This Mac App Lets You Import Photos From Any Smartphone
Want to transfer photos from your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone to your Mac without using cloud storage or the Photos app? You’d be forgiven if, after connecting one of these devices to your computer, you thought it couldn’t be done without using third-party software, but it is. You just need to launch a small application called Image Capture , which you can find in the Applications folder on your Mac.
I recently tried to import photos from several devices after a vacation: an iPhone, an Android phone, and an iPad. I don’t have a paid subscription to iCloud, so using it was out of the question (and iCloud isn’t supported on Android anyway). But all of these devices, as well as traditional digital cameras, are supported by Image Capture.
Just launch Image Capture on your computer and connect your phone or tablet – you should see it in the sidebar. You may need to unlock your device if you’re using an iPhone, or enable USB file sharing if you’re using an Android device. After that, you can simply choose which photos you want to take.
By default, the app puts everything in the Mac’s Photos app, but that’s not necessary—you can import them into a folder on your computer instead. Just click the “Import to” drop-down and choose where you want to place the photos. There are several preset folders, or you can tap Other to select any folder on your device.
Optionally, you can set Image Capture to delete photos from your phone after the import process is complete, which can be useful when you’re running low on storage space. And there’s a button for quick rotation, but no other editing features—you’ll have to handle all of that after the import is complete.
As simple as it is, I was very happy to find that this tool was already installed on my machine. The Android support is particularly noteworthy as it meant I didn’t have to install any third-party software to get photos. Try it next time you merge photos from multiple devices.