So here’s the situation. I’m a PC guy. Always have been. Not looking to change that anytime soon, so let’s not go there yet.

For reasons also not worth discussing, our smartphones (Mrs.BurtonRW’s and mine) have always been iPhones. Not changing that right now, either. We’re both using our phones increasingly for photos and video while we’re out and about. Transferring pics to my PC is easy. Transferring video is... not. I have no idea why, but the iPhones stop responding when I try to drag & drop videos.

iTunes sucks donkey balls - at least for PCs. I understand it’s a much different experience on an apple platform. Assuming this to be the case, how feasible would it be to use a Mac to download pics and video onto my current external media drive and be able to connect it to the PC for regular use?

I suppose my main concern is whether I’d have formatting issues with the drive itself or even whether downloaded files from iTunes would end up in some Apple-specific proprietary format I’m not considering.

Thoughts/comments?

-Rob

should work fine. I will have to check with the wife to see if she still has her old MacBook Air. If she still has it and it still works, you can have it. (She got a new laptop a while ago and has no need for it).

Another option is iCloud. I pay a couple bucks a month and my photos and videos automatically upload to the cloud. It's great!

I don't recall what I pay, but it's not much at all...like 3 or 4 bucks I think. you can do that and open iCloud in web browser and grab your photos and videos that way too. Plus everything is backed up incase your wife drops her phone in the lake never to be seen again....sigh at Mrs. esdunbar.

Wow. Thanks - if she still has it, I’ll certainly give you something for it, TBD.

I’ve thought about the cloud, but I’m generally distrustful of such things and besides, I think I might have mucked that up a long time ago the way I set up our respective Apple IDs. Gotta straighten that out. Not quite sure what I did.

I’d be happy to use some sort of third party software as well, but I’ve tried several and none work as smoothly as advertised, I’ve found.

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
how feasible would it be to use a Mac to download pics and video onto my current external media drive and be able to connect it to the PC for regular use?

Use Windows to format your external drive as exFAT, and it will be readable and writable by both OS's.

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
iTunes sucks donkey balls - at least for PCs. I understand it’s a much different experience on an apple platform.

Nah, iTunes just sucks donkey balls, period, regardless of platform.

It's very odd that your iPhone freezes when trying to transfer videos to the PC.

Are you an Amazon Prime member??
Amazon photos automatically uploads your photos and videos to the cloud and then are available anywhere.
Simple. Amazon Drive is my continual backup from my PC.

iTunes will likely be no different on a Mac.

I just went and reread, and it sounds like you're trying to do the transfer through iTunes - I think you can transfer photos and videos without using iTunes at all - have you tried that way?

https://www.iphonelife.com/tip...et-photos-off-iphone

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:
I just went and reread, and it sounds like you're trying to do the transfer through iTunes - I think you can transfer photos and videos without using iTunes at all - have you tried that way?

https://www.iphonelife.com/tip...et-photos-off-iphone

This is correct too.
Just open the iPhone in file explorer then drag and drop where you want the files.

quote:

the iPhones stop responding when I try to drag & drop videos.

If you can conquer that you don't need more gear.

It seems like it was working previously?

How large are your videos? I’ve debated getting a macbook to make things easier and my daughter keeps asking for a macbook (i guess that’s what they have in school) but I drag photos and videos over in windows with no issues.
If you are transferring larger videos, try disabling your antivirus for the transfer. It’s helped me with larger transfers and it’s faster if I turn off my antivirus.
Don’t forget to turn it back on.