Windows Photos won't import from iPhone: how to fix it

Last updated: 8 October 2026

The Windows Photos app is the import tool most people try first, and it is also the one most people end up searching about. The usual symptoms:

• “Something went wrong. Your files might not have been imported.”
• Error 0x80070141: “The device is unreachable”.
• The import stops part-way, or photos copy but videos fail every time.
• The scan never finishes, or the Import button does nothing.

1. Switch the iPhone to “Keep Originals”

By default the iPhone converts photos and videos into more compatible formats as they are copied (Automatic). That conversion happens on the phone, during the transfer, and it is the most common reason big imports fall over.

1. Open Settings › Photos on the iPhone. On newer iOS versions it is Settings › Apps › Photos.
2. At the bottom, under Transfer to Mac or PC, choose Keep Originals.
3. Unplug the iPhone, plug it back in, and import again.

You will now get the original HEIC photos and HEVC videos. If Windows cannot open them, install Microsoft's extensions; see opening HEIC and HEVC on Windows.

2. Keep the iPhone unlocked

When the iPhone locks itself mid-import, Windows loses access to it. Before a large import, set Settings › Display & Brightness › Auto-Lock to Never, leave the phone on the desk with the screen on, and set it back afterwards.

3. Import in smaller batches

Photos tries to import everything new in one go. Untick most of it and import a month or a few hundred items at a time. If one batch always fails at the same point, the file it stops on is the one to look at.

4. Make sure the originals are on the phone

With Optimize iPhone Storage on, many photos and videos are only a small preview on the phone, with the full original in iCloud. A cable import can fail or skip these. See why some iPhone photos won't transfer for how to download them first.

5. Reset the connection

• Restart the iPhone and the PC.
• Use a different cable or USB port, directly on the PC.
• Make sure Apple Devices or iTunes is installed and up to date.
• If the iPhone is not visible in File Explorer either, follow iPhone not showing up on PC.

6. Use something other than the Photos app

File Explorer can copy straight from This PC › Apple iPhone › Internal Storage › DCIM; it works with the same setting changes above, though you lose albums and dates.

PhotoFroggy was written because of exactly these failures. It reads the iPhone's photo library directly, copies each file byte for byte, and keeps going when a single item fails, telling you which one and why, rather than “Something went wrong”. It also tells you which items have their original only in iCloud, before you start.