How to Transfer Photos from PC to iPhone without iTunes

Last Updated on February 22, 2021 by Jack Robertson

Let’s say you just finish editing a picture with Photoshop on your computer and want to transfer it to your iPhone, what will you do?

Maybe, the first tool that appears on your head is iTunes. Well, iTunes can help you transfer photos from a computer to your iPhone. However, it may cause data loss.

The “Unintelligible” iTunes

The problem with iTunes is that this Apple data management program will sync to your iPhone and overwrite the media libraries on your iPhone with the iTunes current library files.

Though you change the default configuration to disable the auto-sync feature of iTunes, still, iTunes will have the chance to cause data loss due to its Sync feature.

Technically speaking, iTunes cannot transfer files from a computer to iPhone. What it does is replacing your iPhone data with its in-app libraries. So if you really want to use iTunes to transfer photos to your iPhone with iTunes, make sure you import all your iPhone photos to your computer first.

For those who are looking for a safer and more convenient way to transfer photos to an iPhone, this tutorial will introduce 5 methods to you. Each one of them can help you transfer photos from a computer to your iPhone without data loss. You may pick up one and start the transfer with ease.

Part 1 iPhone Transfer Software

Besides Apple iTunes, you may find so many third-party iOS data management and transfer software in cyberspace. These third-party iPhone transfer are a lot better than iTunes and can help your transfer photos from a PC to your iPhone without data loss.

If you’re interested, you may google one or just use the recommended “echoshare iPhone Transfer“. This is the leading icon of iTunes alternatives.

Like so many other iPhone data management tools, echoshare iPhone Transfer can help you transfer data and files between your computer and iOS mobile devices easily. You’re available to transfer photos, videos, songs, music pieces, recordings, notes, contacts, and other data from a computer to your iPhone and vice versa.

While transferring photos from a PC to an iOS device, iPhone Transfer allows users to import unlimited photos to a specific album. It will never overwrite your photo gallery or lower the quality of the image files even the sizes are huge.

Never to say that this tool ensures every iPhone user truly takes control of their iPhone and data. Once downloaded, you’re available to edit, delete, convert, transfer, and restore the data on your iPhone with a computer with fewer troubles.

Method 1 iPhone Transfer – Transfer photos from PC to iPhone without iTunes

To transfer photos, follow these steps.

1. Now connect your iPhone to your PC using a USB cable. Then, launch echoshare iPhone Transfer on your computer. The application will take a few seconds to recognize the device and display it on the interface.
2. Click on the Photos button, iPhone Transfer will show you all photos on your iPhone first. You may check them all and delete some useless ones here.

3. To add photos from this PC to your iPhone, click Import. Then, you may choose to add a whole photo folder and some image files. Browse and select the target files or folder. Hit OK to confirm and start the transfer.

In a second or two, iPhone Transfer will finish transferring photos from your PC to your iPhone. You may go to Photos on your iPhone and see all the newly added pictures there.

Part 2 Cloud Services

If you can’t find a USB cable nearby or you think methods that need a wire is making things complicated, try some cloud services then, like iCloud, Dropbox, Google Photos, or One Drive.

Method 2 iCloud – Transfer photos from computer to iPhone without iTunes

The first cloud service we use is the Apple iCloud. Before start, you have to download and install the software on your computer first. Then, let’s start to import computer photos to your iPhone.

Step 1 Activate My Photo Stream on iPhone

Take out your iPhone and turn it on. Go to Settings > [Apple ID] > iCloud > Photos, then, make sure you turn on 2 options :

In this way, you’re available to import photos from a computer to your iPhone via the iCloud desktop app.

Step 2 Set up iCloud on PC

Launch iCloud on your computer, locate Photos and click on Options to do the setup. Tick 4 options:

Click Apply to confirm. Then, iCloud is capable of adding photos from this PC to your iPhone and won’t downgrade the pictures as far as possible.

Step 3 Transfer photos

Exit iCloud and open This PC on your computer. On This PC window, locate the iCloud Photos tab and open it.

Next,  copy the photos that you plan to add from PC to iPhone and paste them all to this Uploads folder. iCloud will process these photos and upload them to your iPhone.

Go to the Photos app on your iPhone and check the pictures there.

Method 3 Google Photos – Transfer photos from PC to iPhone without iTunes

Besides iCloud, there’re more cloud services you can find on the Internet like Google Photos.

As a cloud storage service for photos,  Google Photos offers an iOS app for iPhone users to transfer photos between iOS devices and a Windows PC. You can upload photos to it and then download the app on your iPhone to have access to the computer photos. Do these:

Part 3 Internet Connection

In this part, we’ll be seeing 2 methods to transfer photos from a PC to an iPhone via an internet connection. As long as your iPhone is connected to the internet, the methods below will be helpful.

Method 4 WhatsApp Web – Transfer photos from computer to iPhone without iTunes

I guess many of us have WhatsApp on our iPhone to chat with friends and loved ones. Other than a social app, WhatsApp can also serve as a photo transfer for your iPhone and PC thanks to its web version. And the steps are quite easy, read here:

Now, you can see all the target photos in the WhatsApp Group on your iPhone. To add them to Photos, long-press each and save them to your iPhone.  Note that the only caveat of this method is the loss in image quality due to WhatsApp’s compression.

Method 5 E-mail – Transfer photos from computer to iPhone without iTunes

You can also send an E-mail with the computer photos as attachments from a computer to your iPhone.

You may say ‘How can I send an E-mail to my own address’, well, it’s easy to solve that. Sign up to another E-mail address and transfer photos between this new one and the old one.

This is what you need:

In this way, you can have access to the computer photos on your iPhone via e-mail. Remember to download the photos from this e-mail onto your iPhone.

Comparison of all methods:

FAQs: