How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to USB even without Computer

With its amazing built-in camera, people are very fond of taking photos with their iPhones. With time and use, photos become one of the biggest consumers of your limited iOS storage. So you may want to a USB flash drive, and then delete them from your iPhone to free up space.

However, Apple offers no direct way for iOS users to transfer photos from iPhone to flash drive. Worry not, we have workarounds for that. Here in the following guide, we will show you how to transfer iPhone or iPad photos to an external hard drive with or without a computer.

6 Ways to Transfer Photos from iPhone to Flash Drive with Computer

Transfer Photos from iPhone/iPad to Flash Drive in 1-Click

Compared to the other complicated methods, this method is much simpler and has no limitations. With AnyTrans, just 1 click is needed to move photos from iPhone or iPad to flash drive, to the computer, or to another iDevice. This app applies to both Mac and Windows. And below are its highlights on photo transferring.

Now, Free Download AnyTrans on your computer, and then follow the steps below to transfer photos from iPhone or iPad to flash drive on Mac and Windows.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone/iPad and flash drive.

Launch AnyTrans and connect your iPhone or iPad to computer with a USB cable > Connect your USB flash drive to your computer > Choose “Device Manager” > Click on the “Photos” tab.

Step 2. Choose the photos category to transfer.

Select the photos you want to transfer > Click on the “Send to Computer” button and it will ask you to change the export setting > Choose  “OK” to change the export path.

Step 3. Transfer pictures from iPhone/iPad to USB flash drive.

Click on the “Select” button to choose your flash drive to be the export path > “Open” > Click on the “Save” button to start moving photos to your thumb drive.

After the process completes, you can check the transferred photos on your computer.

In addition to the steps above, you can also go through the following video to understand the operation steps of Transfer Photos from iPhone to USB.

Transfer Photos from iPhone/iPad to USB Flash Drive via Photos App

For Mac users, the Photos app can be a good option for you to export photos from iPhone to flash drive on Mac. However, you have to aware that this app only supports transferring Camera Roll photos from iPhone to Mac. Other kinds of photos like iCloud sharing photos, iTunes synced photos, Live Photos can’t be exported to your Mac.

If you want to transfer all the photos on your iPhone, Method 1 shows you how. And here are the detailed steps on how to transfer photos from iPhone to flash drive on Mac:

1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to Mac via a USB cable > Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac.
2. On your Mac, the Photos app shall open automatically. If it doesn’t, open the Photos app.
3. Click the “Import” tab.
4. Select photos you want to export, then click “Import Selected” or click “Import All New Photos” to transfer all your photos.
5. To transfer iPhone iPad photos on Mac to flash drive, first plug in your flash drive to the Mac.
6. In the Finder, find your external drive.
7. Open another Finder window, find and open Pictures.
8. Drag your library to the external drive.
   

   Save iPhone Photos to USB via Photos App on Mac

Transfer Pictures from iPhone/iPad to USB on Windows Explorer

This method is mainly about how to transfer photos from iPhone/iPad to flash drive on Windows. Before you start, one thing we need to mention is that due to Apple’s limitation, this way can only transfer Camera Roll photos on your iPhone. In addition, photos in other photo libraries can’t be transferred to your flash drive by this method. If you want to transfer or save all your photos, photo transfer tools such as AnyTrans might help.

1. Connect your iPhone/iPad to the Windows computer via a USB cable > Then Open it on your PC as a portable device.
2. Click on your iPhone and select internal storage. Find the DCIM folder on the computer. And then, open another Windows Explorer tab and find your flash drive’s directory.
3. Now you can drag photos from your iPhone to the USB directory.

4. 

   Move DCIM Folder from iPhone to USB Stick

Transfer Photos from iPhone to USB via iCloud

For users who have both Mac and iPhone and want to transfer photos from iPhone to USB, iCloud is the best choice. Before starting, if you haven’t enabled iCloud yet, perform these three steps.

1. Go to Settings and your profile > iCloud > Select “Photos” and enable “iCloud Photos”.
2. Once this feature is enabled, your photos and videos will be automatically backed up to iCloud. Please wait patiently for the backup process to finish.
3. Sign in to iCloud on your Mac or Windows PC > Click on “Photos”.
4. Find the photos you want to send to a USB drive and download them.
5. Insert the USB drive. Start copying and pasting photos to the USB drive. Wait for the transferring process completes.

Download Pictures from iPhone to flash drive by Mac Image Capture

Like iCloud, Mac image capture is also a very convenient way for iPhone and Mac users. Since this is a built-in feature, you only need to connect your iPhone and USB drive to use it.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone and flash drive to your Mac. Run Image Capture on your Mac.

Step 2. On the left side of the interface, choose your iPhone under the device list section. Your photos will appear.

Step 3. At the bottom of the Image Capture, you can select a location to save your photos. Then click Import or Import All to start the process.

Move Photos from iPhone to Flash Drive via Email

We can see that there is an option to upload images when we usually use email, so is it possible to go through email to transfer photos from iPhone to flash drive? The answer is yes, but only a small amount of photos can be transferred. For example, keep it within 25MB.

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone. Select one or more pictures.
2. Click on “Share” and choose “Mail” to transfer.
3. Enter an email address and send the email.
4. Switch to your computer, log in to the email address and download the image.
5. Insert the flash drive to the computer and transfer the pictures.

How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to USB Stick without Computer

Can you transfer photos from iPhone/iPad to flash drive without a computer? Yes, you can. You need to buy a Flash Drive Stick for iPhone like Sandisk iXpand Mini(Price: from $27.00 to $40.93) or Sandisk Wireless Stick(Price: $69.99). The difference between them is the former requires connecting your iPhone with the USB but the latter doesn’t for it can transfer photos to your USB via WiFi.

The Bottom Line

With the three methods above, you may have transferred pictures from iPhone or iPad to a flash drive successfully. And just as you can see, the first method can be the most direct and quick way to finish the task.

With the help of AnyTrans, you can always put your lovely pictures in the right place. If you have any questions about this post or AnyTrans, you can leave a comment or send an email to tell us. Take a tour with AnyTrans now >