notegirl

Send photos from your iPhone to a Windows PC

AirDrop stops at the edge of Apple. Here is what each of the usual routes really involves between an iPhone and a Windows PC, and the one-minute way when you just want the photo on the screen in front of you.

What Apple and Microsoft give you

iCloud for Windows. Install it from the Microsoft Store, sign in with your Apple account, turn on Photos, then wait for a sync you don't control. It is the right answer if you want your whole library mirrored on the PC forever. It is a lot of ceremony for one photo, and your library shows up in File Explorer as placeholders that download when you open them.

Phone Link. Since 2025, Windows 11 can take a file straight from the iPhone's share sheet. Install Microsoft's Link to Windows app on the phone, pair it over Bluetooth, and keep the two within a few meters; then it is Share, Link to Windows, your PC. Once it is set up it is genuinely handy. It does not bring your photo library over the way it does for Android, and it is no help on a PC that isn't yours.

A cable. Still the most reliable way to move a thousand photos. Plug in, tap Trust This Computer, open Photos on Windows, choose Import. The catches: the cable is in the other bag, Windows sometimes decides not to see the phone until you unplug and replug, and Live Photos arrive as a still plus a separate video clip you didn't ask for.

Emailing it to yourself. Works everywhere, and the Mail app offers to shrink the photo on the way out. Choose Actual Size every time or you get a small one. Either way a copy now lives in your inbox and your sent folder.

The one-minute way

  1. Open notegirl.com on both. Safari on the iPhone, Edge or Chrome on the PC. Each shows three words, like lemon otter cabin. That is its code.
  2. Type one code into the other. On the phone, type the PC's three words into the TO box and tap Connect. Either side can start; it doesn't matter which.
  3. Send the photos. Tap Send a photo or file. The iPhone offers Photo Library, Take Photo or Video, and Choose File; pick Photo Library and select as many as you like. They appear on the PC at full size. Press Save on each, or Save all at the bottom to get them as one zip. Edge and Chrome put them in Downloads.
Open Notegirl

HEIC, Live Photos, and the other iPhone wrinkles

HEIC. Since iOS 11 the iPhone shoots HEIC, and here is the one thing Notegirl does not control: when you pick a photo in Safari, iOS usually hands the page a JPEG copy of it, full size, same pixels, just a more compatible wrapper. Notegirl sends whatever it is given byte for byte and never shrinks anything. If a real HEIC does come through (Settings, Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC set to Keep Originals can do that), Windows 11 opens it once the free HEIF Image Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store; Photos usually offers the link the first time you open one. If you would rather the phone just shot JPEG from now on: Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible.

Live Photos. Picking a Live Photo from the picker sends the still image. The three-second clip is not attached, which is usually what you wanted on a PC anyway.

Videos and screen recordings. They arrive as .MOV files, typically HEVC. Windows plays them after the HEVC Video Extensions (about a dollar in the Store) or in VLC, which is free. Big videos are fine up to 2 GB; on a weak Wi-Fi signal a five-minute 4K clip takes a few minutes, and the phone should stay on Notegirl until the item says sent. If the screen locks halfway, the link reconnects on its own and finishes.

Going the other way. Drop a file onto the Notegirl page on the PC. On the iPhone, tap Share… under it and choose Save Image to put a photo in Photos, or Save to Files for anything else.

If it's a work PC

Nothing is installed, so a locked-down PC is fine as long as its browser can open websites. Windows Firewall does not get in the way; this is an ordinary outgoing browser connection. If the office network blocks devices from talking directly, an encrypted relay carries the photo instead and the only difference is that it takes a little longer. If the IT department blocks websites outright, nothing web-based will work there, and that is the one case where the cable wins.

Questions

Do I need to install anything on the PC?
No. It works in Edge, Chrome or Firefox with nothing added. The iPhone side is Safari.

Will the photos lose quality?
No. Notegirl never shrinks or recompresses anything; what the phone hands the browser arrives byte for byte. iOS itself usually hands Safari a full-size JPEG copy of a HEIC, which is the same picture in a more compatible wrapper.

Can Windows open HEIC photos?
Yes, with the free HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store. Or switch the camera to Most Compatible so new photos are JPEG.

Does it work on a work PC where I can't install apps?
Yes, as long as the browser can open websites. On a network that blocks direct connections it goes through an encrypted relay, a little slower and just as private.

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