How To Backup Iphone Pictures To External Hard Drive

Your device memory space is meant to get exhausted, which is why there is a capacity to indicate the total amount of information that can be stored. An iPhone memory space gets filled up when the information stored on it exceeds its internal memory. Vital information such as photos, videos, audios, and many others is stored on a device for future purposes.

This information can be stored externally on Google drive, iCloud, or hard drive. But in this article, I will be introducing you to how you can transfer just one of this information, your photos, from your iPhone to an external hard drive.

Part 1: Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive on Mac

Take the following steps to transfer photos from your iPhone to an external hard drive on Mac;

Step 1: Connect your external hard drive to your Mac

Firstly, you need to connect the hard drive to your Mac and ensure it shows up in the finder's sidebar.

To confirm that the hard drive is working, try to copy a file or anything from your Mac to it, and if does copies, then the hard drive is formatted to use with a Mac. If the hard drive doesn't allow you to copy anything on it, you need to reformat it to FAT format.

Step 2: Connect your iOS Device to your Mac

Once your external storage is fit for the transfer, with the aid of a lightning cable, connect your iPhone to your Mac. Ensure this lightning cable is held firmly to both the Mac and iPhone, so there isn't any error while transferring your photos.

Step 3: Launch Image Capture

When an iOS device is connected to a Mac, the image capture app launches itself automatically. However, if it doesn't, you can do that manually by searching for it among the applications on your Mac using the Spotlight search (Cmd + Space shortcut) and launch.

After launching this application, you will find all the photos you shot on your iPhone right there. You can either select a few of the images you want to transfer or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + A to select all the images.

Step 4: Choose a Destination and Import

Selecting the destination where you want to import your images is very important. By default, images are imported to the Picture folder, but you can change this by selecting 'others' clicking the drop-down button and then selecting a folder using the external hard drive as a source.

Once you've selected a folder on the external hard drive, click 'Import' and wait till the transfer is completed. While the completion time varies, it depends on the number of photos you are transferring.

transfer photos from mac to external hard drive

Part 2: Transfer Photos to External Hard Drive on Windows

One unique thing about our device rich world is the compatibility of an iOS device with a non iOS gadget. For this reason, you can transfer your photos to an external hard drive on windows without stress. To ensure your windows is compatible with your iOS device, you need to download and install iTunes on your PC.

Take the following steps to accomplish this task;

Launch the Microsoft Store from your device Start menu.
Search for iTunes.
Click on 'Get iTunes' to download.
Once you've downloaded iTunes on your windows, launch it and accept iTunes License Software License Agreement.

download itunes on windows

Now that you've successfully installed the iTunes application on your PC, the transfer of photos to an external hard drive can be done without hindrance. Listed below are the steps required to successfully transfer photos on using Windows;

Connect your iPhone to your PC with the aid of a lightning cable
Launch the Photo app from your PC Start menu
At the top right corner of your Windows page, you will find the 'Import' button. Click on it

export photos from windows to external hard drive

Select the photos you will like to import, and click 'Continue'.

The transfer process will commence immediately. Wait for some minutes for the process to come to completion. It's very important for you to note that unplugging your device will terminate the transfer. Hence, it's important for you to ensure everything is well fixed before you start the transfer.

Part 3: How to Transfer Photos to External Hard Drive without a Computer

Transferring photos to an external hard drive without a computer's aid can be accomplished by connecting your iPhone directly to a portable external hard drive like SanDisk. Though this process is compatible with devices with iOS 8 and later versions.

portable iphone external hard disk

Take the following steps to connect your iPhone to a portable external hard drive;

Step 1: With the aid of a lightning cable, connect your iPhone to an external hard drive. To confirm if your device is connected to the hard drive, click on 'Files app' button, then 'Browse'.

Step 2: Locate and open the Photo app, then select the photos you want to transfer. Click the 'Share' button to transfer the photos to the Files app.

Step 3: On the Files app, choose the hard drive you want to save the iPhone photos

Conclusion

Now you know how to transfer your images from your iPhone to external hard drives with or without the aid of a PC/Mac. Apply the steps given to back up your images and free your device from hanging or booting slowly.