iPhoneCopy

A Windows command-line tool that copies photos and videos from an iPhone to a local folder, designed for bulk transfers of large libraries. Behaves like robocopy — incremental, resumable, and fault-tolerant.

Features

• Incremental — skips files already at the destination; only copies what's new
• Resumable — if interrupted, picks up exactly where it left off on the next run
• Fault-tolerant — per-file retry with backoff; one bad file never stops the run
• Atomic writes — copies to a .tmp file first, renames only on success; no corrupt partials
• Streaming — transfers in 4 MB chunks; never loads an entire video into memory
• Progress display — live single-line output with files done, MB transferred, elapsed time, and ETA
• Detailed log — every file outcome written to a tab-separated log in real time
• Single executable — no installer, no .NET runtime required on the target machine

Requirements

On your PC:

• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)
• iTunes or the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store — either one installs the Apple USB drivers that Windows needs to talk to the iPhone

On your iPhone:

• Connect via USB cable, unlock the phone, and tap Trust when prompted

Installation

Download iPhoneCopy.exe from the Releases page and place it anywhere — no installation needed.

Usage

iPhoneCopy <destination> [options]

Basic copy

iPhoneCopy D:\Photos

Resume an interrupted run

Just run the same command again. The state file tracks completed files and skips them automatically.

iPhoneCopy D:\Photos

Only copy recent photos

iPhoneCopy D:\Photos --since 2025-01-01

Preview what would be copied (no writes)

iPhoneCopy D:\Photos --dry-run

Force re-copy of everything

iPhoneCopy D:\Photos --overwrite --no-resume

All options

Options:
  --device <name>      Select device by name (if multiple iPhones connected)
  --overwrite          Re-copy files already at destination
  --dry-run            Preview only; no writes
  --since <YYYY-MM-DD> Only copy files modified on or after this date
  --flat               Copy all files into destination root (no subfolders)
  --log <file>         Override the default log file path
  --no-resume          Ignore the state file; treat as a fresh run
  --retries <n>        Per-file retry count (default: 3)
  --help               Show help
  --version            Show version

Overnight runs

iPhoneCopy is designed to run unattended across libraries of 20,000+ files. Before starting a long run:

1. Disable Auto-Lock on the iPhone — Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never. Re-enable it when the copy finishes.
2. Keep the USB cable undisturbed
3. If the run is interrupted for any reason, just run the same command again — it will resume from where it stopped

Output

Destination structure

Files are copied into subfolders matching the iPhone's organization (typically by month):

D:\Photos\
  202105_a\
    IMG_1042.HEIC
    IMG_1043.MOV
  202506_a\
    IMG_4983.HEIC
  ...
  iPhoneCopy_20260322_220000.log
  .iPhoneCopy_state.json

Use --flat to copy everything into the destination root with no subfolders.

Log file

A tab-separated log is written in real time alongside your photos:

2026-03-22T22:00:05Z  COPIED   Internal Storage/202105_a/IMG_1042.HEIC  202105_a\IMG_1042.HEIC  3145728 bytes
2026-03-22T22:00:06Z  SKIPPED  Internal Storage/202105_a/IMG_1041.HEIC  (already exists, same size)
2026-03-22T23:45:12Z  SUMMARY  Copied: 18432  Skipped: 4521  Failed: 12  Bytes: 187,432,904,192  Elapsed: 1h45m12s

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	All files copied or skipped successfully
1	Completed with one or more file errors
2	Fatal error (device disconnected, destination not writable, etc.)

Building from source

Requires the .NET 8 SDK and Windows 10/11.

# Build
dotnet build src/iPhoneCopy/iPhoneCopy.csproj

# Run
dotnet run --project src/iPhoneCopy/iPhoneCopy.csproj -- D:\Photos

# Publish as single-file exe
dotnet publish src/iPhoneCopy/iPhoneCopy.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o ./publish

The interop assemblies in src/iPhoneCopy/Interop/ were pre-generated from the Windows Portable Devices type libraries using tlbimp.exe and are checked in — no additional SDK tools are needed to build.

How it works

iPhoneCopy uses the Windows Portable Devices (WPD) COM API, which Windows exposes when Apple's USB drivers are installed. The iPhone appears as a WPD device, and iPhoneCopy streams files directly from it over USB — no iCloud, no iTunes sync, no intermediary.

Files are transferred in 4 MB chunks and written atomically (.tmp → rename). A JSON state file records every successfully copied file, enabling instant resume after any interruption.

License

MIT