How to Back Up and Organize Photos From Your iPhone or iPad

My partner recently asked me to share my digital photo albums so that we both have access to them. Before I shared them, I wanted to make sure all the photos were saved to the same location and clearly labeled. It had been about two years since I thoroughly organized my collection. A big part of the job would be getting images off my iPhone, saving them to the same file-syncing and storage service I use for the rest of my images and making sure they were clearly labeled.

I had put off the task for a few weeks, when suddenly my iPhone and Mac began shoving notifications in my face about nearing the cap on my iCloud storage. All signs were pointing me toward a photo cleanup project, and the first step would be to deal with the pictures on my iPhone.

I went through the process and distilled it down to this guide for how to get photos off your iPhone and organize them.

How to Get Photos off an iPhone (or Any iOS Device)

Depending on where you store and organize photos, you have a few options for how to get images off your device.

Option 1: Use iCloud

If you use iCloud as the main place where you store photos, all you really need to do is make sure your iCloud account is backing up and syncing your data.

For an iOS device, go to Settings > Photos > iCloud Photos and enable the setting.

Now, your device will upload all your photos to iCloud any time your device connects to Wi-Fi and the battery is charged. With iOS 11 or later, the sync can happen over a cellular connection, too.

When you create an iCloud account, you get 5GB of storage to start. If you need more, Apple sells it in increments starting at 50GB for $0.99 per month, which is very reasonable. You can share storage with others by using Apple's Family Sharing plan.

Option 2: Use a Backup and Syncing Service

Option 2 is effectively the same as Option 1, only using a different online service. So, instead of using iCloud, we'll discuss other file syncing and storage options, such as Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive.

1. Choose a file-syncing and storage service, create an account, and download the service's iOS app.
2. Sign in and look for a setting called something like Camera Upload, Automatic Upload, or Backup & Sync. This setting automatically uploads photos from your device to the service. Turn it on.
3. Once the setting is on and your images have been backed up, you can delete them from your iPhone.
4. To delete pictures from your iPhone, open the Apple Photos app and choose Photos from the bottom menu. Tap Select at the top right. Tap each image you want to delete, then tap the trash can icon in the bottom right corner. Now go to Albums > Recently Deleted. Choose Select and then Delete All.

Option 3: Download Photos to a Computer and Back Up

The third and final option I want to offer involves uploading your photos and videos to a computer first and then moving them to a backup and storage service. It's the best solution for people who prefer a hands-on approach.

It's the method I used, because I like seeing my pictures on a larger computer and deciding which ones to keep or throw away before I move them to a backup service. It also lets me make quick edits, such as cropping and color correction during the process.

1. Connect your phone to your computer with your Lightning-to-USB charging cable. Note that while you can transfer images wirelessly with AirDrop, the cable is faster and gives you the option to delete the photos from your phone automatically once they move over to the computer.
2. Launch your preferred image-editing program. If you're a Mac user, the default here would be the Photos app that came with your Mac. Windows includes a similar Photos app, and more-pro-minded photography buffs may want to use Adobe Lightroom on either platform.
3. Import the image. Most software that supports importing photos offers an option to delete all pictures from your phone once the transfer is complete. This can be a little dangerous, however, in case the import doesn't complete successfully. I prefer importing, and then only deleting the image files from the phone after I'm sure the import completed.
4. Now that you have your photos in your image-editing program, you can easily see them and decide whether you want to delete or edit any.
5. The last step is to drag and drop the images into the backup solution of your choice, whether it's Box, Flickr, IDrive, or something else. An alternative to cloud storage is to use a local, cloud-connected storage device such as the Western Digital My Cloud or the SanDisk ibi.

Depending on what service you use and which utilities you've installed on the computer, you may find that a photo importer tool pops up automatically to help you bring photos from your phone to somewhere else. For example, if you've installed Google Drive's Backup and Sync utility, that can be set to automatically save image files onto the cloud.

Tips for Organizing Photos

Here are some tips for organizing your images, plus an important question to ask yourself about what kind of tools and services best meet your photo-storage needs.

Photo Hosting or More-General Cloud Storage?

When organizing photos, the biggest question to ask yourself may be whether to store and back them up using a general cloud storage service or a photo-specific hosting site.

There are several excellent photo hosting services, including Flickr, ImageShack, Lightroom and SmugMug. These types of services generally come with tools specific to organizing and finding images. For example, you arrange images into "albums" rather than folders and subfolders, and some services recommend albums automatically based on the date or location where you shot the pictures.

Photo-hosting services often have facial recognition, so the next time you need to search for photos of a particular person, you can find them quickly without having to remember where they are. And it's not just faces: Flickr and others can detect and tag specific object types, such as tree, mountain, building, or dog, and show you all images that include those objects. You can also add your own identifying keyword tags for organization. Google Photos has some neat automatic suggestions for color correction and stitching together photos taken in quick succession to make a video that resembles stop-motion animation.

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How to Get Photos Off Your iPhone (or Any Smartphone)

Not everyone loves those features, however. If you have a brain that takes more easily to a system of folders and subfolders, a more general cloud storage solution is likely better. Another reason to use a more-general cloud storage service is if you already pay for one for your files, and you have extra room to spare for pictures.

Organize by Year and Event

When organizing photos, a system that works well for me is to create one folder (or album) for each year. I have folders called 2019 Photos, 2018 Photos, 2017 Photos, and so forth. With mine, I get to 2006 and then have a folder for everything from 2005 and earlier because I have so few digital pictures from that time that it doesn't make sense to separate them all.

If you use iCloud, you get a lot of built-in organization options. You can view your images by date, location (on a map), or event (which Apple calls Moments). If you use Apple Photos (or the Windows 10 Photos app) you also get face and object recognition. Most photo software that handles importing also can automatically create folders based on year and date, as well as giving you file naming options.

Within the year folders, I use subfolders that are typically marked by an event or occasion, such as a trip, wedding, graduation, or holiday. Those are the details that I remember when I think about a photo I want to pull. When was it and what were we doing?

I like to rename my photos and put keywords into the file name. If it sounds like a job that's too tedious, know that you can use a file-renaming tool to do it faster and more efficiently.

Delete Duplicates

A common problem people face when organizing photos is duplicates. It's especially troublesome if you import images to your computer, rename the files, and then inadvertently import them a second time because your computer won't spot them as duplicates if the file names are different.

Starting with iOS 13, Apple Photos can automatically remove duplicates. Meanwhile, the solution is to use a deduping tool. PCMag hasn't tested any software in this category, but you'll have no trouble finding a decent tool if you search online for "photo deduping tool." Some software, such as ACDSee Pro or Lightroom, can avoid dupes if you check a checkbox at import labeled Ignore Duplicates or something similar.