1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer using the included Lightning-to-USB cable to get started. This is the same cable you use for charging your phone.
2. The first time you connect it to your computer, you’ll see a popup asking you to allow access to your photos and videos. Tap “Trust” or “Allow” to give your computer access to your photos. You may have to unlock your iPhone before you see this popup.
3. Your iPhone appears as a new device under “This PC” in File Explorer on Windows 10 or “Computer” in Windows Explorer on Windows. Head here and double-click it.
If you don’t see the iPhone under This PC or Computer, unplug the iPhone, plug it back in, and ensure it’s unlocked.
4. Double-click the “DCIM” folder inside the iPhone device. Your photos and videos are stored in a 100APPLE folder. If you have lots of photos and videos, you’ll see additional folders named 101APPLE, 102APPLE, and so on.
The standard DCIM folder is the only thing you’ll see on your iPhone. You can’t access any other files on your iPhone from here.
5. You’ll see your photos as .JPG files, videos as .MOV files, and screenshots as .PNG files. You can double-click them to view them right from your iPhone. You can also copy them to your PC using either drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste.
If you delete an item in the DCIM folder, it’s removed from your iPhone’s storage.
6. To import everything from your iPhone, you could just copy-and-paste or drag-and-drop the 100APPLE folder (and any other folders) inside the DCIM folder. Or, you could just grab the whole DCIM folder if you want. Just make sure to copy instead of move the items, if you want them to remain on your phone.
7 If you see files with the .HIEC file extension, that indicates your iPhone is taking photos using the new HEIF image format. This is the default setting as of iOS 11, but you need third-party software to view these files on Windows.
However, you don’t have to disable HEIF on your iPhone to make these photos more compatible. On your iPhone, head to Settings > Photos, scroll down, and then tap “Automatic” under Transfer to Mac or PC. Your iPhone automatically converts the photos to .JPEG files when you import them to a PC.
If you select “Keep Originals” instead, your iPhone will give you the original .HEIC files.
