5 best ways to transfer photos from Windows 10 PC to iPhone

If you have photos on your Windows 10 computer that you want to take on your iPhone, here's how. You can transfer the pictures via iCloud, a third-party tool, iTunes.

Summary: Finding a bridge between Windows and Apple Worlds seems a difficult feat. If you have a pile of photos on your PC that you want to put onto your iPhone, then this article is for you. You'll learn how to transfer photos from Windows 10 computer to iPhone.

• With a set of right tools - iCloud, iPhone Data Transfer utility, iTunes, cloud storage services, you can access your photos on your iPhone that are stored in Windows 10 computer.
• When you sync your iPhone with iTunes to get photos from the Windows 10 PC, it can erase your photo library in the iPhone.
• Despite the 5GB free allocation, iCloud is a good syncing service to have for transferring photos to iPhone from Windows 10, without the need of USB cable.

iTunes is not the only option of transferring photos from a Windows 10 computer to an iPhone or iPad.

5 Ways to Transfer Your Photos to iPhone from Windows 10 PC

We're covering a couple of ways to get photos off a Windows 10 computer and into iPhone so they can be viewed and shared at any time. The instructions are pretty much the same for any Windows desktop & laptop.

• Use iCloud for Windows to transfer photos wirelessly
• Use iPhone Data Transfer utility software (without iTunes)
• Syncing your iPhone with iTunes
• Take advantage of cloud storage services
• How to transfer photos from Windows 10 Photos app to iPhone

How to Import Photos from Windows 10 to iPhone with iCloud

If you're someone who is fond of iCloud, Apple also makes it easy for wireless photo transfer. This is done through syncing between two devices sharing the same iCloud account. With the iCloud Photo Library enabled on iCloud for Windows, and iCloud Photos in iPhone's Settings, your photos will be transferred automatically.

There's a downside here: limited iCloud storage. iCloud offers a 5GB of free storage for you to store your data safely. If you saved more than just photos, your iPhone will prompt you that your iCloud storage space is not enough unless you charge for additional storage. Uploading photos from Windows 10 desktop to iCloud can eat up your iCloud storage.

So ensuring that you have enough iCloud space is essential before you can sync photos to the iPhone. In case you have a handful of photos on your Windows to transfer to your iPhone, this is not a wise option.

Follow the steps below to see how Apple uses iCloud photo syncing service to transfer photos from your Windows 10 PC or laptop. It's important to be noticed that photos added back iPhone will be displayed by in chronological order, that is you need to look them up based on when they were taken.

1. Download and install iCloud for Windows on your Windows 10 PC.

2. Launch the application and log into your Apple ID you used on your iPhone.

3. Tick the checkbox near Photos. When Photos Options window pops up, choose "iCloud Photo Library" to enable syncing for photos. Click on Apply.

Turn on iCloud Photo Library on the PC.

4. Open This PC. Locate iCloud Photos, and double-click to open it.

You'll find iCloud Photos in your computer once it's installed.

5. On the window that shows, right-click on Uploads and click Add photos... You can also do this by clicking Upload photos on the upper left corner.

6. Choose the photos stored on your computer that you want to sync via iCloud. This way, all your photos are copied to Uploads folder.

It's easy to drag and drop photos taken on your computer to iCloud server.

Now that you've set up iCloud to sync your photos on your PC, it's now time to do two things on your iPhone so the sync takes effect.

First, connect iPhone to Wi-Fi network.

Next, turn on iCloud Photos on your iPhone to put those pictures back to Photos app. Navigate to Settings app, tap [your name], choose iCloud and then turn on the toggle for iCloud Photos.

Make sure iCloud Photos on your device is ON.

Depending on the number of photos, uploading your photos to iCloud and subsequently to your iPhone might take from seconds to minutes. Once the pics have been uploaded and synced to iCloud photo library, you'll find them appearing in Photos app on your iPhone.

If you feel this a bit confusing, uploading photos through icloud.com is another option of transferring pictures stored on your PC. In the login page, enter your Apple ID and password. Click Photos and then choose pics to upload to iCloud for syncing. As long as the device is connected to Wi-Fi and set to enabled iCloud Photos in Settings, those photos will be automatically synced to your iPhone.

If your iCloud storage is already full, you can't upload or save anything to iCloud.

How to Transfer Pictures from Computer to iPhone Using iPhone Data Transfer

If you want an effective and easy method to transfer photos from your Windows 10 that doesn't restrict file size and doesn't involve iTunes syncing, you can always go with iPhone Data Transfer - a tool that integrates data management and transfer into a single solution.

With flexibility in data transfer, you can choose which photos from your computer are copied to your iPhone, rather than an entire photo collection. This is a nifty feature if you have limited storage on your iPhone, or you just want to transfer individual photos. Plus, there's no worry about data loss as the software won't delete or overwrite any phone data during the process.

Procedure for copying photos from Windows 10 to iPhone - All iPhone models are supported

Download and install iPhone Data Transfer utility software on your Windows 10 PC.

Plug your iPhone into your computer using the USB cable. Your iPhone appears in the program windows soon as shown below.

Navigate to the sidebar at the left and select the "Photos" tab to open your iPhone's photos library. You can edit or delete your photos here, or export your photos to your computer for backup purpose.

Now get ready to transfer photos from PC to iPhone. Click "Add" icon at the top center of the interface, browse to the photo(s) you want to move over and select it. You can choose a single photo, or multiple photos in a row. Click Open and the transferring process begins. Wait all of your selected photos are transferred onto your iPhone Photos app.

Transfer Photos to iPhone by Syncing with iTunes in Windows 10

This is an obvious option developed by Apple. You can transfer the photos over is to connect your iPhone to your Windows 10 computer using the cable that came with your iPhone. iTunes ship with built-in syncing function that makes it easy to sync photos to iPhone on Windows 10, though you'll have to sync the entire photo library.

There're some big downsides when syncing: ALL-OR-NOTHING and OVERWRITE.

If you're insist on using iTunes sync to transfer your photos, follow these steps. Before proceeding, check if iTunes is updated to the latest version. In iTunes window, you can click Help and choose Check for Updates.

1. Go to iTunes on your Windows computer, and connect your iPhone to your computer

2. Once the iPhone is connected, a tiny Device icon should appear on the upper left corner. Click on it.

3. From the sidebar of iTunes windows, click Photos.

4. Choose Sync Photos. (If Sync Photos doesn't appear, then your photos are shared on iCloud Photos and you don't have to sync the photos with iTunes.)

5. In the "Copy photos from" field, click to select a folder which is storing your photos on the PC. You can neither preview your pictures nor choose individual photos to sync.

6. Click Apply when you are set to sync the photos to your iPhone. The more photos you transfer, the longer the process will take.

7. When that's done, eject your iPhone to disconnect it from your computer. Your photos are now saved on your iPhone.

iTunes only allows you to sync an entire folder, instead of letting you select any pic you want. Before you sync with Windows 10 PC, you need to take an extra step to put photos you'd like to move together into a folder. If you sync different folders, any photo you previously synced will be deleted.

Another thing is the process of iTunes sync will overwrite the photos saved in iPhone's photo library but not on your computer.

Take Advantage of Third-party Cloud Storage Services

Similar to iCloud which can act as an intermediary for data transfer, you can use other cloud-based services, like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, to sync entire photos library from Windows 10 and to iPhone.

The extra step is to download the app on your iPhone and save the photos to the Photos app so you can view them offline.

How to Transfer Photos from Windows 10 Photos App to iPhone?

There's no direct way to transfer photos to iPhone from Photos App, but lose hope. The photos saved in Photos app are in the folder named "Pictures" on your computer, and you can locate it in the left sidebar in This PC.

Once you find the picture, you can use any of method above to put some photos from Photo app on Windows 10 back onto your phone. It's pretty easy.

Tip: Photos app in Windows 10 offers competent ability to gather photos from iOS devices for an easy viewing experience. To import pictures from your iPhone for a local backup, read this guide.