How to Get iPhone Photos Onto a Windows PC

iPhones and Windows PCs don’t have a built-in way to swap files over the air. The usual options are a USB cable and the Photos app, a cloud service that syncs your whole library, or emailing pictures to yourself one at a time. Each works, but none is quick when you just want a handful of photos on your desktop right now.

With Dropzy you open a web page on both devices and send the photos across. Safari on the iPhone and any modern browser on Windows is all it takes.

Before you start: which mode?

• Both on the same Wi-Fi? Use Wi-Fi Share, the home page. The iPhone and PC find each other on their own.
• iPhone on mobile data, or you’re somewhere else? Use Private Share. It gives you a private link and QR code that connects two devices on different networks.
• Collecting photos from several people’s iPhones after a trip or event? Create a Room and have everyone join with the code.

Sending photos over Wi-Fi

1. On your Windows PC, open Dropzy in Edge, Chrome, Firefox or any other modern browser. Keep the tab open.
2. On your iPhone, open Dropzy in Safari.
3. Tap Choose files. iOS offers Photo Library, Take Photo or Video and Choose File. Pick Photo Library and select as many photos and videos as you want.
4. Tap Add (or Done). The photos start sending.
5. On the PC, each photo appears with a thumbnail. Click to save one, or click Download all to get them in a single ZIP.

Both devices show a friendly name like “Blue Fox” or “Green Owl”. If you have more than one PC at home, rename them so you pick the right one.

The HEIC question

This is the part that trips most people up, so it’s worth a minute.

By default, iPhones save photos as HEIC, a format that keeps quality high and file sizes small. When you pick photos through the browser, iOS may convert them to JPEG, or it may pass along the original HEIC files. It depends on your iOS version and settings, and on how you choose the files.

What that means on Windows:

• You got JPEGs. Nothing to do. They open everywhere.
• You got HEIC files and they won’t open. Windows can need the free HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store to show HEIC photos. Once it’s installed, the Photos app and File Explorer thumbnails work normally.
• You’d rather always get JPEGs. On the iPhone, go to Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPEG from then on. Photos you’ve already taken stay as they are.

Videos shot on recent iPhones may use HEVC. Most current Windows setups play them fine, but if one won’t play, the HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store usually fix it.

How big can the files be?

When both devices are open at the same time, photos go directly from the iPhone’s browser to the PC’s browser without being uploaded anywhere. Browsers on iPhone and iPad limit these direct transfers to about 1 GB per file, which covers nearly all photos and most short videos.

If a direct connection isn’t possible, or the PC isn’t open at that moment, Dropzy uploads the file temporarily instead, up to 2 GB per file. It deletes itself automatically when it expires. You don’t need to switch anything; Dropzy falls back on its own.

For a long 4K video that’s bigger than 2 GB, a cable is still the better tool.

When the PC doesn’t see the iPhone

A few iPhone settings can stop two devices from finding each other, even at home:

• iCloud Private Relay changes how your iPhone appears on the network.
• A VPN on either device does the same.
• Wi-Fi Assist or weak Wi-Fi can push the iPhone onto mobile data without you noticing.

You don’t need to turn any of these off. On the PC, find the Connect a device card. Scan its QR code with the iPhone camera, or open Join on the iPhone and enter the 6-digit pair code. The two devices are then linked for this session.

If you’re on a busy network like a hotel or campus, Dropzy hides other people’s items. To pull up your own, use the item’s 4-character code.

And if the devices really are on different networks, Private Share is the simplest answer.

Sending from the PC back to the iPhone

It works the other way too. Drag a picture onto the page on your PC, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V. On the iPhone, tap Save to Photos and it goes straight into your library rather than the Files app.

Privacy, briefly

There’s no sign-up and no tracking cookies. Photos sent directly never reach a server. Uploaded photos are kept only for a few hours, then deleted. If the pictures are personal, use Private Share: it’s end-to-end encrypted, and the key is part of the link, so the server never sees file names or contents.

For the general walkthrough that covers Android too, see sending files from your phone to a PC.