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Sometimes I take a quick photo with my iPhone's camera and I need to get it onto my iMac.
I'd love to do this wirelessly (like syncing and everything else).

I'm aware that iCloud's Photostream should allow me to do this, but I don't have a new enough version of iPhoto to access it. I really never use iPhoto, so it's hard to justify an upgrade.

When I connect my phone to the computer with USB, there are a number of quick ways to get photos off of it. Image Capture, Preview, iPhoto, etc. But, none of those options are available via WiFi or Bluetooth.

Is there a way to transfer photos from my iPhone to my iMac wirelessly and without using Photostream?

Ideally, Image Capture and/or Preview would see the phone as a networked camera.

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I've wished there were any way nearly as good as iCloud: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/10733/… – Cawas Oct 25 '11 at 13:28

6 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted
  1. Download Bump from the App Store.
  2. Go to https://bu.mp/
  3. Select your photos from in the bump app (from the camera roll or photo library).
  4. Press your phone into the spacebar of your Mac.
  5. Press connect on the website and on your phone
  6. You can then use the download or download all buttons on the website or drag and drop.
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up vote 5 down vote

You could use an iPhone app like WiFi Photo Transfer (There are a few of those available in the app store), but I don't think this is going to be any more convenient than simply plugging your phone in.

Another way would be to take the photos with Dropbox. The Dropbox iPhone app let's you take phones, which would just appear in your Dropbox folder on your Mac.

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Nice, I had no idea Dropbox could do that. Thanks! – Nathan Greenstein♦ Oct 23 '11 at 17:23
@Nathan Though dropbox is acceptable for you, it wasn't for me. It would't sync - it would just try an upload few times. Plus you had to get in dropbox app first, which doesn't provide features from other photo apps I'd use. – Cawas Oct 25 '11 at 13:29
up vote 1 down vote

Requirements: iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5

iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5 support wireless sync, you need to connect your phone via USB, check "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi".

Then go to the "Photos" tab And choose to sync either iPhoto albums or Pictures folder (or any other custom folder).

Each time you want to sync photos you'll need to just press "Sync"

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2  
This doesn't work. It transfers photos from the computer to the iPhone, but not the other way (what I'm trying to do). – Nathan Greenstein♦ Oct 23 '11 at 17:32
up vote 0 down vote

I have Printopia on my Mac. So from my iPhone, when I have a photo showing, and then print it, one of the choice of Airprint printer is "Send to Dropbox on Mac" and another is just "Send to Mac" (which--surprising to me--opened itself immediately in Photoshop, probably because that is my default app for jpegs). Even (iOS5) send multiple photos at a time.

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If you have the Developer tools, you will have Printer Simulator.

  1. Run Printer Simulator (just type it into the spotlight search box).
  2. Then on you iPhone you can select the photos you want Choose share and then print.
  3. Chose the save original "printer".
  4. A few seconds after pressing print they will open in Preview on your Mac.

If you have a lot of photos to transfer, you can save yourself having to save each photo in Preview, by changing the save location in the Printer Simulator Preferences.

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up vote 0 down vote

The simplest way is to use the app "transfr". You can send your photos or videos from your iphone to your mac or the other way round. Extremely user friendly too.

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"Best" is a relative term and heavily relates to the specific use cases. Can you improve your answer by adding a few features which make the application interesting in your eyes? Also adding a link would help. – patrix♦ Apr 22 at 15:50

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