Moving photos from your Android phone to your Mac: every option

Switching from Android to Apple, or just using an Android phone alongside your Mac? Then you’ll want your photos and videos on the Mac. The question is where exactly. In the Photos app, so they’re in your library and also show up on your iPhone or iPad through iCloud? Or simply as files in a Finder folder? This whitepaper walks through which route works best in each situation, based on macOS Golden Gate (macOS 27) and a current version of Android.

First decide: library or files

There are two ways to keep photos on a Mac, and it helps to know up front which one you want.

In the Photos app, your photos go into a library the app manages for you. You get albums, memories, search by people and places, and, if iCloud Photos is on, sync with your other Apple devices. If you want to make a photo book or see your holiday photos on all your Apple devices, this is the place.

As files, your photos sit as plain JPEG, HEIC or MP4 files in a folder you choose, for example in Pictures or on an external drive. That’s handy if you like organising things yourself, use other software or want a separate backup.

With an Android phone, it’s best to combine the two. Copy your camera photos to the Mac as files first, then import that folder into Photos. It sounds roundabout, but it’s the cleanest way. You’ll read why below.

Are your photos in Google Photos or only on the phone?

Many Android users have Google Photos backup turned on. In that case your entire photo archive, including shots from older phones, is in the cloud and not necessarily still on the phone itself. Then the Google Takeout route (route 3) is often the quickest and most complete. If your photos are only on the phone, or you only want to move a selection, go for a cable or a wireless route.

Which USB mode does what?

When you connect an Android phone with a cable, you choose a USB mode on the phone. In each mode the phone presents itself as a different kind of device. That explains why the Mac reacts so differently. The names below are Samsung’s; other brands use similar ones.

Transferring files (MTP) shares the phone’s complete internal storage, with the real folders such as DCIM, Download and WhatsApp. You can copy in both directions. The phone stays in charge of its own storage and passes on the contents folder by folder. That’s why opening a large folder can take a long time. Samsung asks on the phone whether the computer may access the phone’s data.

Transferring images (PTP) makes the phone behave like a camera. It only shares photos and videos, usually from DCIM and Pictures. A camera has no folders, so everything appears in one long list, including the thumbnails Android creates. This mode is meant for importing, not for browsing or copying files back.

Two things apply to every mode. Every switch of mode is a new device as far as the Mac is concerned, so a MacBook asks for permission again. And most phones jump back to charging only after you unplug them, as a security measure. A phone never behaves like a USB stick, by the way. It used to be possible, but the phone then had to let go of its own storage for the duration. MTP solves that: the Mac and the phone can access the files at the same time, but the Mac does need extra software for it.

Route 1 (recommended): copy the camera folder with MacDroid or OpenMTP

This is the best route for photos stored on your phone, especially if there are a lot of them. You copy only the folder with your camera photos to the Mac, with the phone’s folder structure intact. Thumbnails, screenshots and images from apps live in other folders, so they don’t come along unless you copy them yourself.

macOS can’t read Transferring files mode (MTP) by itself, so you need an app. Google used to offer Android File Transfer for this, but it’s no longer officially available and works poorly with recent versions of macOS. Don’t download it from unknown sites either. Use one of these two instead:

• MacDroid from the Mac App Store. Once connected, you see the phone in the Finder and work with it the way you’re used to, including Shift-click selection. The free version lets you copy from the phone to the Mac, which is all you need here. There’s a paid Pro version for copying in both directions and editing.
• OpenMTP, a free open-source app you download from the developer’s website. You see your Mac on the left and your phone on the right, and drag between them. Works fine for whole folders, but has a few quirks (see below).

How it works

1. Connect the phone with a USB-C cable and unlock it. Tap the USB notification and choose Transferring files (File transfer on other brands). Allow the connection on the Mac, and on a Samsung also allow access to the phone’s data.
2. Quit Photos and Image Capture, and open MacDroid or OpenMTP.
3. On the phone, go to the DCIM folder and drag the whole Camera folder to a folder on your Mac, for example Pictures. It contains every photo and video you took with the camera. Dragging the whole folder is quicker than opening it and selecting photos.
4. Want more? Also copy DCIM/Screenshots, Pictures or the WhatsApp folder under Android/media.
5. Let the copy finish. With thousands of photos it can take a while.

Then put them in the Photos app

Open Photos, choose File > Import and select the copied folder. You can also first select only the photos from a certain period in the Finder, your holiday for example, and drag them onto the Photos window. Photos sorts everything by capture date and skips duplicates, so you can safely repeat this later with new photos.

Large camera folder: be patient

If there are a lot of photos in your camera folder, opening it can take a long time, sometimes a few minutes. It looks as if nothing is happening, and in OpenMTP you can click another folder in the meantime. But in the background every photo is being requested from the phone individually. So just wait and don’t keep clicking. Or don’t open the folder at all, and drag the whole Camera folder from DCIM.

