Transferring photos wirelessly from a Canon camera to a Mac (some tips)

I see that many have problems connecting and transferring images wirelessly to a computer. This writeup is for connecting a "newer" Canon camera to a Mac. (Maybe also windows users can get something out of it. I don't know, have not tried)

This is not a complete guide, because I can not remember the exact procedure. But I hope this can be to some help for someone. I write some things I remember and you may have to "fill in" some missing peaces yourself.

What I can tell u is that I have wirelessly transferred images from the following 4 cameras to my MacBook 12" 2016 model. All with great success:

- PowerShot G7 x Mark II - (I had this camera for 14 days before I exchanged it for a G9 x Mk II)
- Powershot G9 x Mark II
- EOS M3
- EOS M6

1. The first ting you have to do is to make an account on CANON IMAGE GATEWAY. Fear not! You don't have to use Irista or the Photo Album if you don't want to or any other web services.

2. You have to register your camera as a new wifi product within CANON IMAGE GATEWAY.

3. When registering you will get a short guide on what to do on the camera.

4. If I remember correctly, I had to type in my e-mail address on the camera and I then got a code in an e-mail which I had to write into CANON IMAGE GATEWAY. (It's easy to understand when you see it.) You might also be asked (on the camera) for connection details to your home wifi-router, if not already registered.

5. You can set up (or disable) other services CANON IMAGE GATEWAY. I don't use any of the services. (I only use the image Sync part.)

6. Now it's time to install the "Image Transfer Utility" software on your mac (if not already done). The problem is I can't remember where I got it from. I think it came along with some other app for one of my cameras. It could be the "CameraWindow" app maybe. A google search also suggested that it could be downloaded from within CANON IMAGE GATEWAY somewhere. But I could not find it there when I looked today. Hopefully someone can tell where, when they find it.

7. There will be a new icon in the menu bar on you mac. From there select "Add new" camera" and the login details for CANON IMAGE GATEWAY. And set up the folder where you want images to be transferred.

8. I think thats it. (Hopefully.... Well I guess I have forgot a lot. LOL)

Now when you push the Wifi button on your camera there should be an icon (a computer with a down arrow inside) and the text "Image Sync". Selecting that and all not previously transferred images will be sent to your computer. (Note: If you have A LOT of images, it can take some time, and it may be better to use a usb- cable)

I use this image sync all the time on all my cameras and it works very stable. I have all 3 registered and it seems like I could add more if I wanted. I don't know how many you can register.

It'a bit clumsy to set up, but it is a one time prosedure for each camera and when that is done it works very very well. At least for me.

My last note for now: The Image Sync sends the images to my Mac "directly" (with directly I mean locally via my wifi router) if my mac is on. If my mac is off or at sleep, the images will be transferred temporarily to the CANON IMAGE GATEWAY and downloaded to my mac as soon as it comes on. Very nice.

I sincerely hope this writeup helps a little and maybe someone else can fill in the missing parts.

Update to number 6 above:

I found this link to download the "Image Transfer Utility" for Mac:
http://support-th.canon-asia.com/contents/TH/EN/0200512602.html

For Windows:
http://support-th.canon-asia.com/contents/TH/EN/0200512502.html

Also within the "Image Sync" settings on the CANON IMAGE GATEWAY there is a download link.

It is also possible to connect via an iPhone (don't know about other phones) instead of a home wifi router when in the field. The key here is to turn on the Personal Hotspot option on your iPhone and connect both your mac and the camera to the new iPhone network. (And following the procedure from the first post, if not already set up.)

It works. I have just tried it.

(On your camera you may have to select the "Switch Network" when you use the "Image Sync" if you have previously used it on your home wifi network)

Zak99 wrote:

Hi Ketama and MyM3, this is so frustrating, I bought a Wifi camera (A Canon gx7 mkii) with the understanding that I would be able upload images directly to my MacBook.

It seems neither CameraWindow or Image Transfer Utility works directly.

Canon support don't seem to have any interest in resolving this, I'm discussing it with them on the Canon Community but it seems this problem has been kicking around now since 2015 !!!

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/PowerShot/Connecting-my-G7X-to-my-Mac-via-WiFi/m-p/251744/highlight/false#M12578

Hi

This is a picture of my M100 sending to my Macbook.

