file transfer from iPhone to Android

Ever since device makers have equipped mobile phones with top-of-the-line cameras, many have never stopped shooting and capturing those precious moments in life. And, when easy internet connectivity came to the mobile phone, many also started sharing their photos with friends, family and in many cases even the whole world.

However, despite great advances in digital imaging and mobile interconnectivity, how easy is it to share photos between devices, especially those running different platforms, such as between an iPhone and an Android phone? If you own both - or are switching from iPhone to Android - eventually you will need to know how to transfer photos and images from iPhone to Android.

In this post, I will show you several ways to transfer photos, albums and galleries from your iPhone to Android.

Manual Methods (Windows)

Drag and drop

The easiest way to transfer your photos is to simply drag and drop images from the default iPhone photo directory / folder to the Android image folder.

For this method, you will need a Windows PC and USB cables for both your iPhone and Android phone. Make sure you have installed the device drivers of both phones so that they are detected by your PC.

Follow the steps below to drag and drop your iPhone photos to your Android phone:

(1) Connect your iPhone to PC via USB cable. Do the same for your Android phone.

(2) On your Windows PC, open My Computer.

(3) You should be able to see two new units or entries in Portable Devices. One is for your iPhone storage (usually labeled "Apple iPhone" or "Elmer's iPhone" or something similar) and the other is for your Android. If you don't see them, try installing the phone drivers.

(4) Open the iPhone storage in a new window.

(5) Open your Android storage in a new window.

(6) In your iPhone's storage window, locate the folder named DCIM. You will find your photo folders inside the DCIM folder.

(7) Simply select the photos you want to transfer. Then, drag them from the iPhone pictures folder and drop them into the Android pictures folder.

This is the fastest drag-and-drop method I've ever used. Sometimes, however, the copying process can freeze, and even stop completely, for some unknown reason, especially when transferring a very large number of images. I usually do an intermediate step by first copying images from iPhone to PC, then copying from PC to Android. This requires using a temporary folder on your PC to store iPhone photos.

Import

As for the manual methods, I prefer the drag-and-drop method because it allows me to select which photos to transfer from iPhone to Android. If you don't have any use for such selectivity, you can just import all your iPhone images to your computer at once. Then, from your computer you can transfer them to your Android device. The following steps will show you how to do it:

(1) Connect your iPhone to computer.

(2) Open My Computer and right click on your iPhone storage in Portable Devices.

(3) From the pop-up menu that appears, select Import Images and Videos.

(4) The computer will scan your iPhone for images.

(5) When finished, click Import to import all images and videos to your computer. By default, your images will be transferred to your computer's Pictures folder.

(6) Open the My Pictures folder on your PC.

(7) Connect your Android to computer via USB cable.

(8) Open your Android device storage and go to the pictures folder. It is usually labeled DCIM.

(9) Copy and paste or drag imported photos from your PC to your Android device.

The two manual methods will transfer images from your iPhone to your Android device. However, these methods will only transfer images saved in your iPhone's Camera Roll. Images transferred to your iPhone via iTunes will not be included.

Using the Send Anywhere app

The apps can also help solve the problem of transferring photos from iPhone to Android. The Send Anywhere (File Transfer) app, free for both iPhone and Android, is an example of an app that can help with this task.

The Send Anywhere app allows you to wirelessly transfer files, not just images, from iPhone to Android and vice versa, without the need to physically connect your devices to a computer.

The file you want to send to the other device is actually uploaded to the cloud. This means that for the app to work properly, both phones need to be connected to the internet and both phones need to run the Send Anywhere app.

For security and privacy, the sending device generates an authentication key for the recipient in the form of a PIN, QR code or web URL.

If you already have the Send Anywhere app installed on both your iPhone and Android phone, follow these steps to transfer your photos:

(1) Run Send Anywhere on your iPhone.

(2) Tap the Send button.

(3) From the file type list, select Photo. Select the photos you want to send. You will see check marks at the bottom right in the thumbnails of the selected photos.

(4) Tap the Send button at the bottom after selecting photos.