Selecting multiple photos in OpenMTP

Selecting several photos at once is a weak spot in OpenMTP. Shift-click doesn’t work, in list view or in grid view. It’s a known bug that hasn’t been fixed yet. In practice, this is the best way to handle it:

• Drag the whole folder, for example DCIM/Camera, to your Mac instead of selecting individual photos. That always works and is usually the quickest anyway. Delete what you don’t want on the Mac afterwards.
• If you really only want some of the photos, use MacDroid. It shows the phone in the Finder, so you select photos the way you’re used to.
• You can select a small number of photos in OpenMTP with the keyboard. Click the first photo, hold Shift and use the left and right arrow keys to add photos one at a time. Shift with the up or down arrow, to add a whole row in one go, doesn’t work. So for dozens of photos this is too fiddly.

“Android device is either busy or not connected”

Getting this message in OpenMTP, or does MacDroid suddenly no longer see your phone? Usually another program already has hold of the connection. Only one app can talk to the phone at a time.

• Quit other apps that might be using the phone: MacDroid (including its menu bar icon), OpenMTP, Photos, Image Capture and any old copy of Android File Transfer. According to the OpenMTP developer, Preview, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive can also hold on to the connection, so quit those completely too, including from the menu bar.
• Samsung: a prompt appears on the phone asking you to allow access to phone data. Tap Allow, then click the refresh button in OpenMTP.
• Connection keeps dropping? Turn off USB Hotplug in OpenMTP under Settings, on the General tab.
• Stop Photos from opening automatically when you connect the phone. In Image Capture, select the phone and set the option at the bottom for which app opens on connect to no application.
• Stop the macOS camera process. macOS sometimes claims the phone itself through the ptpcamerad background process. Open Activity Monitor, search for ptpcamerad, quit the process and reconnect the phone in OpenMTP. macOS restarts the process by itself later.
• Unplug the phone, plug it back in, unlock it and choose Transferring files again.

Route 2: wireless with Quick Share, AirDrop or LocalSend

For an album from your holiday or a day out, wireless is often handiest. You pick the photos on the phone itself, in the Gallery app, so you send exactly what you want.

Since late 2025, Quick Share on a growing number of Android phones works directly with AirDrop. It works on, among others, the Pixel 8a and newer (Pixel 9 and 10 series), the Samsung Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 and recent Galaxy Z Fold and Flip models running One UI 8.5, and recent phones from OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor. Google keeps adding models.

On the Mac, open AirDrop to everyone: open Control Centre, click AirDrop and choose Everyone for 10 Minutes. On a Samsung, also turn on sharing with Apple devices in the Quick Share settings. Then select the photos or the album in your gallery on the phone, tap Share, choose Quick Share and tap your Mac. The files arrive in your Downloads folder.

Phone doesn’t support AirDrop yet, like the Galaxy S23? Then LocalSend is a good free alternative. It’s open source, available in the Mac App Store and Google Play Store, and works over your own Wi-Fi network, without the cloud. Open LocalSend on both devices, pick the photos on the phone and send them to your Mac.

If you want the photos in the Photos app afterwards, drag them from Downloads onto the Photos window or choose File > Import in Photos. For thousands of photos at once, route 1 is better.

Route 3: from Google Photos straight to iCloud Photos

If your photo archive is in Google Photos, you can have a copy transferred directly to iCloud Photos. Google and Apple work together on this through Google Takeout. You don’t need to download anything: the transfer goes from server to server and your photos stay in Google Photos.

Before you start, make sure iCloud Photos and iCloud Drive are on and that you have enough iCloud storage. You only get 5 GB free, compared with 15 GB at Google, so you’ll often need a bigger iCloud+ plan. Then go to Google Takeout, choose Google Photos, pick Apple – iCloud Photos as the destination, sign in with your Apple Account and allow access. Depending on the size of your library it takes a few hours to a few days. Apple emails you when it’s done.

The photos then appear in the Photos app in an album called “Import from Google”, with date, location, file name and description. A few things to keep in mind:

• Only photos and videos are transferred. Motion Photos and Google memories don’t come along.
• Files that Photos doesn’t support, such as RAW, go to an “Import from Google” folder in iCloud Drive.
• If Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is on, this transfer won’t work. Child accounts and Managed Apple Accounts are also excluded.
• Don’t turn off iCloud Photos during the transfer, or it stops halfway.

Would you rather have your Google Photos as files? You can also request a download through Google Takeout, which gives you zip files with all your photos. Keep in mind that Google then stores the capture date and location in separate JSON files. If you import such a download into Photos, the date may end up as the download date. The direct transfer to iCloud doesn’t have this problem.

Route 4: importing directly over the cable into Photos or Image Capture

You can also open an Android phone directly in the Photos app or in Image Capture, without extra software. That sounds like the easiest way, but with an Android phone we only recommend it for a handful of recent photos.

Why not? In this mode the phone presents itself as a camera, and a camera has no folders. Photos and Image Capture show everything they find in one long list: camera photos, screenshots, images from apps and the thumbnails Android creates itself, all mixed together. For one reader with a Galaxy S23+ that came to more than 80,000 items, a large share of them thumbnails. Click Import All and all that clutter ends up in your photo library. On top of that, with so many items it takes a long time before anything appears at all.

If you still want to

Connect the phone, unlock it, tap the USB notification and choose Transfer photos (PTP). On Samsung this option is called Transferring images, on other brands sometimes Camera (PTP). Don’t choose Transferring files, Photos and Image Capture can’t work with that. If you switch modes on a MacBook, the Mac asks again whether the device may connect. Click Allow.

Then open Photos (the phone is on the left under Devices) or Image Capture and wait for the list to appear. With a lot of photos that can take minutes.

Be careful when selecting. In the Photos app, thumbnails look exactly like real photos. Often the images you can see are in fact the thumbnails, and the real photos are the grey squares that haven’t loaded yet. If you select what you see and click Import Selected, you’ll pull in small copies instead of your photos. Photos offers no way to filter this.

Image Capture does, and the file name gives it away. Your real photos are named after the date and time, for example 20260930_172059.jpg. The thumbnails have a long number as their name, such as 1000255605.jpg. That’s the internal number Android keeps for each photo, and they come from the hidden DCIM/.thumbnails folder. Put Image Capture in list view, sort by name and select only the files that start with a date. Honestly, route 1 is still quicker and more reliable.

Mac doesn’t see the phone?

• Check the USB mode. Many phones jump back to charging only every time you connect. Choose PTP mode again after plugging in. On a Samsung you can make it the default via Settings, Developer options, Default USB configuration. No Developer options? Tap the build number seven times under About phone, Software information.
• Unlock the phone and keep it unlocked while importing.
• Allow the accessory on your Mac. This only applies to a MacBook with Apple silicon, and only the first time the Mac sees a device. Make sure your Mac is unlocked. Clicked Don’t Allow by mistake? Unplug the phone and plug it back in, and the Mac will ask again. No prompt? In System Settings, Privacy & Security, Accessories, temporarily set the option to Always Ask, then set it back to the default afterwards.
• Use a proper data cable and connect the phone directly to the Mac, without a hub or dock.
• Check whether the Mac sees the phone at all. Hold the Option key, click the Apple menu, choose System Information and look under USB.
• Quit MacDroid and OpenMTP completely, and don’t use Photos and Image Capture at the same time.

If it doesn’t work, or you can’t see the wood for the trees, use route 1.

Which route suits you

Your photos in the Photos app, for a photo book for example

Route 1: copy DCIM/Camera with MacDroid or OpenMTP and import that folder into Photos. Clean, complete and without thumbnails.

Everything is in Google Photos

Route 3: the direct transfer through Google Takeout to iCloud Photos. Complete, with dates and locations kept.

An album or a few photos

Route 2: Quick Share to AirDrop if your phone supports it, otherwise LocalSend.

Your whole phone as files, with folders

Route 1: use MacDroid or OpenMTP to copy every folder you want to keep.

Useful tips

HEIC or JPEG: many newer Android phones save photos as HEIC or HEIF. The Mac handles these fine, so there’s nothing to convert.

Cleaning up duplicates: if you imported through more than one route, look in Photos under Utilities for the Duplicates album. You can merge duplicates there in one go.

Originals in the library: check in Photos under Settings > General that Copy items to the Photos library is on. Then you can safely delete or archive the copied folder after importing.

Back up first: don’t delete anything from your phone or Google Photos until you’ve checked that everything is safely on your Mac, ideally with a Time Machine backup as well.

Step-by-step plan

1. Decide whether you want your photos in the Photos app, as files, or both.
2. Check whether your archive is already complete in Google Photos. If so, start the transfer to iCloud Photos through Google Takeout.
3. If your photos are on the phone: connect it by USB in Transferring files mode, use MacDroid or OpenMTP to copy the DCIM/Camera folder to your Mac and import that folder into Photos.
4. From now on, use Quick Share to AirDrop or LocalSend for individual photos and albums.
5. Clean up duplicates and make a backup before you delete anything from your phone.

And with an iPhone?

Let’s be honest: after reading this whitepaper, you can see why many Mac users end up choosing an iPhone too. An Android phone and a Mac just aren’t made for each other. You need extra apps, the right USB mode, permission prompts and patience, and then you still have to watch out for thumbnails.

With an iPhone, there’s really nothing to transfer. Turn on iCloud Photos on your iPhone and your Mac with the same Apple Account, and every photo you take shows up in the Photos app on your Mac shortly afterwards, as the real files, in albums and by date. No cable, no import. You do need enough iCloud storage, as you only get 5 GB free. Prefer not to use iCloud? Connect the iPhone with a cable and it shows up in Photos straight away, with only your real photos. And individual photos you simply send with AirDrop.

Thinking about switching? Also read Getting started with your iPhone and Switch to Mac.

This whitepaper describes the situation in October 2026, with macOS Golden Gate and a current version of Android. Menu names may differ slightly between Android brands, and the list of phones that support AirDrop is updated regularly. Thanks to a reader for the extensive testing.

This article is part of the Mac and the rest of the world series, where you’ll find every part in one place.