My sister likes to take pictures very much. Whenever she sees beautiful flowers or interesting things, she will take photos of them. However, yesterday, she came to me and told me that the iPhone storage was running out, and she wanted to transfer iPhone photos to external hard drive Mac to make room for new photos and other files on iPhone. I offered her some suggestions on iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac, and I would like to share these recommendations in this guidance. If you also wonder how to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive on Mac, you can check out the methods in this guidance.

Part 1: Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Mac with Photos App

iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac is not a tough task at all. You actually can use the Photos app to help you to transfer iPhone photos to external hard drive Mac. Photos app on Mac is developed by Apple Company, which is free to use. Now you can continue to read the detailed instructions on how to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive on Mac with Photos app.

1. Connect your external hard drive to Mac, and then plug iPhone into Mac computer with the USB cable. You can click to launch the Photos app on your Mac computer if it hasn’t open automatically. You iPhone will be recognized by the Photos app and your iPhone name will show in the left side of the interface.

2. Choose your iPhone and the photos on your iPhone will display in the interface. Then you can select the photos that you want to transfer to external hard drive Mac by clicking on the pictures in the window.

3. Click on the “Import > Import Selected”. If you would like to transfer all iPhone images on your iPhone, you can tap “Import All New Items”.


4. At the top of the window, tap “Albums”. The photos you have exported to Mac will show in the “Last Import” album.

tap Albums

5. Drag and drop the iPhone photos that have been imported to Mac to your external hard drive on Mac.

As you can see, for iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac, Photos app can be the perfect companion for you. However, if you Mac system is before OS X Yosemite v10.10.3, there will be no Photos app on your Mac. Don’t worry. I will introduce other ways to transfer iPhone photos to external hard drive Mac without Photos app. Follow me to check out the other 3 methods.

Part 2: Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Mac via iCloud.com

iCloud.com is really helpful for iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac. If you want to realize your goal, you need to sync your iPhone photos to iCloud first, and then you can transfer the iPhone photos to your external hard drive on Mac. You need to make sure you iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi if you want to make use of this solution. The following steps will show you the solution in detail.

1. Plug your external hard drive into Mac. Go to your iPhone and click on “Settings > Name/Apple ID”.

2. Tap “iCloud > Photos” to turn on the “iCloud Photo Library”. After that, your iPhone photos will be synced to iCloud automatically.

turn on the iCloud Photo Library

3. Navigate to iCloud.com on a web browser on Mac and log into it with the same Apple ID and password that you used on iPhone.

log into iCloud.com

4. Tap the “Photos” option, and the iPhone photos that have been synced to iCloud will show in the interface.

Tap the Photos option

5. Choose the pictures that you would like to transfer to external hard drive Mac, and tap the download button as shown in the picture below to download photos. Choose your external hard drive on Mac as the output folder to save the photos. Finally, you can get the iPhone photos on your external hard drive.

tap the download button

If you like this method, you can have a try. If you also want to know how to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive Mac with a third-party program, you can go on reading the last two methods.

Part 3: Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Mac via Leawo iTransfer Mac

As a powerful application for iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac, Leawo iTransfer works much professionally. It assists you to manage music, videos, and photos on iDevies, iTunes and computers. Using Leawo iTransfer for Mac, you can easily transfer iPhone photos to external hard drive Mac. First, you need to download and install this application on Mac. Now, let’s check how to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive on Mac with Leawo iTransfer Mac.

iTransfer

Leawo iTransfer for Mac 

☉ copy files among iOS devices, iTunes and PCs with ease.
☉ copy up to 14 kinds of data and files without iTunes.
☉ Support the latest iOS devices like iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, etc.
☉ Play back, view, and delete data and files on iOS devices.

Step 1. Connect External Hard Drive and iPhone to Mac

Run Leawo iTransfer Mac and then plug your iPhone into Mac via USB cable. Connect your external hard drive to Mac. Then your iPhone libraries will display on the left side of the window.

Connect External Hard Drive and iPhone to Mac

Step 2. Select Photos to Transfer

Go to “iPhone > LIBRARY > Photos”. Your iPhone pictures will display in the right side of the window. Select the photos that you want to transfer to external hard drive Mac by tapping “Transfer” button at the right bottom of the interface. In the pop-up box, you need to tick “Save to Folder” and then click on “Change” to browse Mac. Choose the external hard drive Mac as the output path and click on “Transfer Now” to start transferring pictures from iPhone to external hard drive Mac.

Select Photos to Transfer

After you read the method in this part, you can know how to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive on Mac with Leawo iTransfer. This tool can also help you solve other transfer issues in case you need. Therefore, I strongly recommend you use this application right now and in the future you will feel lucky to own this amazing tool.

Part 4: Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Mac via Image Capture

Just like Photos app that has been introduced in the first solution, Image Capture just supports iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac. If you don’t know this application before, you can read this solution to obtain the steps to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive Mac with Image Capture.

1. Plug your iPhone to Mac with USB cable and launch Image Capture on your Mac computer. Then connect your external hard drive to Mac as well.

2. Choose your iPhone under “DEVICES”. On the right side of “Import To” panel, set your external hard drive as the output folder for your iPhone photos.

3. Tap “Import” or “Import all” at the bottom right of the interface to begin to transfer photos from iPhone to external hard drive Mac. Wait until the transfer is over, you can get the imported photos in your external hard drive.

Transfer Photos from iPhone to External Hard Drive Mac via Image Capture

There are various methods for you to realize the iPhone photo to external hard drive transfer Mac. When you read the full contents of this guidance, you can choose one solution to help you to transfer iPhone photos to external hard drive Mac. Among the transfer programs on Mac, Leawo iTransfer Mac stands out, which is quite useful for you to solve different kinds of transfer issues.