(5) The app will generate a PIN and QR code image for the receiver. These authorization credentials will expire after 10 minutes (by default, but can also be set to 5 or 30 minutes), so make sure the receiving device receives the file within that time frame. Or, if you want to share files with multiple recipients for a longer time, upload the files by tapping the Upload button. The latter option will also generate a valid PIN, QR code, and web URL for use by recipients within 24 hours (by default, but can also be set to 12 or 48 hours).

(6) On the Android phone, run the Send Anywhere app.

(7) Tap the Receive button on the main screen.

(8) To receive the files, you can enter the PIN and tap the arrow button or scan the QR code generated by the iPhone. Or, if the sender shared the web URL of the file, open the URL in a web browser.

Image transfer via Dropbox

The popular cloud storage service, Dropbox, can also offer a convenient means of transferring images from iPhone to Android. You need to install the Dropbox app on both your iPhone and Android phone. The app is free.

In order to transfer those photos stored on your iPhone to your Android, you must first upload them to your Dropbox account. To be able to upload and share files, log into your Dropbox account on your iPhone. You can sign up for a free Dropbox account if you don't have one yet.

Also, you can enable the camera upload feature if you want the newly captured photos to be automatically uploaded to your Dropbox after taking the photos. This also loads existing images in your Camera Roll.

For photos that don't automatically sync with your cloud-based Dropbox, you can manually upload them from any folder / album on your iPhone to Dropbox folders. To do this, tap the Menu button (three-dot button) from any of your Dropbox folders, tap Upload, select photos and upload. This can be especially useful if you want to share photos that don't upload automatically (i.e. photos stored in a different folder or location).

Now that your photos are in the cloud, the next logical step is to allow your Android phone to be able to access them.

To allow your Android phone to access your Dropbox photos, log into the same Dropbox account you are using on your iPhone. If you do, you will replicate the folder structure of your cloud-based Dropbox directly to your Android phone and your cloud files will be accessible to you.

Or, if you don't want to use the same Dropbox account or just want to share some of your iPhone photos with another Android user via Dropbox, you can use Dropbox's sharing feature. You can share only one or more files or an entire folder.

Just a quick note here on the comforts of the Android version of the app. Dropbox's folder sharing feature in the Android app exists in two forms: "Send a link" and "Invite to folder", both of which are accessed by long-tapping a folder name, then selecting Share.

Send a link allows you to share folders but without sharing file management privileges (i.e., the recipient can only view files, download them, or add them to their Dropbox account). The Invite to Folder option allows you to grant file management privileges, which means that both you and the invited user can do things about the files in the folder (e.g., delete files, add new files, etc.).

But here's some sad news: In the Dropbox app for iOS, you can only use the Send a link option. Sharing a link is done on the iPhone by opening the destination folder in the Dropbox app, tapping the Share icon (rounded box with up arrow) in the upper right corner of the screen, and selecting the app use the link to send. For a simple copy of photos from iPhone to Android, this method will suffice.

If you really want to allow other users to manage your Dropbox folders, you'll need to go a step further by logging into your Dropbox account via a web browser and configuring shared files or folders (e.g., invite users to folders) via the web interface.

On some devices with Dropbox integration (e.g. Galaxy S4, HTC One), you may be able to sync your photos from the cloud to your phone automatically over Wi-Fi. Then, every time your iPhone uploads a photo to Dropbox, the connected Android phone automatically gets a copy of it too, and you can view the shared photos in the Gallery app. You don't need to export photos to SD card to view or share them with other apps. Unfortunately, you can't use the Gallery app to manage shared photos; that is, you can't delete shared photos or move photos via the Gallery app.

On Android devices without Dropbox integration, you may not be able to browse the photos and albums stored on Dropbox in the Gallery app. For your photos to appear in the Gallery app, you must first export them to the SD card via the Dropbox app.

Conclusion

Thanks to mobile devices such as iPhones and Android phones, we can take and share snapshots of what is happening around us. If you have an iPhone and want to copy or transfer your photos to your Android phone, you can easily do it using one of the methods described in this post.

What method do you use to transfer your photos from iPhone to Android? Tell us about your experiences with photo transfer. We'd love to hear about them in the comment box.