You could either put them in separate albums in the photos app or have all the photos from your iPhone in the photos app and the images you download from the web in some other folder, outside of the Photos app.

Select photos. Select share -> airdrop and from there select your computer

here are a couple of tips/considerations...

MacOS has “Image Capture” Utilty built into the OS and works very well in most cases, as was suggested by another commenter.

but what if you want options? who knows if said app doesn’t log/send data to Apple as well? what if you want to backup to other locations/devices?

there’s also other important information in regards to Apple’s ecosystem (probably in others too) that will matter also to people that don’t care for metadata as privacy issues that I wish I knew before it was too late...

There are different ways you can copy files, but with personal photos and videos, only a few allows you to make an identical copy of the original - why is it important?

the originals has metadata of the
original date/time, gps and specs of camera used, etc..

When you make a copy, you basically create a new file that only the image is copied and a new metadata will be created for it with date/time of creation date, not of the original one. when using Apple’s iCloud, Photos etc.. the originals or an identical copies are used!

when you import many non-original copies (called masters) photos/videos to a Photo library manager like Apple Photos that were not created on your phone, e.g. downloaded from the internet, a friend sends you via messages, etc) into an existing organized photo library manager app, they will make a mess of it!.

depends on how many of them you import, you’ll have to fix this by manually editing each photo with special tools (”iPhoto” had a basic one built-in, I’m not sure “Photos” does, I never use it) and it’s really a pain in the butt, to put it mildly.

this happened to my library that I carefully collected and organized for decades!

this problem will affect any photo viewer on any platform and most people that didn’t use photo managers, or always used Apple to manage it for them are not affected until they import non-original copies into it. the same happens if you edit photos directly on your phone between apps. some will edit/override the original metadata or offer you so save the edit as separate copy, which will have the date/time the new editted copy was made.

In order to prevent this, you must make sure you transfer the originals or create identical copies, not just copies!

This is also how Apple locks you in, if you ever decide to leave them or want to stop using iCloud!

If you turn off iCloud for the photos on your iPhone, depends on how you configured iCloud. the default settings saves the masters to iCloud. if you decide you don’t want your photos sent to iCloud and try to toggle it to off. you’ll have a popup window saying something along the lines of “this will remove all photos from this device, and kept on iCloud”.

Now, here’s the catch. when that happened to me a couple of years ago, I wanted to get my originals. So I logged into iCloud on my Mac using a web browser and opened the photos section. I tried to select a batch of photos and copy them over to the Mac - not possible! it only allowed me copying one at a time! (that’s how it was then, not sure if it’s still the case. you definitely want to verify this before disabling on your phone!)

the original photos stored in iCloud has meaningless gibberish filenames, it’s impossible to keep track of which ones you already copied, and which not in case of hundreds or thousands of them. it took me months little by little...

These walled gardens are convenient only when you use them exactly how they intended you to use it. it’s like a piece of cheese in a mouse trap.

Apple managed to mess up my life’s collections of photos, videos and large music collection, also documents and other files over the years.

luckily, I was always organized and kept copies and backups in dated and by artist - albums folders..

That still did’t save me from spending many hours to correct the mess, comparing backups to messed up files.

iCloud proved to be a useless mess when I needed it, and I no longer trust their systems with my valuable data.

the iPhone / iTunes backup works only for backup/restore of all or nothing. there’s no way to search/access anything in it.

if you find something important is missing on your device, the only way to get to it, is creating a full backup of your device in iTunes, then do a whole restore of previous backups until you find it, save It externally, then restore your device to your latest backup.

This just happened to me upgrading to the latest iOS 15. some applications will not install, just sit there on the homepage. trying to force a download pops up a message “app is no longer in the app store” or “the developer needs to update their app”, and if you didn’t want the app to save files to iCloud, your data is lost.

after the mess with my photos collection and finally downloading the originals, I looked for a solution that will allow me to control and configure the backing up without depending/being locked into Apple’s mechanisms or anyone else anymore.

I have no affiliation in any shape or form and I’m not in any sales or promotion business.

I just read your question and that reminded me of what I had to go thru, and want to help you and others avoid what I went through.

Ok, so I found an app that solves this problem and more!

It offers transferring photos/videos to and from the phone photo library in many ways.

for the non-techi user, they have a companion app you install on your pc/mac that helps you select the destination/source folders, to set it once, and just run the transfer/backup any time you wish to do so.

but that’s not all, it has many cloud services (obviously, not private), flash drives, WebDAV, FTP, digital cameras and professional camera drives that can all be configured individually!

so basically, it’s a complete backup/transfer solution to and from almost anything, fully controlled by you!

the app is “PhotoSync” in the app store, it’s a paid app, with tiers based on your needs. my guess is the people behind it are in the photography business, because it’s robust and well thought and implemented, not amateurish...

and allows you to control and transfer your original copies to and from anywhere you wish, in a click of a button once you set it up.

hope my tips will help you and others.

good luck

There’s a utility in macOS that just imports the photos to a folder over a lightning connection.

