How to Transfer Photos From Android to Mac

To transfer photos from your Android phone to a Mac in their original quality, use direct browser-to-browser Wi-Fi transfer. This avoids the compression applied by messaging apps and eliminates the need to configure Google Photos cloud syncing on your Mac.

Why Android users struggle to send photos to Mac

While iPhone users can instantly AirDrop photos to a nearby Mac, Android users have historically lacked a seamless native option. Common workarounds each carry notable drawbacks:

• Google Photos web sync: Unless you pay for Google One storage, photos uploaded under the "Storage Saver" setting are re-encoded and downscaled to 16 megapixels.
• Emailing photos: Most email clients restrict file size and automatically compress attached image batches.
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth file transfer speeds on macOS top out at 100 KB/s to 200 KB/s, making a 50-photo transfer take twenty minutes.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Open the transfer page: On your Mac, go to iFileSender Mac to Android.
2. Connect your Android phone: Scan the displayed QR code with your Android phone's camera.
3. Select your pictures: On Android, tap the file selector and choose your photos from the Gallery or Files app.
4. Download on Mac: Accept the transfer on your Mac screen. The photos will download instantly to Finder in original uncompressed quality.

Importing transferred photos into the macOS Photos app

Once downloaded to your Mac's Downloads folder, you can easily add them to your Mac photo library:

• Open the Photos app on macOS.
• Drag and drop the downloaded images from Finder directly into the Photos window.
• macOS will import them with all original metadata, including capture dates and geolocation tags.

Frequently asked questions