transfer photos from iphone to external hard drive

If I understand correctly, you want to backup your iOS devices to a drive other than your Mac's (because they have small SSDs). It is possible to backup multiple Macs to a single Time Capsule.

Sadly though, it seems that Time Capsule doesn't support backing up iOS devices (yet. I really do hope this becomes an option soon, and I'm not the only one). Here are ways you can make sure those 50GB in your iPhones don't end up in your Mac's SSDs though.

Photos

In terms of pictures, iOS8 should have you backed up with iCloud Photo Library. If enabled, all your pictures and video will automatically be stored in iCloud, which gives you 5GB of free storage (or 20GB for $1/mo, 200GB for $4/mo).

If that is not your jazz though, you can always sync to iPhoto, but move the iPhoto library to an external hard drive. iPhoto stores all your photos a single archive, the iPhoto Library on your

Pictures

Backups

iTunes backups might be a little more tricky, but it seems to be possible to move the folder where iTunes stores its backups to an external hard drive, and then trick iTunes into backing up there.

I haven't tried doing this myself, but here's a post that claims you can do it and outlines the steps to follow, both for Windows and OSX. The instructions for OSX aren't too bad, as long as you aren't too scared of using the

Terminal

Applications/Utilities/Terminal

1. Copy

   ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/

   to a new location, say

   /Volumes/~Your External HDD~/MobileSync

   . This directory has a folder called

   Backups

   , which is where iTunes stores backups for mobile devices.
   • Note 1:

     ~/

     is an alias computers use for your home folder.
   • Note 2: Your

     ~/Library

     folder is hidden by default. You can open it in Finder by opening

     Terminal

     typing in

     open ~/Library

     .
2. Remove/rename

   ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

   . We won't need it anymore.
3. Create a symbolic link to the new location for

   Backups

   in your external hard drive. This is basically like an alias in the old location of

   Backups

   to its new location. To do so open

   Terminal

   and type in

   ln -s /Volumes/**~Your External HDD~**/MobileSync/Backup ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup

If you launch iTunes now it should follow the symbolic link and go on with business as usual, not knowing that in fact it's now working with a folder that's on an external hard drive.

You'll need to have the hard drive connected to backup,

Hope it helps!

thanks, very helpful!

If you have newer mac, your apple icon will not show "Application." So instead you can just click on the magnifying glass (Search icon) on the top right corner and type in "IMAGE CAPTURE" Click on that and your device will show up on the left of the window. You can import all or select and import and choose your import location on the bottom. Thank you all!

brilliant, thank you for posting. saved me lots of time 🙂

Perfect...Thanks

Thanks a ton. Your advise saved a lot of time for me.

When did you have to buy another program to transfer pictures? They should show up in the computer section of the computer and import from the internal drive from phone to computer? But not all my pictures are showing up.

Very helpful using Image Capture. For automatically deleting from my phone after import, I don't see a box below this. Can you please describe?

THANK YOU SO MUCH Townie! THIS IS REALLY HELPFULL! Finally a solution. Please, Do you have any idea, how do we save specific files from, for example, iMovie on the iphone to the same external HD??

Hi, I saw lots of people had luck following your instructions to transfer pics from iphone to external hard drive, but I can't figure out what this first phrase means???

"Go to Finder in the dock at the bottom of the page (usually all the way left with a face)

Select Applications

Select Image Capture"

"Finder in the dock at the bottom of the page " = what does this mean? Where are you talking about on your computer or iphone?

Basically, I have my iphone plugged into my computer so far. Where do I go from there step by step?

Do I have to use itunes? i have almost 5,000 pics and videos and have no available space on this phone so i need to dump these pics asap!

Thank you for your help!!

Daria

This is my problem too!! did you figure it out yet?

Do you have a Mac or PC?

Have you ever imported photos or videos from any digital camera with your computer? If so, the process is the same with an iPhone and this is not done with iTunes. When there are photos/videos in the iPhone's Camera Roll, the iPhone is also detected as a digital camera when connected to your computer.

WIth a Mac this can be done with the Photos app if you use that for photo storage and organization or with the Image Capture application.

For those of you who actually want to export photos and movies from your iPhone to an external drive...

(thumbdrive, SD Card, SSD, HD)... there is no way to do this.

EVERY answer here describes connecting the iPhone to a computer or some type of network.

No answer here explains that iOS is Import Only.

You cannot export images and movies "directly" to an external device.

Exports require a second computer system or network with computer systems.

NO DIRECT EXPORT to standalone storage devices.

The reason for this is Profit.

You must PAY to export your images and movies. (pay one way or another)

Even then... no guarantee your media will not be compressed from original.

In my case I own OSX computing devices as described in the answer on this thread.

Yes, Image Capture is very useful...However... you cannot export directly to an external storage device.

iOS is designed to prevent this for the purpose of profit. (using iOS 9.3.4)

iCloud is not free, an OSX machine is not free, internet service is not free,... you get the picture.

IF.... you could use your iPhone to take photos and movies and transfer them directly.... your only cost would be external devices. (not profitable)

And if transferring photos and videos direct to an external drive or thumb drive were possible, that would be connected to what afterwards for viewing or editing the photos/videos?

I provided that answer in my response. (in fact specified it)

Regardless if a PC or Mac it would seem obvious that DIGITAL media requires a COMPUTER.

If that is not obvious to the most casual observer, then I don't know what to say.

The point is.... even a $35 digital camera allows Direct Transfer to external storage.

Your response / question is sadistic, malicious and insulting.

Congratulations!... I am offended.