How to copy iPhone and iPad albums into folders on a Mac
Published 27 September 2026 · by the team behind MySimpleBackup
You’ve spent years sorting your iPhone and iPad photos into albums. When you copy them to a Mac, you want to keep that: a folder for each album, full of the original files. Here are two ways to do it, starting with the quickest.
1. MySimpleBackup: every album as a folder, in one go
MySimpleBackup is made for exactly this. It reads your albums straight from the phone and copies them into folders on your Mac, all at once:
- Connect your iPhone or iPad with a cable and open MySimpleBackup. Your Camera Roll and albums appear in the sidebar, with thumbnails.
- Keep everything ticked, or choose the albums (or individual photos) you want.
- Pick a backup folder and click Backup Selected.
That’s it. Each album becomes a folder, and photos that aren’t in any album go into a Camera Roll folder. You get:
- Original files: HEIC photos, HEVC videos, Live Photos and your edits, never converted.
- The right dates: every file is dated when the photo was taken, so folders sort properly in Finder.
- Only new photos next time: plug in again next month and it adds just what’s new.
- Nothing ever deleted, on your phone or in your backup.
- Private: your photos go straight to your Mac. No iCloud, no account.
Try it free with your first 100 photos, then it’s £10 / $10 once. Works with iPhone and iPad on iOS / iPadOS 18 and 26, on Macs with Apple silicon running macOS 14 or later.
2. Photos app: import, then export each album (free)
Apple’s Photos app can do it for free, in two stages: first get your photos into Photos on your Mac, then export each album to its own folder.
Stage 1: get your photos into Photos on your Mac
- If you’re an iCloud subscriber using iCloud Photos on your iPhone or iPad and your Mac, your photos and albums are already synced to Photos on your Mac.
- If you don’t, connect the iPhone or iPad with a cable, open Photos, select the device in the sidebar and click Import All New Items. This brings the photos across, but not your albums, so you’d need to recreate each album on the Mac by hand before exporting.
Stage 2: export each album to a folder
- Select an album in the Photos sidebar and press ⌘A to select everything in it.
- Choose File → Export → Export Unmodified Original.
- Choose where to save, create a new folder named after the album, and click Export.
- Repeat for every album.
If you’re an iCloud subscriber using iCloud Photos and only need a few albums, this works well. Otherwise it means importing, rebuilding your albums and exporting them one at a time, and doing the exports again whenever you want an up-to-date copy.
Which is right for you?
| Method | Albums as folders | Effort | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| MySimpleBackup | Yes, every album at once | A few clicks, then only new photos each time | £10 / $10 once (free trial) |
| Photos app | One album at a time | Import first (albums only come across with iCloud Photos), then export each album | Free |
Tip: if you use iCloud Photos with Optimise iPhone Storage, some older originals may be stored in iCloud rather than on the phone. Choose Settings → Photos → Download and Keep Originals first, so every method can copy them.