You can use the built-in ImageCapture app: https://appuals.com/find-image-capture-mac/

You can try iMazing. Works similar to iTunes (I guess), but is not an Apple product.

Hi, to transfer photos from iPhone to Macbook without using iTunes, iCloud or iPhotos, try Image Capture, iMessage, Email, Coolmuster iOS Assistant, Dropbox, etc. Here, I will take iMessage for example:

1. Go to the Photos app of your iPhone, choose photos you want to transfer from iPhone to Mac, then tap on Share.

2. Choose iMessage, type Email in the window, and send.

3. Open iMessage on Mac and download.

About the other ways, you can search for the details online. Hope this will be your help.

One possible solution is to AirDrop your photos from your phone to your MacBook. This should store your photos in the Downloads folder.

Many ways to do it, e.g. via Finder, iCloud, Airdrop or Image Capture:

1. Finder: Connect iPhone to Mac with USB cable > On Mac, open Finder > In sidebar (devices), click on iPhone > Photos > Sync Photos > make selection > Apply.

2. iCloud (Provided you have enough space in iCloud): Set up iCloud Photos Sharing on Mac and iPhone, the photos will sync automatically.

3. AirDrop (For small batches): Set up AirDrop on your Mac as well as iPhone. Then open Photos on iPhone > Select photos > tap Sharing icon > AirDrop (Mac) > On Mac you’ll get a message asking whether to accept incoming files > Accept.

4) Image Capture: Connect iPhone to Mac with USB cable > On Mac, open Image Capture app (comes pre-installed on all Macs) > In sidebar (devices), click iPhone > Import To > specify destination (where to save photos) > Select photos > Click Import or Import All.

if both are logged into the same icloud account they should sync up with one another already.

If it’s the same AppleID, all devices should sync photos from iCloud.

Connect your phone to your Mac. If you are running Catalina, select your phone from a Finder window. You should see a list of options at the top of the window: General, Music, Movies, etc. Click on Photos. Select Sync photos to your device. You have options from there to select Albums, People, etc. It works best to create an Album first in Photos in my option.

If you are not running Catalina, the instructions are basically the same except you launch iTunes instead of opening a Finder window.

Try AirDrop

cant u do it with image capture? or it only works from iphone-> mac?

From iPhone to Mac or from Mac to iPhone? Title and description are different ;)

If from Mac to iPhone, then you can sync them through Finder/iTunes only in case of USB. Without USB -- Google Photos/iCloud/AirDrop.

Use image capure app. There is import menu there.

Guide https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/image-capture/imgcp1003/mac

Filebrowser Pro on the iPhone, connected to the Mac via network sharing.

i do it exactly the way you're not interested in. I air play them to my laptop and copy them to an external driver/upload to my cloud storage.

https://libimobiledevice.org

IMazing

https://preview.redd.it/w5th9ed198we1.png?width=1602&format=png&auto=webp&s=757594b3c1e70a534b25ccbe6c50e5ae14cb8e44

One method is to use the Image Capture app that comes with all our Macs. We can select the photos that we want, even if our Photos app in our iPhones sync with iCloud, and choose the destination.

I've chosen a couple photos in my iPhone's Photos app with the phone connected to the Mac and Image Capture open. For destination, I clicked on Other and have navigated to one of my connected external drives, and a folder on that drive.

There isn't any need to first download to the Mac itself.

1. Keep all photos in iCloud and in extension easily access them from iPhone and Mac. You will need to pay for whatever storage you need for house all photos.
2. Export photos out from iCloud Photos using your Mac and store them in a different - local - photo library that will not sync to iCloud. You will have access from iPhone to whatever photos that remain in iCloud.

That’s not how it works. Your iCloud storage is not to offload or archive. It syncs your devices so you have copies in multiple locations as a backup, and so you have access to the same files, photos, and data from any device.

Now, you can select to optimize the photo storage on your phone to reduce the storage footprint, but it’s not for dumping photos from one device to another.

Just be aware that iCloud does not count as a backup in the recommended 3-2-1 backup plan. Almost daily posts from people who have lost some or all of their photos as they did not have backups.

One method I used when I couldn't take it any more is to use Photos on my mac. Back up the phone first with a usb cable and Finder.

Basically, since photos sync between all devices, if you turn off icloud syncing for the photos, you can create a new blank library and change that to default, leaving your old library on the Mac with Time Machine to back it up. Then remove photos from your iphone. When you turn syncing back on the mac and open Photos, you see only the iphone synced photos, not the ones you deleted (they are still in the old library).

Mind, I probably lost photos over time. i extracted the originals I wanted to keep and used Time Machine, but I lost some when I transferred to a new mac. That is your vulnerability, if you manually manage all the photos.

Set the iphone to 'optimize storage' and the mac to 'download originals to this device' in your photos iclould settings. Then use time machine or another form of backup for your macbook.