How to transfer photos from Android to PC

Android smartphones take fantastic photos nowadays, especially with evolving technology and multiple lenses. Sometimes you want to see your photos on a bigger screen and you also want to preserve your data in case something goes wrong with your phone. That’s where the PC comes into play.

Transferring photos from your Android phone to your desktop is easy and there are many different ways to do it. If you need your photos immediately, the “wired” method is best. The second method involves setting your phone to back up your photos over Wi-Fi for easy access wherever you go.

In this article we will cover everything you need to know about transferring photos from your Android device to a computer.

Method 1: Transfer Photos from Android to PC via USB Cable

Transferring over a cable is the fastest and most efficient method of accessing your photos when you want immediate access. In addition to your computer and phone, all you need is a USB cable to connect your phone to your computer. Generally, you’re better off using the cable that came with your phone to charge it. Unplug the standard USB-A connector (the larger side) from your AC adapter and plug it into the port on your PC.

Once you have connected your phone to your PC, make sure you have unlocked it. Use your fingerprint, PIN, pattern, or whatever lock screen input you use to give your PC access to your phone.

You may need to change the USB options on your device. The process varies depending on your Android version. Here are a couple of examples.

Transfer photos via USB on Android 10 and above

1. Connect the phone’s USB charging cable to your PC or laptop and then go to “Settings.” Tap on “Connected devices,” although it shows Bluetooth below.
   
2. Select “USB” from the menu.
   
3. Choose “File transfer” from the list of options.
   
4. Your PC should now show your Android 10 smartphone as a device in File Explorer.
   

Transfer photos using Android 6 (Marshmallow) USB to PC

1. To get started, open the “File Browser“, you will find your device listed on the left side panel. If you are using a phone with internal memory and an SD card, you will see two different systems to navigate. On my PC, they are (helpfully) labeled “Phone” and “Card.” I save my photos on my SD card, but you’ll want to select that menu if you save them on your phone.
2. Once you’re inside your phone’s file system, you’ll want to look for a folder titled “DCIM”, which stands for Digital Camera Imaging. That folder will contain all the images on your camera, although it will not contain other files, such as screenshots or downloads (they are usually located in folders titled “Screenshots” and “downloads.”
3. If you save your photos to an SD card, you may find the folders on your phone’s internal memory. Each file will have a thumbnail of the image and you can sort by date, name, size, etc., just like any other folder on your PC. Once you’ve found the photo or photos (or if you want to copy everything to your PC), make your selections as usual and drag them to a folder or location on your PC (Photos, Desktop, Documents, etc.)
4. Once you’ve dragged your files to your computer, they will be copied (not deleted or moved, just copied) from your phone to your PC, where you can edit or print them as you wish. This process takes time, depending on how many photos you are copying (the more you copy, the longer).
5. Once you complete the process of transferring your photos, you can disconnect your phone. As with most modern smartphones, there is no need to eject the device to safely remove it. Just make sure your files finish transferring before doing so.

Method 2: Transfer Photos from Android to PC Using Google Photos

Aside from USB to PC file transfers, cloud storage does not require any connection, but it does require a little patience when transferring photos to PC. Of course, an Internet connection is a must. However, planned changes to Google Photos altered the way the company handles its images.

Towards the end of 2020, Google established a future change to the terms and conditions of personal cloud storage, reflecting the removing free/unlimited Google Photos storage for images. This policy went into effect on June 1, 2021, but current images remain in Photos and are not affected by the newer policy.

Understanding Google Photos quality options

Google offers two different settings for uploading photos: Storage savings (previously called High Quality) and original quality.

About saving Google Photos storage

The “Storage Saver” setting makes compressed copies of your files and saves them to your Google Storage account (combined space from Drive, Photos, and a Google One subscription). These photos are resized to 16 MP, meaning most smartphone photos won’t lose resolution or quality. Videos are compressed to 1080p (if recorded at a higher resolution, such as 4K) and retain their quality, despite the compression.

