Getting photos off phones, old computers, cards and accounts

Copy, check, then delete, as three separate steps: how to bring photos in from iPhones, Android phones, memory cards, old discs, Google Takeout and social accounts, and how to check that they all arrived.

Copy, check, then delete Understand

Getting photos out of a phone, an old computer or an account is three separate steps, done on separate occasions. Copy the photos to the new place. Check that what arrived matches what was there. Only after that, and only if you want to, delete from the source. This manual's rule is to keep them as three steps, on separate occasions. This manual's rule

The rule exists because the tools offer to do all three at once. Apple's Photos app on a Mac has an option to delete items from the phone or camera after import (Apple, Import from a camera or phone in Photos on Mac), and Image Capture has "Delete after import" (Apple, Image Capture User Guide). Leave both off. Apple's tools are not at fault here; the point is that an import can stop partway, skip a locked album or convert files, and you only find out by checking.

Two words are used through this chapter. To import is to bring photos into an app or a computer from a device. To export is to send them out of an app, as files, to a folder, drive or another service. An export can be the original file or a converted one, so the choice inside the export matters.

An incoming folder

Copy each source into its own folder first, named for the source and the date, such as "incoming 2026-10-30 old Android phone". The UK Data Service's guide asks you to keep source files apart from working copies (UK Data Service, Structuring folders and directories). An incoming folder does that for photos: you can count it against the source, and nothing is mixed into the library until it passes. Once it is checked, move or import it into the master library, then sort it with Folders and file names. If the master is an app with no folders, the incoming folder can be an album named the same way.

From an iPhone

There are four routes off an iPhone. Which one fits depends on whether you have a computer and whether iCloud Photos is on.

To a Mac or a Windows PC

Apple's page for both: connect the iPhone by USB, unlock it, and tap Trust or Allow if asked. On a Mac, open Photos, choose the iPhone in the sidebar, pick an album or none, and choose Import Selected or Import All New Items. On Windows, install the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store first, then import with Microsoft's Photos app (Apple, Transfer photos from your iPhone to your Mac or PC, published September 14, 2026). Microsoft's steps are Start > Photos > Import, then choose the device, the items and where they go, in Windows 11 and 10 (Microsoft, Import photos and videos from phone to PC). Image Capture on a Mac imports straight to a folder you choose, which suits an incoming folder.

Apple says that if iCloud Photos is on, you must download the original, full-resolution versions to the iPhone before you import to a PC, and Microsoft says photos that are only in iCloud can't be imported by cable. If Optimize iPhone Storage is on, the phone holds smaller versions, so use iCloud.com or a Mac with Download Originals instead (One home for your photos explains Optimize). Product-specific

Keep Originals

Apple's page on HEIF says that photos imported by USB into Photos, Image Capture or a PC might be converted to JPEG, and that to stop it you go to Settings > Apps > Photos, scroll down and choose Keep Originals (Apple, Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices). Set it before you import. An iPhone's photos are usually HEIC files; Formats and the long term explains why this manual keeps them as HEIC. Image Capture has a toolbar option also called "Keep originals", which means something different: keep the items on the phone after import. Leave that one on too.

Straight to a drive, with no computer

An iPhone can write to a drive connected to its port. Apple's iOS 27 guide gives the steps: select the photos, tap Share, choose Export Unmodified Original, choose the drive under Locations, and tap Save (Apple, Import and export photos on iPhone). Apple's download page lists the same route for getting originals out of iCloud Photos on an iPhone (Apple, Download iCloud photos and videos, published April 10, 2026). "Unmodified" means without your edits: the file as it was taken. If you edited a photo and want the edit as well, export the edited version separately. For a large library, export a year or a month at a time; each batch is easier to count.

Hidden albums and Live Photos

Apple says items in a locked Hidden album won't be transferred when you export to a drive, and Image Capture says that with macOS 15.4 or later it does not import them. To unlock it for the transfer, Image Capture's guide gives Settings > Apps > Photos, then turn off Use Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode). Turn it back on afterwards. A Live Photo is a photo with a few seconds of motion and sound; Apple says it downloads as two files, a still and a video, which matters when you compare counts.

From an Android phone

Android phones differ by maker, and their menus differ with them. Google's and Microsoft's pages give the steps below; if your phone's menus differ, follow the phone, and write what you found on the inventory. Check your own phone

To a Windows PC, by cable

Microsoft's page: use a USB cable that can transfer files (not every cable carries data), unlock the phone, and if the phone asks, set its USB mode to transfer files or photos. Then Start > Photos > Import, choose the phone, the items and the destination (Microsoft, Import photos and videos from phone to PC). Microsoft says the PC cannot find the phone if it is locked.

To a Mac

Apple's Photos guide says that for phones that are not iPhones, you drag the photos to a folder on the Mac's disk first, then bring them into Photos with File > Import (Apple, Import from a camera or phone). How the Android phone's folders appear on a Mac depends on the phone; Apple's page does not say, so try it with one folder first.

To a USB drive, with no computer

Google's file manager, Files by Google, can copy files from the phone to a USB drive plugged into the phone. Google says USB storage works on Android 7.0 or later, and that Files by Google works on Android 8.0 and up (Google, Use USB storage devices; How to use Files by Google). The steps, from those pages and Google's page on copying files (Google, Copy files to an existing folder):

1. Connect the drive to the phone. The drive's plug has to fit the phone's port, or you need an adapter; an older phone may have a different port from a new USB-C drive.
2. Open Files by Google. A notification says "USB available"; tap the storage device, then tap Allow. If the notification does not open, Google says to remove the drive and connect it again.
3. Open the phone's own storage and find the camera folder. Under Storage devices, open Internal storage, then the folder that holds the camera's photos. Google's pages do not name it; on many phones it is a folder called DCIM with a Camera folder inside. Check that its newest files are the last photos the phone took.
4. Select the files and copy them. Press and hold one file, tap the circle on each of the others (or select all), then tap More and Copy to. Choose the USB drive, make or open a folder for this source, and tap Copy here.
5. Leave the drive connected until the copy ends. Google's USB page says the drive must stay connected while you work with files on it.

Google's USB page describes these menus starting from the drive; copying from the phone to the drive uses the same Copy to, with the drive as the destination. If the phone has its maker's own file manager instead, the idea is the same: find the camera folder, copy it to the drive. Copy, do not move: Files by Google also offers Move to, which takes the files off the phone. Product-specific

Two places on an Android phone are not in the camera folder. Google Photos' Locked Folder keeps its items apart, and Google says they are not moved in device-to-device transfers. And photos removed with Free up space are no longer on the phone; they are in Google Photos, which Takeout covers.

From Google Photos: Takeout

Google Takeout is Google's tool for downloading a copy of your data from its services, Google Photos included. To get a few photos, Google Photos' own Download works; for everything, Google points to Takeout (Google, Download photos or videos). Google's Takeout page (Google, How to download your Google data) says:

• Downloading does not delete anything from Google.
• You choose .zip or .tgz, and a size; archives over that size are split into several files. Choosing 50 GB reduces splitting.
• Making the archive can take minutes to days. Google emails a link, or sends it to Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box; Drive delivery counts against your Google storage.
• An archive expires in about 7 days, and each can be downloaded 5 times.
• Items still being deleted are not included.
• You can schedule exports every 2 months for a year.

Takeout gives you what Google holds. If the photos were backed up in Storage saver, Google holds compressed copies, and the full-size originals, if they exist, are on the phone that took them (One home for your photos). So when a phone and its Google backup both survive, copy the phone first.

What Takeout contains is not stated by Google

Google's Takeout page does not describe how the Google Photos part of the archive is laid out, what is in the separate metadata files that come with the photos, or whether edited photos come out as the original, the edit or both. Those are not stated by the maker. So test it: after unzipping, open a handful of photos, check that the date shown in each photo's information is the date it was taken, and look for any edited photo you remember to see which version came out. Keep the account, and its photos, until you have. Test it

Google also says that when you download a photo, your computer or phone can give the file itself a new date, while the photo's own date stays inside it. Sort by the date taken, not by the file's date, or every photo in the archive can appear to be from the day you downloaded it. Dates, captions and people covers fixing dates.

From Facebook, Instagram and chat apps

Photos you posted or were sent are often the last copy of something: the phone that took them is gone. They are also usually smaller than the original. Bring them out, and keep them, but treat them as copies of last resort.

Facebook and Instagram

Both use the same tool. Meta's pages give, on a computer: Settings > Meta Account > Your information and permissions > Export your information > Create export, choose the profile, then Export to device (Facebook, Export a copy of your information; Instagram, Review and export a copy of your information). You choose what to include, a date range, a format (HTML, which opens in a web browser, or JSON, meant for other services), and a media quality. Once the export is ready, you have 4 days to download it. Meta notes you may see Accounts Center instead of Meta Account while it changes the menus.

Neither page says whether the highest media quality is the original file you uploaded, or whether the photos keep the date they were taken and the location. That is not stated by the maker. Test it on one photo you still have: compare the exported copy's size and date with your own. Until you know, treat the export as a record of what you posted, not as the originals. Test it

WhatsApp, Messages and other chat apps

A 2025 study of image transfers found that USB, email and document-style sending kept a photo's embedded information, while sending through chat apps in their normal image mode compressed the photos and in effect removed it (Soni, 2025; only its abstract was read). That embedded information, the photo's metadata, holds the date taken, the camera and often the location. WhatsApp's help center describes a choice between Standard and HD quality for each photo sent, and a default under Settings > Storage and data > Media upload quality, but gives no sizes. So a photo someone sent you in a chat is usually a smaller copy, and the sender's phone may hold the original.

Two moves follow. Save the chat photos you care about to your library now, because a chat copy can disappear (Taking stock covers WhatsApp's blurry photos and Messages' Keep Messages setting). And for the ones that matter most, ask the sender for the original by a route that keeps it: a shared album with full-size copies, a cable, or a drive. Sharing photos covers which routes send full size.

