Has Apple solved the iPhone-to-PC file transfer problem?

[Someone]

I want to do the transfer without using the internet. Yes I can access USB thumb drive. But let show me using a PC (administered by me) and an Iphone that I have access to everything. How do I make the transfer via the USB connection?

Still going I see...

If you want to move files to an iOS device from a PC over USB you will have to install some software (and possibly an app). If for some reason you cannot use iTunes, then you're off into 3rd party solutions.

That is not possible without going to some 3rd party solution (but still possible ffs).

a) use a 3rd party software (android file access on a Mac needs a utility installed, so that is equal in each direction)

use some 3rd party transfer software, which will do it over USB without having to use iTunes (if that is some impediment for some reason).

Or do we need another 3 pages of this?

[IanB]

I want to do the transfer without using the internet. Yes I can access USB thumb drive. But let show me using a PC (administered by me) and an Iphone that I have access to everything. How do I make the transfer via the USB connection?

What do you mean by "internet"?

You can:

(a) Connect the phone to your wireless network, then browse to a network file share using the Files app and copy the files onto the phone from there
(b) Obtain a USB adapter for the phone, plug in a USB thumb drive, copy the files off the USB drive using the Files app
(c) If you don't have wireless, obtain an ethernet adapter for the phone, plug the phone into a network cable, then browse the network using the Files app
(d) Do what Someone has advised, use a third party app and copy the files using the USB cable

Please stop asking people to spoon feed you, and do some research on your own. You must know what the internet is, since you are presumably using it to connect to this forum.

[BeBuLamar]

thanks I will just simply find another device rather than the Iphone. Enough Apple for me. You proved it Apple is difficult to use.

[IanB]

thanks I will just simply find another device rather than the Iphone. Enough Apple for me. You proved it Apple is difficult to use.

Not at all. You proved you are incapable. That is quite a different thing.

Now I'm going to ask you a question. Suppose you have two Windows PCs, maybe two laptops. You need to copy a file from one laptop to the other using a USB cable. How would you do that? If you don't know the answer, we must assume Windows PCs are difficult to use, and you need to use another device. Linux, maybe?

[BeBuLamar]

Yes I am incapable and the Apple products only for those smart people like me. Stupid people like me better off using PC and Android.

[IanB]

I'm not sure why you think anyone would care that you are incapable (except the company that employs you, perhaps)?

But you should be embarrassed about it.

The point is that at the start of this thread I didn't know the answers either. But I was curious, so I Googled it, and I tried things out, and now I have learned. I really don't understand why you seem incapable of doing the same?

This is not some schoolyard game of "my phone is better than your phone". We really don't care. This is supposed to be a professional forum where intelligent people try to solve problems. This thread is full of answers to your problem, but you don't seem interested to try them out.

[james_s]

thanks I will just simply find another device rather than the Iphone. Enough Apple for me. You proved it Apple is difficult to use.

No, it's only proved that you are insistent on forcing a round peg into a square hole. It's quite possible that Apple products are not the best choice for you, that doesn't mean they're difficult to use, it just means that you're not willing to use them in the manner they're intended to be used. Many of us here are managing to use them without any real difficulty, I'm no apple fanboi, in fact there are quite a few things I don't like about Apple and their products but despite that the two iPhones I've had have proven themselves very simple, intuitive and reliable devices. I have no trouble loading content them without jumping through any crazy hoops.

[Halcyon]

If you want a phone that's reliable, that plays Youtube and TikTok vidoos, and rings when people phone you, then fine, but you're at the mercy of Apple when they decide to no longer support your device. If you want to tinker and do anything more advanced, use a different platform.

Apple is quite easy to use until you want to do something outside "the norm" for the eco system. Then it's bloody impossible. I actually quite like the hardware, it's the software that lets it down.

[Doctorandus_P]

The Fruit brand stuff is like a religion.
Some people like to be led as sheep and they are happy as long as the grass is green.

Other people are capable of independent thought and choose other directions.

[james_s]

The Fruit brand stuff is like a religion.
Some people like to be led as sheep and they are happy as long as the grass is green.

Other people are capable of independent thought and choose other directions.

This statement is just a passive aggressive way of saying that anyone that doesn't follow the Android religion (the only "other direction" there is) is an idiot, while you on the other hand are enlightened and superior, it's nonsense and exactly the same smug attitude that the Apple fanboys have. Both platforms have devoted followers, as illustrated here and both platforms are perfectly fine. Personally I don't care, I have both Apple and Android devices, they both have strengths and weaknesses. The Android devices are easier to hack and tweak if that's what you're into and there is a wider range of hardware choices, the Apple devices are supported much longer (still using my 7 year old iPhone SE and it's still supported and perfectly usable) and in my experience are more polished and "just work". Both are comparable in terms of cost, both have similar hardware specs and both have annoying fanboys that think they're smarter than everyone else. You're no more capable of independent thought than other people, you've simply done the same thing everyone else does and chose the platform out of the two available choices that you think is better suited to your needs. Instead of just being content with your choice and using it to do something useful you've chosen to insult anyone who made a different choice than you.

[Halcyon]

the Apple devices are supported much longer (still using my 7 year old iPhone SE and it's still supported and perfectly usable)

This may be of interest to you.

[Someone]

the Apple devices are supported much longer (still using my 7 year old iPhone SE and it's still supported and perfectly usable)

This may be of interest to you.
[video with no explanation in text]

OK, so what is the video saying? Old device will not install old OS? (apple only provides/supports the newest supported OS for most devices)
and how is that comparable to a device from another manufacturer of the era? say Galaxy S5 ?

[Doctorandus_P]

This statement is just a passive aggressive way of saying that anyone that doesn't follow the Android religion (the only "other direction" there is) is an idiot, while you on the other hand are enlightened and superior, it's nonsense and exactly the same smug attitude that the Apple fanboys have.

