Guide
How to get photos from a Samsung Galaxy onto a Mac
A cable copies a whole camera roll at full quality and needs no account. The cloud and Quick Share suit a few photos at a time, and both changed for Galaxy owners in 2026.
The quickest way to copy every photo and video from a Galaxy to a Mac is a USB cable and Image Capture, which comes with every Mac. Plug the phone in, unlock it, pull down the notification shade, tap the USB notification and choose Transferring images. Open Image Capture, select the phone under Devices and click Import All (Download All in older versions of macOS). You get the original files, at full size, with nothing to install.
Without a cable there are three routes: Google Photos, Microsoft's OneDrive app, and Quick Share, which on recent Galaxy phones can send straight to a Mac's AirDrop. One route has gone: the Gallery app's own sync with OneDrive ended on 30 September 2026, and Samsung Cloud no longer syncs the Gallery either.
Where a Galaxy keeps its photos
The camera saves photos and videos in DCIM/Camera on the phone's internal storage. Screenshots and screen recordings have folders of their own beside it, and pictures saved from apps usually land in Pictures or Download. If you put an SD card in the phone and told the camera to use it, the photos are in DCIM/Camera on the card instead.
Two kinds of file surprise people on a Mac. Photos that end in .heic come from the camera's High efficiency pictures setting, covered below. Motion photos carry a short MP4 clip inside the photo file: a Mac shows the still, and the clip stays inside the file, where a tool such as ExifTool can pull it out.
With a cable
Image Capture, built into macOS
Image Capture talks to the phone as if it were a camera, so it sees the camera roll and nothing else. Choose Transferring images in the USB notification, select the phone in Image Capture, pick the folder the files should go to, and click Import for a selection or Import All (older versions of macOS say Download and Download All). It only goes one way: you cannot put anything on the phone with it.
An MTP app
For folders beyond the camera roll, choose Transferring files / Android Auto in the USB notification instead. The phone then speaks MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), which macOS does not read by itself, so you need an app such as the free OpenMTP. It shows the phone in its own window and copies both ways, files over 4 GB included. Google's Android File Transfer did the same job, but Google no longer offers it, and it could not copy a file over 4 GB, which a long 4K or 8K video passes easily.
The phone in Finder
SideMount mounts the Galaxy as a drive in Finder. You drag DCIM/Camera into your Pictures folder like any other folder, Lightroom or Photoshop can open a photo on the phone in place, and Photos on the Mac can import the copy with File > Import. It moves large files at well over 100 MB/s over a USB 3 cable. It needs macOS 26 or later and USB debugging turned on once, which takes a minute: how to turn on USB debugging has the Samsung menu path.
| Route | Whole camera roll at once | Needs the internet | Copies to the phone too |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image Capture | Yes | No | No, one way only |
| An MTP app, such as OpenMTP | Yes | No | Yes |
| SideMount, the phone in Finder | Yes | No | Yes |
| Google Photos, Original quality | Yes, once it has uploaded | Yes, up and down | Into Google Photos, not the Gallery |
| Quick Share to AirDrop | No, a handful at a time | No, phone to Mac directly | Yes, on supported Galaxy phones |
Samsung's own cloud, in 2026
Samsung retired Samsung Cloud's Gallery Sync and moved Galaxy owners to Microsoft OneDrive, which then synced with the Gallery app directly. Microsoft ended that link on 30 September 2026. Photos already in OneDrive stay there, and you can still reach them at onedrive.com or in the OneDrive app on a Mac, but they no longer appear in the Gallery. To keep backing up to OneDrive, open the OneDrive app on the phone, tap your profile, and turn on Camera backup.
The Gallery's replacement is Google. On phones with One UI 9.0 or later, Samsung's Gallery can sync with a personal Google account: in the Gallery, tap the menu, then Settings, then Sync photos and videos. Samsung says the copies are kept at original quality and count against your Google storage. Google Workspace accounts cannot use it.
Google Photos
Any Galaxy can also run the Google Photos app and back up the camera roll with it. In the app, tap your profile picture, then Photos settings, Backup and Backup quality. Original quality keeps every file as it was taken. Storage saver shrinks photos over 16 MP to 16 MP and videos over 1080p to 1080p, which throws away most of the pixels in a 200 MP photo or a 4K video. Both count against your Google storage, of which you get 15 GB free, shared with Gmail and Drive.
On the Mac, open photos.google.com, select the photos and choose Download from the menu; several at once arrive as a ZIP file. For a whole library, Google Takeout exports everything in large archives, which can take hours. Every photo goes up to Google and comes back down, so your internet connection sets the pace in both directions.
Quick Share and the Mac
There is no Quick Share app for macOS. What Samsung added instead, with One UI 8.5, is Quick Share that can send to AirDrop: on the Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 series and the sixth and seventh generation Z Fold and Z Flip, an iPhone, iPad or Mac appears in Quick Share's list of nearby devices. Before you send, open AirDrop in the Mac's Control Centre and let everyone find it (Everyone). Received files usually land in your Downloads folder.
It goes from phone to Mac directly, with no cloud in between, and it works the other way round too. It is made for a few photos at a time, not for a camera roll of thousands. Older Galaxy phones do not have it, and the Mac has to be opened up to everyone nearby each time.
The camera settings that matter on a Mac
Galaxy cameras can save photos as HEIF (files ending in .heic) and video as HEVC. Both make smaller files than JPEG and the older H.264 video, and a Mac opens both without anything extra: Preview, Photos, Quick Look and QuickTime Player have read them since macOS High Sierra. The switches are in the Camera app's settings: High efficiency pictures under Advanced picture options, and High efficiency videos under Advanced video options. Names move a little between One UI versions.
Leave them on if the photos mostly live on Macs and phones. Turn them off if you upload to websites or send to programs that refuse HEIC, or convert on the Mac when you need to: HEIC photos from Android on a Mac covers Preview, Photos and a one line Terminal command. For long 4K and 8K clips, see how to move big videos without losing quality.
If the Galaxy does not appear on the Mac at all, the cable is the usual suspect, because plenty of USB cables carry power only. Android not showing up on a Mac goes through the fixes in order, and SideMount's setup guide covers the first connection if you want the phone in Finder.
Questions
Why do my Samsung photos end in .heic?
The camera's High efficiency pictures setting is on, so it saves photos as HEIF, which takes less space than JPEG. A Mac opens them as they are. To get JPEGs from now on, open the Camera app's settings and turn off High efficiency pictures under Advanced picture options; photos you already took stay HEIC.
Does Samsung Cloud still back up my Gallery?
No. Samsung retired Samsung Cloud's Gallery Sync in favour of OneDrive, and the Gallery's direct sync with OneDrive ended on 30 September 2026. Photos already in OneDrive stay there. On One UI 9.0 or later, the Gallery can sync with a personal Google account instead, under Settings, Sync photos and videos.
Why does my Galaxy not show up in Image Capture?
Image Capture needs the phone unlocked and set to Transferring images in the USB notification. If no notification appears at all, try another cable, because many carry power only. Image Capture shows the camera roll only, so other folders need an MTP app or the phone mounted as a drive.
Can I AirDrop from a Samsung phone to a Mac?
On some models, yes. With One UI 8.5, Quick Share can send to AirDrop on the Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 series and the sixth and seventh generation Z Fold and Z Flip. Set the Mac's AirDrop to Everyone first. Older Galaxy phones cannot, and Samsung has no Quick Share app for macOS.