Old computers, memory cards, CDs and DVDs

Old media should be copied soon, before the device or disc is less readable than it is now. Copy them in the order of your inventory's only copies.

Discs need particular care. NIST's guide for librarians says recordable discs carry error correction that hides early errors, so a disc can seem fine until the errors outgrow what it can correct, and then fail (NIST SP 500-252, Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs, 2003). Error correction is extra data written on the disc that lets a drive repair small read errors. A disc that reads today may not read later, and you will not see the decline coming. So copy discs now, and when a file will not copy, note its name: another copy may exist on an old computer or a backup. Disc lifespans are under Go deeper.

A memory card is easier with a card reader, a small device that lets a computer read the card directly, so no camera battery or sleep timer gets involved. Old computers can hold photos outside the Pictures folder; search the computer for photo file types if you are unsure, and keep it until the counts match.

Check the counts, then open some

A copy is checked when the number that arrived matches the number at the source, or the difference is explained, and a sample of the copy opens. The Library of Congress says that where there are several versions of a photo, keep the one with the highest quality (Library of Congress, Keeping Personal Digital Photographs). NDSA's levels ask for a check whenever content is moved or copied (NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation). A count is the simplest check a household can make.

Count the same kind of thing

Count at the source the way you will count at the copy. On a computer, a folder's information shows how many files it holds; on a phone, the photo app or Settings shows items. When the two counts are different kinds, expect a difference and explain it.

Open a sample

Then open five photos and one video from the copy: some of the oldest, some of the newest, one from the middle. Look at each for a moment: it should show the whole picture, not a gray or broken image, and the video should play. Check the date in one photo's information. A matching count says the files arrived; opening them says some of them work. This manual's convention

Write it on the inventory

On the places sheet, the row for the source gets: copied into the library (check), the date copied, the count at the source, the count that arrived, the difference explained, and a date to keep the source until. A sensible "keep until" is after the copy is also in a backup; Backups makes that copy. If the same photo arrives twice from two sources, keep both for now; Duplicates chooses the better copy.

See it: Nadia, Ruth and Leo See it

• Apple, Download iCloud photos and videos: Export Unmodified Originals on iPhone, Download Originals on a Mac, and iCloud.com's three formats.
• Google, Use USB storage devices: plugging a USB drive into an Android phone and copying with Files by Google.
• Google, How to download your Google data: Takeout's formats, split sizes, expiry and download limits.
• Microsoft, Import photos and videos from phone to PC: importing from an iPhone or Android phone by cable in Windows 11 and 10.

Practice: copy one source Practice

Minimum: one source copied into an incoming folder or album, both counts written, five photos and one video opened from the copy, and the source left untouched. Time: an evening; the copy runs on its own. Materials: the source device and its charger, a drive or a computer with enough free space (the inventory gives the source's size), a cable that carries data or an adapter, and the inventory sheet.

1. Choose the source. A place marked as an only copy, small enough to finish in one evening.
2. Write the count at the source. From the device itself, before you copy.
3. Set up the copy. Keep Originals on (iPhone), Delete after import off (Mac), Copy rather than Move (Android), Unmodified Originals (iCloud.com).
4. Copy into an incoming folder named for the source and the date.
5. Write the count that arrived, and explain any difference with the table in check the counts.
6. Open five photos and one video from the copy. Oldest, newest and middle.
7. Fill in the inventory row and a keep-until date. Do not delete anything at the source.

Your photos Your photos

Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Did the copy keep originals (Keep Originals, Unmodified Originals, Original quality, or the phone's own files)?
• Does the inventory row have both counts, with any difference explained?
• Did five photos and one video open from the copy, including old and new ones?
• Is the source untouched, with a date to keep it until?
• Where the maker does not say what an export keeps, is the source kept until you have tested it?

Worked example

Nadia's old-phone row reads: copied, the date, 2,138 at the source, 2,138 arrived, no difference, five photos and a video opened, keep the phone until the drive copy is in a second place. It passes. It does not say Google Photos holds nothing more; that comparison is open. It does not say the photos are backed up: the drive is one copy, and Backups adds the second.

Common mistakes

• Ticking "Delete after import". The source is gone before the copy is checked.
• Using Move instead of Copy. Same result, by a different button.
• Copying from the cloud when the phone has better copies. Storage saver copies are compressed; the phone's own files are not.
• Comparing items with files. Live Photos and raw pairs make the file count larger.
• Opening only the first few photos. A copy that stopped partway can look complete at the top.
• Treating a social export as the originals. The makers do not say it is.

What is still unresolved

Which of two copies of the same photo is better is Duplicates. Whether dates and captions came through is Dates, captions and people. Whether the copy survives a failed drive is Backups. What an undocumented export keeps is settled only by testing it, or by the maker publishing it.

Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• One source on the inventory has both counts, a date and "checked".
• Five photos and one video opened from the copy.
• The source is untouched, with a date to keep it until.
• I tested one export the maker does not document (Takeout, Facebook or Instagram) against my own copy. (Go deeper; optional)