In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to reliably transfer iPhone photos and videos to your iPad over a wired connection.
In addition to your iPhone and iPad, you’ll need:
- A USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to Lightning cable to connect your phone and tablet
- If both your iPhone and iPad have Lightning ports, you’ll need a special cable with Lightning connectors on both ends or a Lightning to USB hub.
Transfer photos and videos from iPhone to iPad using a cable
1) Connect your iPhone to your iPad using an appropriate cable, as shown in the image below.
2) Unlock your iPhone and tap Trust on the Trust This Computer screen. Then, authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your iPhone passcode.
3) Open the Photos app on your iPad and tap Import from the sidebar. If you don’t see the left sidebar, tap the sidebar icon first. And if you don’t see the Import option, unplug and replug the USB cable more than once until it appears. And don’t forget to complete the trust process.
On older versions of iPadOS, select your iPhone under the Devices section of the iPad Photos app.
4) Tap the Import All button in the top right corner of the iPad. Or, select one or more photos and tap the Import Selected button. Then, choose to import all to your main photo library or also to a specific photo album.
Once the import is complete, you can remove those images from your iPhone by tapping Delete, or keep them on both your iPhone and iPad by tapping Keep.
Why importing directly to the iPad Photos app is better than AirDrop
Wireless AirDrop is an excellent way to send pictures, videos, and other files from your iPhone to other Apple devices. However, the wired Photos app method to transfer media has the following advantages:
- Comfort: You can see all your iPhone photos comfortably on the large iPad screen and pick and choose the ones you want to import.
- Album selection choice: Photos and videos sent via AirDrop will always go to the main library of the iPad Photos app. However, when you import them via cable, you can choose to save them to a preferred album.
- iPhone remains usable during transfer: When sending files via AirDrop, exiting the Photos app or locking your iPhone may cause the transfer to fail. In contrast, with a wired transfer, you can continue using your iPhone or lock it without interrupting the process.
- Delete after import: Once the images are transferred, you can choose to delete them from your iPhone with one tap.
- Quicker and easier for transferring all photos: Using a cable connection, you can transfer all your iPhone photos to your iPad in just a few taps, even if you have thousands of them! In contrast, using wireless AirDrop for the same task might take longer to complete. Note that you can also use wired AirDrop to transfer files.
- It’s reliable: AirDrop has not been at its best in the last few versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. I’ve often found it to fail when sending several large video files. Importing via wire is certainly more reliable, with almost no failure rate.
- No unwanted image conversion: On rare occasions, transferring a PNG file via AirDrop may forcefully convert it to a different format, such as JPG. There is no [known] risk of this happening when transferring via cable.
Note: If you already use iCloud Photos with the same Apple ID on your iPhone and iPad, all your photos and videos will automatically appear on both devices as long as they are connected to the internet. In that case, there’s no need to transfer the files manually using AirDrop, a cable, or any other method.
Other transfer tips: