How do I transfer iPhone 13 photos and videos to an external drive?

Question

How do I transfer iPhone 13 photos and videos to an external drive?

iPhone 13 with a USB-c to a lightening cable connection. I will be purchasing a new phone shortly and would like to download all of my existing photo's and video's to an external drive (not I-cloud). My photo's are at 38.65 GB storage capacity. Can someone please make a recommendation to a successful device to use. I see photo sticks advertised with very low ratings. Any help is appreciated very much.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iPhone 13 external drive

iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Dec 9, 2025 10:23 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,860 points

Dec 9, 2025 5:45 PM in response to Trying2FigureItOutAgain

The "best" way to do this, is by first copying the photos/video to a computer, and then, copy/move them to an external drive.

However, if you really don’t have/ want a computer, this is trickier and more finicky. In this case, you'll need:

A Lightning-to-USB 3 Camera Adapter, plus
A USB flash drive/SSD (often needs power via a Lightning power pass-through or powered hub),
Then use the Files app on iPhone to move items from Photos → Save to Files and then copy to the external drive.

Reply

Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

157,860 points

Dec 9, 2025 6:00 PM in response to Trying2FigureItOutAgain

You're very welcome! Since you wanted to leave iCloud out of the equation, you are left with only a few choices. Transferring files from the iPhone directly to an external drive isn't really that complicated, but does come at an additional cost for the adapter, and potentially, a powered hub ... not worth it if you only need to do this seldomly.

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 9, 2025 5:53 PM in response to Tesserax

Thank you. I didn't want to use a computer and it sounds a bit complex to do it the other way. Appreciate your input......

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 9, 2025 6:10 PM in response to Trying2FigureItOutAgain

I also see the Apple Store sells:

SanDisk 256GB iXpand Flash Drive Go

Does anyone have positive experience from this method?

Reply