M100 sending directly to computer.

It works the same for my other cameras. It works very stable for me. But occasionally if the camera can not connect to the mac for some reason, it will send via the server (on the Internet) and that obviously takes much longer time.

Thank you very much for your guide!

Here is the most crucial question (for me, at least): can you transfer only JPEG files or RAW as well?

mouzhik wrote:

Thank you very much for your guide!

Here is the most crucial question (for me, at least): can you transfer only JPEG files or RAW as well?

You can transfer RAW as well. 😀

And if you shoot RAW+JPEG, it transferes both.

Zak99 wrote:

Thanks MyM3, with my Gx7 Mkii if I run the MacOS command nettop in a terminal window I can see the Mb's rapidly clocking up to a remote Canon server when I use ImageTransferUtility. On a broadband dongle it would chew the data allowance up in no time.

I just don't understand why Canon seem to have zero interest in making a true direct connection work with the last four major releases of MacOS

I don’t know what’s happening to you there. Do you get the text “directly” on top of the screen ? If it is not sending directly you will get the text “via server” or something similar. (I will check that later and upload a screenshot.) Or maybe you have one or more of the services activated in the Canon Image Gateway (like Photo Album or Irista etc.), so it is uploadig there at the same time.

Btw. I’m using this only at home (unlimited Mb’s), so I’m not realy worried about if a few Mb’s goes to the Internet. (I only did one short test in the field to see if it worked.) On travel I will use a card reader to transfere to my iPad.

But nevertheless; I agree that Canon should fix the CameraWindow app ASAP !

MyM3 wrote:

mouzhik wrote:

Thank you very much for your guide!

Here is the most crucial question (for me, at least): can you transfer only JPEG files or RAW as well?

You can transfer RAW as well. 😀

And if you shoot RAW+JPEG, it transferes both.

Thanks again!.;-)

Now a tricky question : have you by any chance tried to use this method in order to transfer your RAW files to your iPad?

mouzhik wrote:

MyM3 wrote:

mouzhik wrote:

Thank you very much for your guide!

Here is the most crucial question (for me, at least): can you transfer only JPEG files or RAW as well?

You can transfer RAW as well. 😀

And if you shoot RAW+JPEG, it transferes both.

Thanks again!.;-)

Now a tricky question : have you by any chance tried to use this method in order to transfer your RAW files to your iPad?

No. Sorry. I don't see how this could work with an iPad.
The only way that I have heard of (but not tried myself) that transfer RAW over wifi to an iPad/iPhone is an app called Cascable.
With my iPad I am using a "Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader" from Apple.

What a hell of a complicated procedure !

Why should I create an account for transferring files LOCALLY from my camera to my computer ?!?!?

Anyway, I tried it, but to no avail. Pull out the SD card from the camera (G7XII in my case) or connect it wiredly via USB cable and it works !

Even for the 6D this procedure is not needed, just pair the 6D with the EOS Utility app. No internet connection needed.

The same for Android: connect card reader on USB OTG cable and all media (including movies) can be transferred in the original format to the computer. Canon Connect app downsamples movies to 720p30.
But it works without internet connection or any registration.

For iOS the same: use the USB OTG lightning card reader, but I am not sure movies can be transferred.

Yeah. Shoot the messenger. 🙃

Greetings from the future! The last post on this thread was in 2018 and now it's 2020. I'm having similar issues.

First, it would have been helpful to know which version of MacOS you're using. The current version is 10.15. I'm running 10.13. The doc for CameraWindow (https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART167763&act=RATE&impressions=false&isCCA=true&newguid=7acdefa62e28420283da72b632b3b890) says:

Mac OS X v10.9 to v10.12
(Wi-Fi connection is not available with 10.11/10.12.)

So clearly they're not keeping up to date. I've noticed this as a trend with a lot of camera software.

If I connect my SX420 directly to my MacBook Pro, it doesn't mount on my desktop, unlike other cameras I've had. Why not? (rhetorical question)

So I'm searching for a replacement for CameraWindow, in case someone has come up with one.

Any thoughts?

You are replying to an over 3 years old post. This guide does not work anymore.

The "CANON IMAGE GATEWAY" was shut down on March 31, 2020. It was replaced with the new service "image.canon". According to the FAQ it should work with the SX420 IS:

image.canon