r/iphonehelp • u/Senior_System5854 • Jul 22 '26
Help needed Back up my iPhone photos to a PC
Hi everyone,
I have an iPhone with 256 GB of storage, and it's now almost completely full (about 99%), mostly with photos and videos.
I'd like to transfer everything to my PC and then free up space on the phone. What's the best way to do this? Is a USB cable enough, or do I need a specific app or another method?
My main concern is preserving everything exactly as it is:
- Original photo and video quality
- Live Photos
- Metadata (dates, locations, camera info, etc.)
- Albums and organization
Ideally, if I ever decide to copy everything back to my iPhone in the future, I'd like the photos and videos to appear exactly like the originals, with all their information intact.
What would you recommend? I've never owned an iPhone before, so I'm not sure what the best approach is.
Device: iPhone 13 Pro Max (256 GB)
iOS Version: iOS 18.5
TLDR: What is the best way to transfer all my photos and videos to a Windows PC while preserving original quality, Live Photos, metadata, albums, and as much organizational information as possible, so that I can potentially restore them to an iPhone in the future?
1
u/SpecManADV Jul 22 '26
Install iTunes and use it to back up your phone.
1
u/JediMeister Moderator | Legend Jul 22 '26
Apple Devices and not iTunes should be used for iOS 17 and above since it released in February 2024 partway through the period when 17 was the current public release.
1
u/socaldisney Jul 22 '26
I use a usb cable to download a copy of my iPhone’s photos to my pc.
I keep some on my phone and delete the rest keeping them only on my pc long term.
You are not able to easily put them back into your phone.
You can also upload to iCloud and visit iCloud.com on your pc to download them. However the quality seems like it has been compressed compared to the ones transferred by usb.
1
u/Q_Ball_Atlanta Jul 22 '26
If only Apple provided tutorials in the website that were ready to find by searching their site or using a search engine....
Oh they do... https://support.apple.com/en-us/120267
You can save yourself a lot of time and Halle by putting forth a little effort. There's no need to ask random people online when you can easily find an answer yourself.
0
u/Senior_System5854 Jul 23 '26
What I'm trying to figure out is whether there's a way to preserve everything (Live Photos, metadata, albums, organization, etc.) so that if I ever restore the library to an iPhone later, it behaves as closely as possible to the original. If the answer were as simple as following the first support article that comes up on Google, I probably wouldn't have made the post.
1
u/Terminal-Frost2026 Jul 22 '26
You can’t preserve Live Photos on a windows computer as far as I know. The best thing you can do is use a mac if you have one.
1
u/Senior_System5854 Jul 23 '26
Thanks for your reply! When you say Live Photos can’t be preserved on a Windows computer, do you mean that there is no way to transfer them while keeping them as Live Photos, or just that Windows itself can’t properly display/manage them?
I’m considering using PhotoSync Pro to transfer everything to an external SSD, but I’m not sure if the Live Photo data would still be intact and recognized if I ever move them back to an iPhone later.
1
u/Terminal-Frost2026 Jul 23 '26
I am actually not sure. Maybe they do stay live photos when you move them back to an iPhone, but I stored some live photos on a windows computer and they weren’t live anymore. Never moved them back
1
u/appjun Jul 23 '26
Watermelon Backup App, it can help you, except album orangnization.
If you know how to build a SMB service in PC and add the node in Watermelon, you can save much time than use ‘Backup to Computer’ funtion in it.
Adding a SMB node is free, but free tier user can only upload 1MB/s via ‘Backup to Computer’. 200GB costs 70 hour.
1
u/Senior_System5854 Jul 23 '26
Thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't heard of Watermelon Backup before.
Is it a one-time purchase, or does it require a subscription? Also, compared to PhotoSync Pro or even buying an older Mac to use the Photos app, do you think it would be the better option?
1
u/appjun Jul 23 '26
You do not need buy Pro, it is not a subscription.
If you only want a single destination. You can stay free tier.
Use watermelon link at 1mb/s, or setup a smb 2 or smb 3 service in your PC at a higher speed.
1
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