How to Backup iPhone Camera Roll Photos to Mac/PC

If you meet any situation mentioned below, it means that you should back up your camera roll photos from iPhone to computer.

• Can’t restore iPhone Camera Roll Photos from iCloud backup
• Have too many photos whose number far exceeds that of Photo Stream can keep
• Takes too much time to backup photos from iPhone to iCloud

When it comes to backing up iPhone camera roll photos to computer, both Windows users and Mac users have many choices. In this post, we will focus on how to backup iPhone photos to Mac, and offer you 5 ways to backup camera roll photos from iPhone to Mac, including Photos app, Preview, Image Capture and AnyTrans for iOS.

Part 1：Backup iPhone Camera Roll to Mac/PC with AnyTrans for iOS

AnyTrans for iOS is a professional iPhone data manager that developed to backup data like photos from iPhone/iPad/iPod touch to computer, to iTunes, or even to other iDevices. Here are its features on backing up iPhone photos to computer:

• Save both Time & Labor. Less than one minute to backup over 3000 photos from iPhone to computer, and just one click to finish the task.
• Backup All Types of Photos. All photos and albums on your iPhone can be backed up, including Camera Roll photos, Photo Stream, etc.
• No Quality Loss. Keep the original picture quality, no need to worry about damaging the quality of the photos after backing up.
• Incremental Backup. Back up only the new added data based on the previous backup, which saves both the backup time and computer space.
• Air Backup. Back up your iPhone content automatically (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). You don’t need to do anything.

Now, Free Download AnyTrans for iOS on your computer, and then follow the simple steps below to backup iPhone photos to computer easily.

Step 1: Launch and run AnyTrans for iOS, connect your iPhone to Mac with a USB cable. Click on “Device Manager” mode, and then choose the “Photos” option.

Step 2: Choose “My Photos” (Camera Roll) > Select the photos you want to transfer > Click on the “To Computer“ button at the top-right corner to transfer the selected photos to your Mac.

Actually, to maximize users’ needs, AnyTrans offers 3 backup modes for users to choose from – Full Backup, Incremental Backup, and Air Backup.

1. Full Backup. Besides everything that an iTunes backup includes, it supports you to backup 10 more types of files on iPhone.
2. Incremental Backup. Back up only the changed data based on the previous backup, which saves both the backup time and space.
3. Air Backup. Back up your phone automatically, wirelessly at your preferred frequency (daily, weekly, etc.). You don’t need to do anything.

Part 2：How to Backup iPhone Photos to Mac with Photos

It is no exaggeration to say that Photos app is the most widely used photo transfer software when transferring photos from iOS devices to Mac. So the first iPhone photos transfer tool we will talk about is Photos app. Let’s move on how to backup photos from iPhone to Mac with Photos app.

To back up photos from iPhone to Mac with Photos app: Connect your iPhone to Mac with USB cable > Launch Photos if it does open automatically > Pick up all the camera roll photos > Click Import XXX (the number of your camera roll photos) photos to import.

Once the process has finished, you can decide whether you need to move those photos to some folder of your Mac.

Part 3：How to Back up Photos from iPhone to Mac with Preview

Besides Photos app, you also can transfer Camera Roll from iPhone to Mac with Preview. Absolutely, Preview doesn’t open automatically when connecting camera or device with built-in camera to Mac, so you need to launch Preview on your Mac firstly and then follow the steps below:

To back up photos from iPhone to Mac with Preview: Click File at the upper left corner of your screen > Choose Import from your iPhone > Pick up photos or choose all > Click Import or Import All > Choose the destination for Camera Roll Photos.

Must Read: How to Backup Contacts from iPhone to Mac >

Part 4：How to Backup iPhone Photos to Mac with Image Capture

Besides Photos app and Preview, Image Capture also is a nice choice to import iPhone Photos to Mac. Contrary to Photos app and Preview, Image Capture’s icon is not placed in Launchpad directly，you need to open the Other firstly and move the icon of Image Capture to Launchpad, then you can run it now and backup iPhone photos to Mac with following the steps:

Connect your iPhone to Mac and run Image Capture on your Mac > Select your iPhone from the Devices list > Set output folder for the Camera Roll Photos backup > Pick up the photos > Click Import (If you just transfer some photos) or Import All (If you choose all the photos).

Part 5: Backup iPhone Camera Roll to PC with AutoPlay

Step 1. Please connect your iPhone to your computer. Generally speaking, the AutoPlay will launch automatically. 

Step 2: Select “Import Pictures and Videos Using Windows”. Then click the “Import” button. A process bar appears.

Step 3: Windows will import your iPhone photos to the Windows Photo Gallery. The photo gallery program will launch when the import is complete.

Bonus Tip: iPhone Camera Roll has Moved Since iOS 13 and iPadOS

If you’re iOS 13 or iPadOS user, you would find that Camera Roll “disappeared”, because Apple updated a lot including the Photos app from iOS 13.

Before iOS 13, iPhone Camera Roll was located at Albums, which was one of the tabs of Photos, Shared and Albums. Now, Apple released the all‑new Photos tab, including Photos, For You, Albums, and Search. As the screenshot below shows: you can tap on Photos > and choose All Photos, Days, Months, and Year to check your camera roll photos.

The Bottom Line

With this detailed tutorial about how to backup camera roll photos from iPhone to Mac in 5 ways, you must have found that iMobie AnyTrans for iOS is the best way to backup iPhone photos to Mac. Because it allows you to backup all the photos from iPhone to Mac, no matter what albums you want to backup.

More than anything, AnyTrans for iOS also features you the powerful ability to manage your photos, you can edit, move, delete, rename your photos. Why not download AnyTrans for iOS and Give it Try Now >. If you are Windows user, please refer to this guide – How to Backup Photos from iPhone to PC (Windows 7/8/10 Included).