only part of the iPhone file system visible in Nautilus, but this sufficed for our purpose. Will it work with other iPhones, with future releases of Linux software or different PC hardware I have no idea.

Glad to hear that you got it done anyway...HOW..maybe doesn't matter too much if this is a fairly isolated instance.. but in theory at least.. following the same path generally SHOULD I suppose work...