Move iPhone photos to Windows 11

There are three usual routes and they do not behave the same, especially with what happens to the date the photo was taken.

By cable, through File Explorer

Plug the iPhone in, tap Trust on the phone, then open the device under This PC. The photos sit in Internal Storage › DCIM, spread across folders like 100APPLE. Drag the files out. This is the most honest route: you get exactly what is on the phone.

What the iPhone quietly does

Under Settings › Photos, right at the bottom, is Transfer to Mac or PC. Set to Automatic, the iPhone converts to JPG itself while copying. Set to Keep Originals, the HEIC files arrive untouched. Both are reasonable settings; the odd part is that almost nobody knows which one is on.

Check the date

After transferring: right-click a photo, Properties, Details tab, the Date taken row. If it is blank, some step along the way lost the value — and Windows can no longer sort your folder in the order the photos were taken.

Convert HEIC photos to JPG — right in your browser

Switch off the wifi before you start if you like. It keeps working — the conversion happens inside this window.

Select photos