5 Ways to Transfer Files Between Smartphone and Computer

Although the top smartphones come with at least 128 GB storage space on average, most users find it insufficient. Many times, your phone has enough storage, but you need to transfer files to the computer for other reasons such as to edit an image or proofread a file. 

Depending on whether you use an iPhone or an Android, there are multiple ways you can transfer data to your computer. The article will explain all the possible methods for transferring files from phone to laptop. 

iCloud Transfers 

Apple’s proprietary iCloud Drive comes in handy if you need to transfer data from iPhone to MacBook. Even if you want to sync data across Apple Devices, iCloud is the best way to do that. After syncing data on iPhone and Mac, you don’t have to manually transfer files. 

View all your iPhone data on Mac and vice-versa. Due to the limited storage capacity on iCloud (5 GB) for all Apple devices, you cannot sync every single file and app. To address and resolve this problem, learn how to unsync iPhone from Mac for better storage management. 

To enable sync between iPhone and Mac, make sure both devices are signed in to iCloud using the same account credentials. Moreover, both devices should have the same sync settings enabled. Plus, both devices must be connected to the same WiFi. 

USB Cables

Whether you are using an iPhone, Android phone, macOS, or Windows, transferring files via a USB cable doesn’t demand anything more than your attention. Use the cable that you have got with the phone to transfer files between devices. 

Unless your phone integrates the latest Type-C cable, you can use the bundled charging cable to transfer files. The data transfer speed depends on the amount of data you are looking to move and the type of cable you are using. 

If the phone uses eMMC storage, the file transfer rate could be slow. However, if the phone uses a UFS cable, the speed can be faster. Additionally, moving data to a SATA drive on a laptop can be slower than transferring files to an SSD. 

BlueTooth Transfer

BlueTooth is a wireless way to transfer data between files and comes in handy when you don’t have WiFi or a USB cable available. Due to the slow transfer rate, most users don’t prefer transferring files via BlueTooth. 

If you are looking to share a single attachment or two, this method can just be fine for your data transfer needs. Avoid BlueTooth transfers if you want to share a large file or an album full of images from your phone to your computer. 

Before you start sharing the files, make sure to enable BlueTooth on both devices – the phone and the computer. Next, pair both devices and provide consent for sending files from the phone and receiving them on the computer. 

Google Drive

The availability of 15 GB of free storage is the major reason why most users prefer Google Drive for keeping their important data. For transferring files from a smartphone to a computer, you can use Google Drive as a transmission medium. 

After you move files to Google Drive, they become more accessible as you can view them on any device. Google Drive is readily available to Android users, so use them to transfer multiple files all at once.

 Moving data to Google Drive is simple and you can do it by following self-descriptive steps. After you move data to the Cloud drive from your smartphone, you can log in to the drive from your computer and access the files quickly. You can also download files on the computer. 

Google Photos

After Google Drive, another efficient way to transfer data from smartphone to computer and the other way around is via Google Photos. It’s the library of images and videos that you capture and shoot on your smartphone. 

When you use this method for transferring images, you eliminate all other tasks such as moving data to a flash drive and then transferring it to the computer. All you need is to enable Google Photos on your smartphone and ensure you have Sufficient storage space available. 

Now on your computer, sign in to the Google Photos Web version and view all the files. You can also download the images on your local storage media. However, beware that keeping data on physical storage can make your hard drive space-scarce. 

The Conclusion

So, these were some of the potential ways to transfer data from a phone to a laptop. All the methods are simple; however, make sure to transfer files carefully to prevent data loss. Before you start transferring data, ensure you have a backup available. 

In case, anything unexpected happens, you can restore data from the backup files. Data backups may take time but are necessary to circumvent the consequences of data loss.