Backing up photos from iphone to PC

Shashman · 18 Jun 2019 at 12:02

Apologies if this has been covered, but my mum has an iphone and has just spaffed 39 EUR up the wall buying some scam "photostick" USB device from some dodgy site that looks like it was designed in the late 90s to scam people who don't know any better, all because she can't back her photos up on her (windows) laptop.

I have never owned nor intend to own an iphone, but have been told that backing photos up can only be done via iTunes? Is there any way around this typically slimy Apple practice?

Feek · 18 Jun 2019 at 13:16

iCloud

bloodiedathame · 18 Jun 2019 at 13:18

Google Photos will backup all her photos and videos for free (unlimited so long as they're compressed - which is 100% fine for digital consumption).

Minstadave · 18 Jun 2019 at 13:22

Feek said:
iCloud

Yup upload them all to iCloud and then install iCloud on your PC. There is an option to download your entire iCloud photo library on the PC client.

bremen1874 · 18 Jun 2019 at 13:23

If you plug an iPhone in via USB you have read access to the DCIM folder and all of your photos.

Shashman · 18 Jun 2019 at 18:33

Cheers for the responses guys, will let her know!

ajf · 18 Jun 2019 at 21:45

bremen1874 said:
If you plug an iPhone in via USB you have read access to the DCIM folder and all of your photos.

+1 for this. Easiest solution for now.
Long term, as mentioned any of the main cloud services have camera roll backup.
Personally use iCloud for 79p per month for 50Gb, but OneDrive works well too.
Not a huge fan of the Windows iCloud client though, always seems to play up for me.

Shashman · 19 Jun 2019 at 10:53

ajf said:
+1 for this. Easiest solution for now.
Long term, as mentioned any of the main cloud services have camera roll backup.
Personally use iCloud for 79p per month for 50Gb, but OneDrive works well too.
Not a huge fan of the Windows iCloud client though, always seems to play up for me.

I've been told that there is no option to explore files in any way when connecting iphone to PC? Apparently it just brings a pop-up talking about itunes?

bremen1874 · 19 Jun 2019 at 11:02

When I plug my phone in and then look in Explorer I see this...

As long as the phone is unlocked you can browse to the phone's DCIM folder.

Duke · 20 Jun 2019 at 17:30

ajf said:
Not a huge fan of the Windows iCloud client though, always seems to play up for me.

It randomly stops working for me (kept saying I wasn't connected to the Internet, seems to be a common problem), so had to uninstall it and cancelled the extra storage and went with Google Drive/Photos in the end. Not ideal as none of the third party apps like that sync automatically without opening the app but got fed up with iCloud not working.

Wzd · 20 Jun 2019 at 17:51

bremen1874 said:
When I plug my phone in and then look in Explorer I see this...

As long as the phone is unlocked you can browse to the phone's DCIM folder.

Also on my PC if I do this there is an option if you right click on the iPhone device to "import pictures and videos". Then there is a "more options" link to choose where on your PC to import them too.

Shashman · 21 Jun 2019 at 12:52

Wzd said:
Also on my PC if I do this there is an option if you right click on the iPhone device to "import pictures and videos". Then there is a "more options" link to choose where on your PC to import them too.

Thanks, will pass this info on!

Still can't get over how scammy this whole photostick company is. Take a look at their website. It's a masterpiece on what to avoid!

beachBOYken · 21 Jun 2019 at 13:18

Does iCloud back up photos as well then, I have the standard iCloud plan which costs nothing, might need to upgrade soon if i use up the 5gb.

Is it a good idea to copy your photos folder to a usb drive very so often as an extra backup, does anyone do this or just rely on iCloud to keep photos safe?

Burned_Alive · 24 Jun 2019 at 09:54

I use OneDrive, which is synced to my PC as well as turning on iCloud Photo Library. So effectively that gives me a local copy on the phone, a backup in iCloud, a backup in OneDrive and a local copy in OneDrive.