About the original quality of Google Photos

The “Original Quality” setting preserves your resolutions without any compression. If you are a professional photographer or need images with a resolution higher than 16 MP, you can set Google Photos to upload your images in the original quality. These uploads use your Google storage space (15GB free on Drive, Photos, and Google One subscriptions). Every Google user gets 15GB of free Google storage, and monthly Google One plans increase storage limits from 100GB up to 2TB. There are other storage options, but most users won’t need more than two terabytes of cloud capacity.

How to use Google Photos to transfer images from Android to PC

For 95% of users, leaving Google Photos set to default settings and the “Storage Saver” option is enough. To transfer photos from Android to your PC using Gogole Photos, upload them to your Google Storage account and then download them to your PC. It is a very easy process. As mentioned above, it takes some patience, but you can also speed up the process a bit. This is what you should do.

1. On your Android device, take the screenshot you want to transfer to PC, take a photo, or simply move to the next step to transfer existing photos.
2. Launch “Google Photos” on your Android device. This step asks Photos to automatically sync any new images to the cloud instead of waiting until you decide to sync them in the background.
3. Open your preferred browser on your PC and go to Google Photos. Sign in with the same Android account (if you’re not already signed in) that contains your photos.
4. Find the images you want to transfer to your PC and click on those for each week, day, or thumbnail. “check mark with a circle”. This step adds a check mark to each selected item. Simply clicking on an image opens it instead of selecting it.
5. In the top right section of the page, click the “vertical ellipsis” (three vertical dots) and select “Discharge.”
6. Your photos now begin downloading to your PC in a compressed file, unless you only have one image selected.
7. Open the downloaded zip folder to view the photos or move it wherever you want. You can also extract the images and place them in a different folder on your PC.

Using Google Photos to transfer images from your Android device to your PC is quite simple. The patience required depends on the photos you want to transfer. There is no “Select allhere, so you’ll need to manually choose your images, but at least you have the secondary option to select weeks and days.

There is a second option within Google Photos called “Google Takeout,” which is actually part of Google as a whole. Using Takeout downloads all the photos stored on your PC in one go. You can customize what is backed up by folder name or year. Here’s how to do it.

1. Access your synced Android photos by going directly to Google Photos from a browser.
   
2. Click on “Settings” (gear icon) in the top right section of Google Photos.
   
3. In it “Export your data”row, click “Show more” (arrowhead pointing down).
   
4. Select “Back.”
   
5. Click on “All photo albums included” to choose which folders you want to download to your PC.
   
6. Check all the folders you want to backup (download them to PC).
   
7. Click on “Next step.“
   
8. Choose “Export once.” from the “Frequency” section. You can also choose other options such as file type and delivery method.
   
9. Click on “Create export” When you’re ready, your photos will be backed up to your PC.
   
10. He “Export progressThe “section shows the current status of your download.
    
11. Finally, click the “Discharge” link to copy your photos to your PC.
    

By completing the steps above, you uploaded photos from your Android device to Google Photos and then backed them up to your PC. In other words, you have successfully transferred photos from Android to your PC wirelessly!

Method Three: Transfer Images to Amazon Photos

Amazon offers cloud storage for images just like Google and the app is called Amazon Photos. Many will flock to Amazon’s free cloud storage with future changes to Google Photos, assuming they have a Prime membership. With Prime, you get unlimited high-resolution image storage in the cloud. Without Prime, users only get 5GB of space, which is less than Google Photos, including 15GB of storage. However, Amazon uses the cloud only for images, while Google uses Drive for all its data.

Once the phone finishes its initial backup (which I recommend doing overnight), there’s not much else to do. Amazon Photos is also a great way to manage your photos, edit them, and apply effects. If you’re looking for a way to transfer your photos to your PC, you’ll be happy to know that all images are available in the Amazon web app at any time.

Transfer photos

If you need fast photo transfer, the best solution is USB to PC. However, let’s say you’re looking for a photo backup solution or have time to move your library to the cloud. In that case, Google Photos and Amazon Photos are great ways to keep your library safe and clean. Saving your photos has never been easier and now you can view them on any screen that suits you best.