Transfer large amount of photo's

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Maxime_D3R Author

Level 1

4 points

Transfer large amount of photo's

I have a large amount of photos from my pc that i want to transfer and view on my iphone 17 pro 512GB.

There is sufficient space free on the phone.

But i tried all kinds of stuff to transfer them.

1)via Itunes on a windows PC

via sync photos, isnt optimal, because it locks the option to remove the pictures from your iphone, because of the 'sync mode'.
via file sharing - dropping the files in a random app (Like VLC or documents) then adding them to photos

--> both came with the problem that the time stamp of certain files are incorrect.

.mp4 files arent in the right order

2) directly onto my iphone via an USB-C nvme drive.

is much faster, but you have to add the files manually via you iphone to the photos app

--> still the same problem where the time stamps of the files are incorrect.

and they all show up on the time that they were transered on the iphone.

Is there a way to put all the pictures on your iphone (different file formats) with the correct time stamps in the correct chronological order? Because neither of these options work right.

iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Oct 21, 2025 6:48 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2025 7:12 AM in response to Maxime_D3R

You're right, any attempt at direct transfer leads to loss of data. Before I started using iCloud, I used a Mac app (maybe also PC) called iMazing, but it always felt awkward, I didn't like their attitude, and it costs maybe $15/month. There may be other computer apps-- but I'm not sure I would trust putting an app on the phone.

I'm not sure what the problem is with putting the pictures on a USBc drive and plugging that into the phone. Then copy the pictures to Files, and doing Save to Photos. You end up with two copies, of course, but you can fix that. I haven't seen a loss of metadata that way, but I don't do it much.

The best way would be to upload the pictures to iCloud.com, and then connect your phone to iCloud and let the phone do the rest. You'll get full metadata transferred. The transfer from iCloud to iPhone is smooth, automatic, and complete. The transfer from computer to iCloud is what you expect from a browser. You're limited to 1000 files/transfer, and a corrupt file can be hard to identify. It costs maybe $3 if you use 200GB for only a month and then cancel.

The very best way would be to upload to Photos on a (perhaps borrowed) Mac so that you could preserve folders and organization, and then use iCloud to transfer to the phone. If you buy the Mac, the cost will be rather higher.

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