Elementary OS is a great operating system. Its minimalist and elegant design can appeal to people familiar with the Apple ecosystem. But if you switch your computer to elementary OS and have iPhone or iPad mobile devices, can you still easily transfer photos from your phone to computer?
The answer is yes! There are many ways to transfer photos from an iPhone to elementary OS or another Linux-based operating system. For example, you can use the iPhone charging cable to directly plug in the phone to the computer, and then access the files on the phone through elementary’s Files application. But I found the simplest way for me is to use Apple’s iCloud storage system.
Apple’s iCloud will store and sync photos and videos from the iPhone’s Photos app. A great thing is that iCloud is accessible on non-Apple devices through any web browser, such as Firefox or Chrome. You can simply go to icloud.com, sign in using your Apple ID, and then you can access, download, or delete photos you took with your iPhone.
The workflow I use is to take photos with my iphone, and then periodically I use my laptop with elementary OS to log in to the iCloud website with Firefox. From there, you can download the desired photos and videos, and organize them on your computer or any photo management software or cloud-based storage you desire. (I personally use Nextcloud Photos.) And then finally you can delete the photos and videos from iCloud, and they will be deleted from all your devices. Using this method, I can keep my iCloud storage within the free 5GB tier, and avoid paying a monthly fee to Apple while still using iCloud to get my photos to where I want them.