So you make a broad assumption, then draw conclusions from that and and based on those assumptions you keep on rambling for another 20 sentences. I'll assume you think yourself quite smart and educated.

[IanB]

So you make a broad assumption, then draw conclusions from that and and based on those assumptions you keep on rambling for another 20 sentences. I'll assume you think yourself quite smart and educated.

And yet you said:

The Fruit brand stuff is like a religion.
Some people like to be led as sheep and they are happy as long as the grass is green.

Other people are capable of independent thought and choose other directions.

What is this if not a broad assumption? You assume people who own Apple products are not capable of independent thought?

Even what you say does not make sense. You are happy when your grass is not green? Why is that?

[Halcyon]

the Apple devices are supported much longer (still using my 7 year old iPhone SE and it's still supported and perfectly usable)

This may be of interest to you.
[video with no explanation in text]

OK, so what is the video saying? Old device will not install old OS? (apple only provides/supports the newest supported OS for most devices)
and how is that comparable to a device from another manufacturer of the era? say Galaxy S5 ?

Old Samsung's (and others) don't mandate you "activate" with a proprietary server just to make the phone work, nor do they brick your device at some random time if you purposely choose not to update or keep using an obsolete product. You can use it completely offline if you wanted to.

Also, I'm not here to regurgitate or transcribe videos for you. If you're interested, take the time to watch them yourself. That should answer your questions.

[james_s]

Old Samsung's (and others) don't mandate you "activate" with a proprietary server just to make the phone work, nor do they brick your device at some random time if you purposely choose not to update or keep using an obsolete product. You can use it completely offline if you wanted to.

My old iPhone 4 from 2013 still works perfectly with iOS 6, I chose to not update it and keep using the obsolete product, there are a couple of abandoned apps on it that don't work on newer iOS releases so I kept it around for that. I don't get what the issue is here 

I guess if you need to be able to reflash obsolete smartphones get an Android phone then, old ones are cheap and plentiful, have at least a couple of them kicking around here somewhere. I have no real interest in hacking ancient phones though, what am I gonna use one for?

[Someone]

the Apple devices are supported much longer (still using my 7 year old iPhone SE and it's still supported and perfectly usable)

This may be of interest to you.
[video with no explanation in text]

OK, so what is the video saying? Old device will not install old OS? (apple only provides/supports the newest supported OS for most devices)
and how is that comparable to a device from another manufacturer of the era? say Galaxy S5 ?

Old Samsung's (and others) don't mandate you "activate" with a proprietary server just to make the phone work, nor do they brick your device at some random time if you purposely choose not to update or keep using an obsolete product. You can use it completely offline if you wanted to.

Also, I'm not here to regurgitate or transcribe videos for you. If you're interested, take the time to watch them yourself. That should answer your questions.

fine now that I've spent 8 minutes of "rumours" and guesses, that video includes an acknowledgement that you can just install the most recent OS onto that device and it will work fine......

when you posted that as some sort of counter argument to the above quote, about old devices still being supported with long periods of OS upgrades. Seem to be the opposite and some entirely new argument from you that the user should be able to choose their own upgrade downgrade points, which like this entire thread.... can be done with 3rd party software.

You've posted some 3rd party "coverage" of an obscure corner case of a collector who wants to use a unsupported operating system, on a device that they only just opened and had never been setup or configured (and required a replacement battery just to use as it was so very old). That is not the same as people wanting to stay on a specific OS they are running (for whatever misguided reason).

[Someone]

Old Samsung's (and others) don't mandate you "activate" with a proprietary server just to make the phone work, nor do they brick your device at some random time if you purposely choose not to update or keep using an obsolete product. You can use it completely offline if you wanted to.

My old iPhone 4 from 2013 still works perfectly with iOS 6, I chose to not update it and keep using the obsolete product, there are a couple of abandoned apps on it that don't work on newer iOS releases so I kept it around for that. I don't get what the issue is here 

The aggressive periodic activation arrived in later iOS versions, and might still crop up on older units if you try and change bits of the "identity" like the cellular network or iTunes ownership (or a full refresh from scratch?).

The argument that iOS devices receive updates longer is true, but equally the user has less choice over which OS they can put on the device (without going to 3rd party tools)....
having to make painfully clear that is entirely different from what OS is kept running on the device (more choice again)

[james_s]

It is one of my biggest complaints about iOS that I can't roll back the OS version, or worse yet, the app version. More than once I've been burned by an updated app that had a serious bug making it unusable and had to wait months for an update to come out and fix it. Even more often an updated version has taken away functionality or put it behind a paywall, the weather radar app I used to use disabled the future forecast that used to be free and made it part of the overpriced subscription tier making that app useless. At this point I've stopped updating at all, and I moved the app store onto one of the other pages of my home screen so I don't see the update badge anymore. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I absolutely do not trust software updates anymore, collectively they have caused me far more pain that bugs or security holes.

[IDEngineer]

My approach is to only update if I have a specific bug that the update specifically addresses. Otherwise my experience is the same as yours. You'd be appalled at how "out of date" some of my compilers are - but they work and to my knowledge don't generate bad code. That's worth a LOT of foregone "improvements".

[james_s]

My approach is to only update if I have a specific bug that the update specifically addresses. Otherwise my experience is the same as yours. You'd be appalled at how "out of date" some of my compilers are - but they work and to my knowledge don't generate bad code. That's worth a LOT of foregone "improvements".

The version of MS Office I have is a stunning 20 years old now. It works just fine and does everything I need Office to do. These days I'm mostly on Linux and have Libre Office on that, it's not quite as good but it does most of what I need.