How to transfer videos from iPhone to a Windows PC

Last updated: 8 October 2026

Quick answer: connect the iPhone with a USB cable, unlock it and tap Trust. Then either copy the videos out of This PC › Apple iPhone › Internal Storage › DCIM in File Explorer, use Import in the Windows Photos app, or use a dedicated app such as PhotoFroggy that lets you find the videos without digging through folders. A cable keeps the original quality; set the iPhone to Keep Originals first if large videos fail to copy.

Videos are usually what fills an iPhone: a minute of 4K video can take hundreds of megabytes. Moving them to a PC is the quickest way to get that space back, but Windows makes it harder than it should be. Here are the four ways that work, and when to use each.

Before you start

Install Apple Devices or iTunes. Both include Apple Mobile Device Support, the driver Windows needs to talk to an iPhone. Apple's Apple Devices app is free in the Microsoft Store.
Use a cable that carries data. Some cheap cables only charge. Plug straight into the PC rather than through a hub.
Unlock the phone and tap Trust when it asks Trust This Computer?, then enter your passcode.
Check the space on your PC. A phone full of video can easily need 100 GB or more.

Method 1: File Explorer (free, built in)

Open File Explorer and select This PC.
Open Apple iPhone › Internal Storage › DCIM.
Open each folder inside (they have names like 100APPLE or 202410__) and copy the .MOV files to a folder on your PC.

Good for: a few clips, no installs. The catch: there are no dates, albums or thumbnails you can rely on, videos are mixed in with thousands of photos, and you cannot see which clips are the big ones. Long copies of large files sometimes stop with “A device attached to the system is not functioning”; see when big videos fail.

Method 2: the Windows Photos app (free, built in)

With the iPhone connected and unlocked, open Photos from the Start menu.
Select Import and choose your iPhone.
Photos scans the phone and pre-selects everything it has not imported before. Untick what you do not want, pick a destination folder, and import.

Good for: importing everything new in one go. The catch: the scan of a large library is slow, it is hard to pick out just the videos, and imports commonly fail part-way with “Something went wrong” or error 0x80070141. There is a separate guide to those errors.

Method 3: iCloud for Windows (no cable, needs iCloud storage)

If iCloud Photos is turned on, the iCloud for Windows app (free in the Microsoft Store) can download your library to the PC. It works without a cable, but every video has to upload to iCloud and download again, you need an iCloud plan large enough for your whole library, and deleting a video on either side deletes it everywhere, so it does not free up space on its own.

Method 4: PhotoFroggy (made for this)

PhotoFroggy is a Windows app that reads the iPhone's own photo library over USB, so you see your videos the way the Photos app shows them: by date, with a Videos category, Slo-mo and Cinematic separated out, and the real size of every clip. You can sort largest first, preview a clip by right-clicking it, and export just the ones you choose.

Install PhotoFroggy, connect the iPhone and tap Trust.
Choose Videos in the sidebar and sort by size.
Select the clips and choose Export. Files are written byte for byte, optionally into year and month folders, dated when they were filmed.

The free version moves up to 5 GB of photos and videos, enough to clear out a good batch of clips. For more, a one-month pass is $9.99, or a lifetime licence $30.

Which method should you use?

	File Explorer	Windows Photos	iCloud for Windows	PhotoFroggy
Original quality	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find videos by date and size	No	Partly	Partly	Yes
Needs iCloud storage	No	No	Yes	No
Frees space on the iPhone	Delete by hand	Delete by hand	No	Verified delete
Cost	Free	Free	Free + iCloud plan	Free trial, $30

When big videos fail to copy

The most common cause is the iPhone converting video on the fly as it is copied. Turn that off:

On the iPhone, open Settings › Photos (on newer iOS versions, Settings › Apps › Photos).
Scroll to Transfer to Mac or PC and choose Keep Originals.
Unplug the phone, plug it back in and try again.

Also keep the phone unlocked during the copy (set Auto-Lock to Never for the moment), copy in smaller batches, and make sure the videos are actually on the phone. With Optimize iPhone Storage on, many originals only exist in iCloud. Here is how to tell.

If the videos will not play on the PC

iPhones record in HEVC (H.265) by default. Windows needs Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions to play it, or you can use a player such as VLC that includes its own decoder. See how to open HEIC and HEVC files on Windows.

Afterwards: free up the space

Copying does not remove anything from the phone. Once you have checked that the videos open on your PC, delete them from the iPhone and empty Recently Deleted, otherwise the space only comes back after about 30 days. Remember that with iCloud Photos on, deleting from the phone deletes from iCloud too. How to delete safely.