How Do I Get Photos from Iphone onto My PC/itunes?

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How Do I Get Photos from Iphone onto My PC/itunes?

I am trying to sync photos that are on my iphone but are not on my PC or itunes.

Here is the problem:

I originally had some photos that were in the photos folder on my iphone(not in my iphone "camera" files). I originally synced the above photos from my PC through itunes to my iphone. Unfortunately, I mistakenly deleted the photos from my PC. Now the only copy of the photos I have are on my iphone.

Now, I want to back up these photos to my PC through an itunes sync but there appears to be no option to merge the photos with itunes. In other words, itunes seem to erase all photos on my iphone that are not in itunes or my PC when I have synced in the past. Now, I am scared to sync my iphone with itunes because I am afraid it will erase the photos from my iphone since the photos are not in itunes.

I hope this is clear. I think it is annoying that there is no way for me to simply drag photos that are on my iphone to my compute when it is connected through the USB cable. I should be able to just drag a copy of a photo from my iphone onto my PC. Thanks

Posted on Feb 25, 2009 6:17 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 25, 2009 6:35 AM in response to Trapspringer

If you sync, it will erase the photos on the iPhone. Syncing of iTunes-managed media content (music, videos, photos) is one-way - from computer to iPhone.

To reverse the process, you need 3d party software, such as TouchCopy (Google it).

Be aware that the pics were 'optimized' for transfer to the iPhone (meaning reduced to 2 megapixel images) - there's no way to recover the original full-res images. The iPhone is not a backup device - an external hard drive is...

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Answer 2

BooMUK

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Feb 25, 2009 6:39 AM in response to Trapspringer

If you are using a PC instead of a Mac, when you connect your iphone you should get a dialogue box to ask whether you which to open the device you have just connected, click open and the only folder available is the photos folder you can then copy all images to your harddrive, if you are using Windows Vista you will be asked if you wish to import images from the device connected.

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Answer 3

Tbo6652

Level 4

1,081 points

Feb 25, 2009 6:48 AM in response to Trapspringer

what neuroanatomist says is correct...what you could do though, is email the pictures to an email account that you check on your computer and then save them back onto the computer that way. obviously this will take a long time if you have a lot of pictures, since you can only send one at a time.

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Answer 4

Tbo6652

Level 4

1,081 points

Feb 25, 2009 6:50 AM in response to BooMUK

Boo, unfortunately this doesnt work if these are pictures that the OP had already saved on his computer, deleted them from his iPhone and then resynced the folder from his computer

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Answer 5

Trapspringer Author

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Feb 25, 2009 7:00 AM in response to Tbo6652

Thanks, you all. I guess emailing the photos to myself is the only desirable solution at this time. This will be very tedious though.

Man, I love the iphone but the little things that could have made this device so much more convinient to the user just was tossed in the trash can, it seems. No copy and paste, no sending photos through text, no PDF file viewing, etc,. and now this. Geesh!

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Answer 6

Feb 25, 2009 7:06 AM in response to Tbo6652

FYI, emailing them further reduces the resolution to 640x480 (=0.3 megapixel).

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Answer 7

Tbo6652

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Feb 25, 2009 7:09 AM in response to neuroanatomist

yes, i should have mentioned that as well...thanks

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Answer 8

Trapspringer Author

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Feb 25, 2009 7:21 AM in response to neuroanatomist

Dammit, Jim, I am a doctor not a photographer. What does this 0.3 megapixel decrease mean? crappy pictures?

Thanks

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Answer 9

Feb 25, 2009 7:26 AM in response to Trapspringer

Yep - not very far ahead of stone knives and bearskins. Good for viewing on a computer display, not much more (i.e. will look pretty poor if printed as a photo larger than a wallet size).

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Answer 10

Tbo6652

Level 4

1,081 points

Feb 25, 2009 7:34 AM in response to Trapspringer

i just tried it myself just to see. the picture i sent looked alright, i did notice a slight difference, but not enough to make it crappy looking. it may differ depending on the picture too. i dont know what it would look like if i decided to print it either.

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Answer 11

jimmyw

Level 1

5 points

Feb 25, 2009 6:04 PM in response to Trapspringer

Neuroanatomist is correct in saying that you need a 3rd party application to copy photos (other than those pictures taken with your iPhone) from albums on your iPhone (at the full 2 megapixel resolution) back to your PC. One product that is supposed to do this is called CopyTransPhoto ( http://www.copytrans.net/copytransphoto.php).

They offer a trial version which you can use to test the suitability of this product as a solution to your problem. I haven't used this product but I have successfully used a much older version of their CopyTrans software (called CopyPod).

The trial version of CopyTransPhoto will leave a watermark on the photos you download using it. If you are able to copy your pictures successfully from your iPhone to your PC with the trial version, you can buy the full version ($29.99) and download your pictures again. Pictures downloaded using the paid version of the software do not have the watermark. Note: Both the trial and the paid versions of this software are supposed to allow you to select all the photos you wish to copy and move them as one group to a folder on your PC.

You also asked what the difference was between the 640x480 resolution (0.3 megapixels) and the 2 megapixels Neuroanatomist said photos copied from a PC to an iPhone are "optimized" to. A 2 megapixel photo on the iPhone has a resolution of 1600x1200 pixels.

I hope this is helpful. Good Luck!

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Answer 12

Trapspringer Author

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Feb 28, 2009 7:16 PM in response to jimmyw

^^ Are you kidding? This is extremely helpful.

Man, I am stuck between the choice of paying 30 bucks for an application that I will likely never use again just so I can get my photos from my iphone back onto my PC versus spending hours of manually gathering and preparing images to be copied back onto my PC...

Boy does it suck that the iphone lacks the simple archaic feature of just synchronzing the data between the phone and my PC as a two-way process. My old Treo 755 did that as a basic function of the old palm software.

I haven't synced my phone since I started this thread days ago because I do not want to lose my images which I use for my job and education. I got new songs and other data that I want to get on my iphone but I am afraid I will lose my photos somehow during the sync process due to the cumbersome sync process of itunes... all those freaking checked boxes and options just to sync data is ridiculous in my opinion. It should be a simple process.

Oh, well...thanks a bunch guys for your help!

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