Hey, Windows Users: If You Have an iPhone, Ditch iCloud Photos for OneDrive

Hey, Windows Users: If You Have an iPhone, Ditch iCloud Photos for OneDrive | PCMag

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Want to back up iPhone photos online and sync them across all your devices? Apple offers iCloud Photos for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows, but the Windows app is terrible. So, instead of suffering, I switched to Microsoft's OneDrive, and it's been great.With OneDrive, I can save my photos to the cloud and synchronize them across all my devices—Windows PC, iPhone, and iPad. Alternatively, I can edit my photos directly in Windows and sync the changes using iTunes or the Apple Devices app. Like Apple, Microsoft offers 5GB of storage for free. If you need more, you'll have to pay for a Microsoft 365 subscription. At $19.99, Microsoft 365 Basic grants you 100GB of OneDrive space; a $99.99-per-year Microsoft 365 Personal subscription gives you 1TB of storage. Additional Family and Premium plans are also available. Before syncing, take a moment to review the photos on your iPhone and remove any you no longer want, which removes bad pictures and frees up space on your phone and in OneDrive. You May Also Like

Sync Photos Through the OneDrive AppTo get started, you’ll need to install the OneDrive app on your iPhone. Open the app and sign in with your Microsoft account. Tap the Gallery icon at the top. You may see a notice telling you that Camera Backup is off. If so, tap Turn On. Otherwise, tap your profile icon and select Turn On under Camera Backup is Off. Alternatively, go to Settings > Camera Backup and then turn on Camera Backup. You should receive a notice from OneDrive asking for full access to your Photo library. At the bottom, tap Allow Full Access.

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During the backup process, a blue revolving circle appears around your profile icon. Tap it to see how many files are left and how much space has been used on OneDrive. When the process is finished, the status will indicate that the backup is complete.

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On your Windows PC, make sure that OneDrive is set up and syncing. In Windows, right-click on the OneDrive System Tray icon and select Settings. At the Sync and Backup screen, click Manage backup, turn on Pictures, and then click Save Changes.

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To view your synced photos, click the OneDrive System Tray icon and select Open folder. Open the Pictures folder under your OneDrive tree and select Camera Roll. Your OneDrive photos are arranged by date, starting with the year and then the month. Drill down to a specific year and month to view the photos.

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By default, your OneDrive files in Windows are stored solely in the cloud and then downloaded to your PC only when you open one. If you prefer to have all your photos available locally so you can always access them, even when offline, you'll need to open File Explorer, right-click the Camera Roll folder, and select Always keep on this device from the menu. All your photos will then be downloaded to your PC.

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However, Apple's walled-garden approach creates one major caveat: you won't be able to sync changes made to photos across devices if you delete, edit, or rename them. Relatedly, I don't like the way OneDrive names the folders for my photos. Instead of using numbers for the year and month, I’d prefer more descriptive names. Sync Photos Through File ExplorerIf you actually want to sync changes between devices, I found a fix. It's a far more complex approach, but you'll be able to delete, edit, and rename your photos in Windows and then sync the changes to your Apple devices. Instead of using the OneDrive app on your iPhone, open File Explorer and navigate to the Pictures folder under OneDrive. There, I created a subfolder called My Photos. Under that, I created individual subfolders for my different photo collections, named by date and event or activity. For example, a folder of photos from a visit to the Statue of Liberty on September 15, 2023, is named 2023-09-15 Statue of Liberty Visit. I went through this process for every batch of photos I wanted to sync. Recommended by Our Editors Apple Photos a Mess? Try Organizing Your iPhone Pictures into Albums Want to Show Off Your Favorite Photos? Set Up This iPhone Feature Right Away 6 Settings You Should Change to Turn the iPhone’s Most Frustrating Button Into Its Best Tool

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Next, I manually moved the photos from my iPhone to the new folders I created in File Explorer. An easy way to do this is to open two windows in File Explorer—one for your iPhone and a second for the My Photos folder. I dragged the photos from the phone into each appropriate folder. Using the OneDrive settings, I also downloaded the entire My Photos folder so that all the photos are accessible even when I’m offline.

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Once this is done, you'll be able to edit photos using a photo editor or delete what you no longer want. For better organization, I recommend using a file renaming utility. My favorite is File Renamer from Sherrod Computers, but there are many other options. I give each photo the name of the event or activity, followed by a sequential number. For example, the first photo for my Statue of Liberty visit is named Statue of Liberty Visit 001, the second one is Statue of Liberty Visit 002, and so on.

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After this, connect your iPhone to the PC and open the iTunes for Windows app. In the program, click the iPhone icon for your device, then select the Sync Photos box on the overview screen. You should then select the drop-down box that says Pictures and pick Choose folder. In my case, I chose the My Photos folder from Pictures in File Explorer and then hit the Apply button.

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If you’ve replaced iTunes for Windows with the Apple Devices app, you can sync your photos with your iPhone using similar steps. On Apple Devices, select your phone, then tap Photos. Make sure the selection is pointing to the folder where your photos are stored. In my case, that’s the My Photos folder. Click Apply to run the process.

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After the synchronization is finished, open the Photos app on your iPhone. You’ll then see the photos synced from your PC. You can change the view to see all of them in chronological order, by year, or by month. Tap the Collections icon, and you’ll now find a new section called From My Mac (yes, Apple calls it From My Mac even if the photos are synced from Windows). Tap that section to view your photos by folder and name.

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About Our Expert Lance Whitney Contributor Experience I've been working for PCMag since early 2016 writing tutorials, how-to pieces, and other articles on consumer technology. Beyond PCMag, I've written news stories and tutorials for a variety of other websites and publications, including CNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Macworld, PC World, Time, US News & World Report, and AARP Magazine. I spent seven years writing breaking news for CNET as one of the site’s East Coast reporters. I've also written two books for Wiley & Sons—Windows 8: Five Minutes at a Time and Teach Yourself Visually LinkedIn.I've used Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products for years so I'm well versed in that world. I also know the Mac quite well. I'm always working with iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and Android on my vario