How to Transfer Photos from iPhone to iPhone

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Share photos to your friends fast using iCloud, iTunes, or AirDrop

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: April 4, 2025

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Using iCloud

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Using iTunes

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Using AirDrop

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Tips

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Warnings

This wikiHow teaches you how to copy photos from one iPhone onto another iPhone. The easiest way to do this is by using iCloud Photo Library, but if you don't have enough iCloud storage for all of your photos, you can use iTunes to back up the photos from one iPhone and then restore them onto the other iPhone. If you only want to transfer a few photos, you can also use your iPhone's AirDrop feature to transfer photos to another iPhone that's within a few feet.

Quickest Way to Transfer Photos to Another iPhone

Enable AirDrop on the receiving iPhone by pressing down on the Bluetooth icon.
Open the Photos app on the sending iPhone, tap Albums, then All Photos.
Tap Select and choose the photos you want to share.
Tap the Share icon in the bottom-left corner.
Select the name of the other iPhone.
Tap Accept when prompted on the receiving iPhone.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Using iCloud

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1
Make sure both iPhones are using the same Apple ID. You can sign into your Apple ID by doing the following:^{[1]
X
Research source}
- Open Settings.
- Tap Sign in to your iPhone.
- Enter your Apple ID and password.
On the iPhone from which you want to transfer your photos, tap the Settings app icon, which resembles a set of gears on a grey box.

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It's near the middle of the Settings page.
4
Tap the white "iCloud Photo Library" switch
. The switch will turn green
, signifying that your photos are being uploaded to iCloud.
- If you receive a warning that you don't have enough iCloud space to store your photos, you can either buy more storage or use iTunes to transfer your photos.
This can take several hours to complete if you have a large photo library.
6
Download the photos onto the other iPhone. To do so:
- Open
  Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Photos.
- Tap the white "iCloud Photo Library" switch.
- Tap either Optimize iPhone Storage or Download and Keep Originals.
Tap the
Photos app, then tap All Photos to view the downloaded photos.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Using iTunes

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Attach the USB end of the cable to your computer, then attach the other end of the cable to your iPhone's charging port.
Click or double-click the iTunes app icon, which resembles a multicolored musical note on a white background.
This iPhone-shaped icon is in the upper-left side of the iTunes window. Clicking it opens your iPhone's page.
4
Click Back Up Now. It's on the right side of the window. Your iPhone will begin backing up to iTunes.
- If prompted, click Transfer Purchases as well before you proceed.
This can take anywhere from a few minutes to around half an hour. Once the progress bar at the top of the iTunes window disappears, you can continue.
Unplug your iPhone from the cable to do so. Since you'll be plugging the iPhone to which you want to transfer your photos into the computer, you can leave the cable plugged in.
7
Turn off Find My iPhone on the other iPhone. This is a necessary step before you can restore a backup to the iPhone.^{[2]
X
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- Skip this step if Find My iPhone is already disabled.
This should be the iPhone onto which you want to copy your other iPhone's photos.
9
Restore your iTunes backup. To do so:
- Tap Trust on your iPhone if prompted.
- Click the iPhone logo.
- Click Restore Backup....
- Select the most recent backup from the drop-down menu.
- Click Restore.
On the iPhone you just restored, open the Photos app and look for your old iPhone's photos. You should see them here.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Using AirDrop

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1
Turn on AirDrop for the iPhone that's receiving photos. To do so:
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
- Tap and press down on the "Bluetooth"
  icon to expand the menu.
- Tap AirDrop.
- Tap Everyone in the resulting menu.
Tap the Photos app icon, which resembles a multicolored pinwheel on a white background. Make sure you do this on the iPhone from which you want to transfer photos, not on the iPhone to which you want to transfer photos.
It's a tab in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
4
Tap All Photos. This option should be in the top-left corner of the Albums page.
- If you don't have iCloud Photo Library enabled, this option will be entitled Camera Roll instead.
It's in the top-right corner of the screen.
Tap each photo you want to share.
It's in the bottom-left corner of the screen. A pop-up menu will appear.
8
Tap the name of the other iPhone. You should see the other phone's name appear in a circle that's in the middle of the pop-up menu.
- It can take a few seconds for the other phone's name to appear here.
Doing so will allow the photo to transfer into the Photos app.

Join the Discussion...

Easiest ways to transfer my old iPhone data to new iPhone?

WikiLynxJumper585

I just got a new iPhone (yay) and now comes the task of transferring all my data over from my old phone (boo). Anyone have any quick tips for doing this in the least annoying and time-consuming way possible? Thank you!

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Tips

Other ways of transferring photos include sending them via text or email, uploading them to cloud storage and then downloading them on a different iPhone, and sharing them via messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Messenger.

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Tips from our Readers

The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.

You could also use an SD card to lightning adapter to transfer photos to the new phone. Plug in the old phone to a computer, import the photos, save the photos to an SD card, then connect the SD card to the new phone and transfer the photos.
I've transferred photos from my old iPhone by downloading OneDrive on the old phone, uploading all my content, then downloading the app on the new phone and downloading my old content from there. Mega and DropBox are other apps that do this.

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