I know exactly what you were thinking when you read that headline. “Who the hell has a Windows Phone and doesn’t use a Windows PC?” I’m glad you asked. The answer is probably no one. While just about every Windows Phone owner also owns a Windows PC, there’s a solid chance that they might also have a Mac or that they might be experimenting with Linux.
Whatever the problem might be, there’s a real problem that needs to be solved here. Personally, when I record videos for YouTube, I edit them in iMovie on my Mac. This works great when I record with an iPhone or an Android phone, but now that Lumias support 1080p 60 fps, I’d like to use it. So how do you transfer photos or videos from a Windows Phone to a Mac? The answer is, with enormous difficulty.
From what I can tell, there are four ways to do this: 1) SD card transfer, 2) cloud backup, 3) transfer to USB drive through Windows and then to Mac, and 4) Bluetooth. NOTE: The principles of Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile are generally the same here. If there’s anything here that’s version-specific, I’ll annotate appropriately. What won’t Work Here’s the facts.
The actual developer of this free Mac application is Microsoft Corporation. Our antivirus scan shows that this Mac download is clean. The bundle id for this application is com.microsoft.Windows-Phone-7-Connector. Windows Phone is a simple application designed to sync your favorite media files from your Mac with your Windows Phone or Zune HD. Windows Phone (was Windows Phone 7 Connector) lets your syncronize your favorite music, videos, photos and podcasts from iTunes and iPhoto to your Windows Phone 7, so you can take your media with you wherever you go.
When you plug your Windows Phone into a Mac, it’s not going to recognize it, so a wired file transfer is out of the question. Linux machines natively recognize Android phones, Windows machines natively recognize Windows Phones, Macs natively recognize iPhones. Google has an app called Android File Transfer that allows you to do a wired file transfer on a Mac. They don’t have the app for Windows because the phone’s file system natively shows up on Windows. Microsoft used to have an app called Windows Phone for Mac and it was available in the Mac OS App Store.
It’s not available anymore, keeping with the long and proud Windows Phone tradition of stripping out basic features in favor of adding new basic features that were missing before. What will Work SD Card Transfer Required. A Windows Phone with microSD support. A microSD card.
A Mac with an SD card reader or a USB SD card reader. A microSD to SD card adapter, which should come with your microSD card upon purchase If you’re using a Microsoft Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL, or any other Windows Phone with an SD card slot in it, you’re in luck. If you’re using a Nokia Lumia 1020 or Lumia 930, move on to the next section. Also, most modern MacBooks have SD card slots. If yours doesn’t, move on to the next section. In other words, if you’re phone doesn’t support microSD or your MacBook doesn’t (and you don’t have a USB SD card reader), move on. There’s plenty of methods here.
An SD card transfer is the easiest way to move files from a Windows Phone to a Mac. If you’re already using an SD card and you have your photos set to automatically save to the card, all you need is a microSD to SD card adapter (which should have come with your microSD card). Remove the card from the phone and pop it in the side of the Mac. If your Photos aren’t Already Set to Save to SD Card OK, so you may be reading this, wishing you could transfer files to your Mac, thinking, “Man, I’m going to go buy an SD card so I can do this!” You’ve now purchased a microSD card but sadly, only photos you take going forward will automatically save to the SD card. First, if you wish to have all of your photos going forward saved to the SD card, do the following.
On your phone, go to Settings - System - Storage, or Settings - Storage Sense on Windows Phone 8.1. Set new photos to save to the SD card Of course, you’ve still got a problem because you recorded a video and you want to get that on an SD card.
This can not be done within the storage settings; however on a side note, you can move apps to and from the SD card in the storage settings. Luckily, Windows 10 Mobile has a File Explorer app. Open the File Explorer app. Navigate to This Device - Pictures - Camera Roll (or wherever your photo is located). Select the photos you want to move. On the bottom, expand the menu so you can select the “Move To” icon.
Go to SD Card - Pictures - Camera Roll (or wherever you want to move your photos to). Windows Phone 8.1 isn’t nearly as complicated. Simply go to the Photos app, select the photos you want to move, and click “Save to SD Card” Now that you have your photos on an SD card, pop the SD card out of your phone, place it in the adapter, and pop the adapter in your Mac’s SD card reader. Once there, you can open the SD card on your Mac and transfer anything you wish. Cloud Transfer Cloud transfer is probably the easiest option and requires the least amount of prerequisites.
All you really need is, well, a Windows Phone. While it is the easiest, it may be the most time consuming. Most of us have photos and videos being automatically backed up to OneDrive.
If you’re anything like me, your OneDrive Camera Roll folder is way too much of a mess to find anything, but if you want to venture into it, go ahead. Here’s the method:.
Open the OneDrive app. Create a folder for the specific files you want to copy. Click the + icon to select files to upload.
Select the files to upload and confirm. When done, navigate to OneDrive.com on your non-Windows machine. Select the folder and click download It’s that simple. The reason that I don’t put cloud transfer first is because it’s a pain in the ass. If you’re transferring photos, the process should be short enough, but if you’re transferring videos, it can take a very long time and you might get an error if you try to upload a file that’s too big. Note that the official OneDrive file size limit is 10 GB; however, in most cases, it will only accept a 2 GB file. It might ask you to use the File Explorer on your PC.
Of course, you can do this by plugging your Windows Phone into your PC, copying them to your OneDrive folder, and waiting for your files to sync. USB Transfer USB transfer might be the least easy option, but it’s probably the most reliable. Required. A USB flash drive capable of holding the total amount of content you want to transfer.
A Windows PC. A micro-USB/USB C cable (whatever data cable you use for your device) I say that this is the least easy option because it requires you to have a second PC to transfer your files from your phone to media that your Mac will recognize. It is a bit time consuming because you have to transfer the files twice, but you’ll get there. Plug your Windows Phone into your Windows PC via data cable. Plug your USB flash drive into the same PC.
In File Explorer, right click on the flash drive and click “Properties”. Make sure that your drive is in the FAT32 format.
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Connector is a slick app that syncs media files between your Mac and your Windows Phone 7 device or Zune. Windows Phone 7 Connector installs quickly and has a nice interface that shows your media files by category, as well as giving a schematic of the connected Windows Phone 7 device's capacity and disk usage. The Windows Phone 7 Connector interface is really simple to use and will feel remarkably familiar to any iTunes user. Select the files you want to sync (pretty much any non-DRM media file) and click the Sync button. The software then does the rest. You can even download Windows Phone 7 operating system updates on your Mac and use Windows Phone 7 Connector to sync them.
While what Windows Phone 7 Connector does is pretty simple in theory, being able to sync your Mac and Windows Phone 7 device so simply is really nice. We didn't test Windows Phone 7 Connector with any Windows Phone 8 devices, but it's a solid bet that Microsoft will issue an update to this software quickly.
As it is, for Mac users who also use a Windows Phone 7 device, this is a must-have free app.