Photo Book Tips - Transferring Photos from your Phone to your Computer

Have you ever wondered how to get your latest photos from your phone into your albumworks project?

Here's a quick guide on how to transfer photos from a phone or tablet to a computer for both iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices so that they can easily be added into your albumworks Photo Book project:

There are several ways to transfer your photos to your computer, some require more technical knowledge than others.  Here are a few ways to do it.

1. USB Cable: Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable. ***This is the simplest method for Windows users.  Read on for detailed instructions.

2. Cloud Storage: Upload your photos to a cloud storage service, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud. Then, access the cloud storage service on your computer and download the photos to your computer.

3. Email: Email the photos to yourself, then access your email on your computer and download the attachments.  This works well if you only need to transfer a small number of photos. 
Note: If you use this method, it is essential that you email the photos at their original size, otherwise the image resolution won’t be sufficient for printing.

4. Bluetooth: Connect your phone to your computer via Bluetooth, then transfer the photos from your phone to your computer.  This method requires some technical knowledge and assumes you have Bluetooth on your computer.  It is also quite slow for large file transfers.

5. Wi-Fi: Use a Wi-Fi transfer app to transfer the photos wirelessly from your phone to your computer.  ***This is the simplest method for Mac users.  Read on for detailed instructions.

Ok, let’s look at the easiest way to do this if you’re not too tech savvy. 

Transferring Photos from phone/tablet to a Windows computer (PC):

1. Connect your phone/tablet to your computer using the appropriate cable.  This can vary depending on what device you have.

2. Apple: Unlock your iPhone/iPad and trust the computer if prompted.

   Android: Unlock your device.  If asked, tap the ‘Charging this Device via USB’ notification.  Under "Use USB for," select File Transfer.

3. On your computer, open File Explorer.

4. Select your phone or tablet under "This PC"

5. Select “Internal storage” and then the appropriate folder containing your photos. It will usually be a folder called DCIM but may vary.

6. The photos can then be dragged or copied to a local folder on your computer. Wait for the transfer process to complete. The imported photos will be stored in the selected folder on your computer.  You can then unplug your device.

Transferring Photos from phone/tablet to an Apple Mac:

 Most Android users would not have a Mac computer, so we won’t cover this option as it requires some technical knowledge.  Also Apple products don’t usually come with the required cable to transfer photos between devices.  Therefore if you are transferring from iPhone or iPad to your Mac, we recommend doing this wirelessly.  The simplest method is to use AirDrop.

1. Ensure that both the iPhone and Mac computer have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.

2. Open the Photos App on your iPhone.

3. Select the photos you want to transfer by tapping on them. You can select multiple photos by tapping and holding on one photo and then tapping on others.

4. Tap on the share button, which looks like a box with an upward arrow at the bottom of the screen.

5. You will see the Airdrop option in the sharing options. Tap on it.

6. Select your Mac from the list of available devices that appear on the screen.

7. On your Mac, you will receive a notification asking you to accept the Airdrop transfer. Click "Accept" to begin the transfer.

8. The transferred photos will now be saved in your Downloads folder or the location you selected on your Mac.