Transferring photos from Photos on my Mac to my iPhone

Question

Transferring photos from Photos on my Mac to my iPhone

I have 5,000 photos in one photolibrary on my Mac Mini (2018) and I wish to transfer some of them (say 500) to my iPhone. Currently my iPhone SE is running iOS 15.0.1 and my Mac is on macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

Note: For now I do not want to upgrade the Mac to Big Sur due to some app issues where they are only 32 bit and I am waiting for the 64 bit upgrades.

So I am using iTunes but not certain how to select specific photos and transfer them to my iPhone SE (2016 model). OR is there another way or 3rd party software to add photos and videos in Photos on my Mac Mini.

Thanks,

Steve Wednesday 06 October 2021

iPhone SE

Posted on Oct 6, 2021 5:07 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2021 12:52 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Steve,

You can do a migration from one iPhone to another iPhone

See this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/wat

Note that doing an icloud or iTunes restore doesn't restore your music or photos that you sync via iTunes.

The better method to make a clone is to follow the YouTube video if you want to do it hardwired. You can also do it wireless using the Quick Start process when setting up a new iPhone

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210216#:~:text=If%20you're%20setting%20up,device%20to%20your%20new%20one.

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Answer 2

Oct 6, 2021 8:15 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Hi Steve,

I recently did this on an iPhone with ios15 and an iMac with Mojave, so it does work

Connect your iPhone to the Mac and open iTunes. You may need to approve on both devices to allow access

Once you have access you will see in iPhone icon on the top left corner in the iTunes app. Click the icon and it will open to show you details about the iPhone and what is on it

Next select on the left sidebar, Photos. It will now give you the option to select where to get the photos, it should be defaulted to the Photos Library

Now choose to copy all photos or select albums. Since you only wanted 500 of the 5000 photos you would choose select albums. Then pick the album or albums that have the photos you want to sync

Then go ahead and press the button to start the sync button

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Answer 3

Oct 6, 2021 10:13 AM in response to Jadeviper

Jadeviper --

Thanks for the fast reply! OK so it seems you are confirming that when one does a backup of an iPhone (on iCloud or on a Mac) the Apps and such are backed-up, but not the photos (and maybe not the music??).

Really appreciate it!

Still wondering if there is a way to backup everything on an iPhone and then transfer everything to the new iPhone… I'll keep searching for that and welcome any comments here by you or anyone.

Steve

Wednesday 6 October 2021

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Answer 4

Oct 6, 2021 10:18 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

I am replying to my own post here because I realize I only asked about transferring photos, not backing-up. But actually my other concern is going from my current iPhone to a new iPhone 13 Pro-- how to transfer EVERYTHING to that new iPhone via a backup on my Mac-- i.e. will photos be backed-up and transfer? (I don't think so).

OK so perhaps I'm confusing things here so I may want to do another post and ask specifically about backing-up my old iPhone and using Quick Start or that backup to get my new iPhone 13 Pro (when I get it!) fully identical to the old iPhone. But I think the key question is: Do photos/videos get backed-up when one does an iTunes (or in Big Sur I think it's not longer iTunes rather a "Finder") BackUp?

Steve

Wednesday 6 October 2021

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Answer 5

Oct 6, 2021 1:02 PM in response to Jadeviper

Thanks very much.

One thing: https://www.youtube.com/wat That link does not work -- is it possible there is more to it that you did not include? If so could you re-post with the full YouTube link? THANKS!

Steve

Wednesday 6 October 2021

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Answer 6

Oct 6, 2021 1:03 PM in response to Jadeviper

OK I think I will want to do "Quick Start" -- but do I need any additional software on my old iPhone 7 Plus to do that? Or my wife on her 1st generation iPhone SE? (Or is this just built-in to iOS 15.0.1…?)

Steve

Wednesday 6 October 2021

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Answer 7

Oct 7, 2021 6:41 AM in response to Jadeviper

Thanks and a good QuickStart instructional video.

I think I will just use the wireless transfer. And to test it, I'm taking an old iPhone 6s which I have (works great!) and doing an "ERASE ALL CONTENT AND SETTINGS" to put that iPhone back to 'as purchased' state and then see if I can use QuickStart to have my main iPhone 7 Plus transfer fully to it. Let's see how that works and I'll report back here later today.

Stephen Thursday 7 October 2021

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Answer 8

Oct 7, 2021 8:38 AM in response to Jadeviper

OK I was able to set-up the iPhone 6s as my new iPhone using Quick Start. Took about an hour and ALL photos and videos were transferred.

So very pleased and thanks so much!

Steve Thursday 7 October 2021

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Answer 9

Oct 6, 2021 5:17 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Sorry about the link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvckUGtk60Y

In order to do Quick Start you need for the iPhone to be running at least version 11 or greater

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Answer 10

Oct 6, 2021 12:58 PM in response to Jadeviper

Forgot to summarize, the Quick Start method either wireless or wired makes a full clone. The older icloud or iTunes/Finder restore doesn't restore all the stuff you synced from iTunes/Finder

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Answer 11

Oct 7, 2021 8:52 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Glad it worked for you. Thanks for replying back so others know the solution if they have the same question

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Transferring photos from Photos on my Mac to my iPhone

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