How to transfer files from a USB flash drive to a PC on Windows 10

On Windows 10, you can quickly transfer files and folders from a USB flash drive (thumb drive) to your computer, and you can also export files to removable storage devices to share them with others or create a copy for backup purposes.

This guide will walk you through the easy steps to transfer files to and from a USB flash drive to Windows 10.

How to import files from USB flash drive to Windows 10

To copy files from a USB flash drive to your computer running Windows 10, use these steps:

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Click on This PC from the left pane.
  3. Connect the removable drive to your computer’s USB port.

Quick tip: If you get a toast notification, click it and select the “Open folder to view files” option.

  1. Under the “Devices and drives” section, double-click the USB flash drive to see its data.
(Image credit: Future)
  1. Select the files and folders.
  2. Click the “Copy to” button from the “Home” tab.
  3. Click the Choose location option.
(Image credit: Future)
  1. Select the folder to import files from a flash drive to your computer.
  2. Click the Copy button.
(Image credit: Future)

Once you complete the steps, the files will copy from the removable drive to the computer.

When importing and exporting files, it’s usually safer to perform a “copy” instead of a “move” action to prevent losing the files if there’s a problem during the transfer. However, once you verify that the files have been copied successfully, you can select and delete all the contents from the USB flash drive.

If you have a microSD card with files and don’t have an SD card reader slot on your computer, you can purchase a card reader (opens in new tab) to convert the microSD card into a USB storage.

Import pictures to the Photos app

If you have a flash drive with a bunch of pictures, you can quickly copy them to your computer using the import option available in the Photos app.

To import pictures with the Photos app, use these steps:

  1. Open Photos.
  2. Connect the removable drive to the computer’s USB port.
  3. Click the Import button from the top-right.
  4. Select the “From a connected device” option.
(Image credit: Future)
  1. Choose the drive to import from.
(Image credit: Future)
  1. Check the images to import or use the “Select” setting and choose the “Items since last import” option.
  2. Click the Import items button.
(Image credit: Future)

After you complete the steps, the pictures in the removable media will be imported to the Pictures folders inside the OneDrive folder.

How to export files to USB flash drive from Windows 10

To export files from your computer to a USB flash drive, use these steps:

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Click on This PC from the left pane.
  3. Connect the removable drive to your computer’s USB port.
  4. Under the “Devices and drives” section, open the drive with the files you want to copy.
  5. Select the files and folders.

Quick tip: You can use the “Ctrl + A” keyboard shortcut to select all the files. Or press and hold the “Ctrl” key and click the files you want to select with the mouse.

  1. Click the Copy to button from the “Home” tab.
  2. Click the Choose location option.
(Image credit: Future)
  1. Select the folder to export files from your computer to a flash drive.
  2. Click the Copy button.
(Image credit: Future)

Once you complete the steps, the files you selected from your computer will transfer to a USB thumb drive. (If you no longer need the transferred files, you can always delete them from your computer.)

If you don’t have enough space to export your files, you can always purchase another removable drive, such as the SanDisk Extreme Go (CZ800), which comes with 128GB of space to store large files and small backups.

More resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 or Windows 11, visit the following resources:

  • Windows 11 on Windows Central — All you need to know
  • Windows 10 on Windows Central — All you need to know 

— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article How to Transfer Photos from Flash Drive or USB to iPhone from the website www.imobie.com for the keyword how to download pictures from flash drive.

If you download some pictures from your computer at the office or from your friends’ computer, you may store them on your flash drive or USB. Then when you got home, you may want to transfer the photos from your flash drive to your new iPhone 12 for viewing.

At this moment, you may want to know whether it can transfer from the flash drive to an iPhone or not. The answer is YES. Here in this post, we will show you how to transfer photos from flash drive/USB to iPhone.  Let’s check it.

Transfer Photos from Flash Drive to iPhone with iTunes

For iOS users, iTunes can be a good tool for us to sync photos to iPhone on both Mac and Windows computers. However, as you might know, while syncing photos from flash drive/USB to iPhone, your current media content on iPhone shall be erased and replaced with the iTunes library on your computer.

Moreover, for users who have enabled the iCloud photo library,  you have to turn it off before transferring photos to iPhone via iTunes. In this case, your iCloud photos on iPhone shall be erased. Or you can choose to download all your iCloud photos to your iPhone, which would occupy large storage on your iPhone.

Now, let’s check how to transfer pictures from a USB flash drive to an iPhone with iTunes:

  1. Launch iTunes on your Mac or PC. Make sure it is the latest version.
  2. Connect your iPhone to the computer using a USB cable that comes with your iPhone.
  3. Click the Device icon on iTunes.
  4. Then click Photos, check the box next to “Sync Photos”.
  5. Navigate to the folder of photos you want to transfer to your iPhone from the flash drive.
  6. Click on the “Apply” button to import your desired photos from flash drive to iPhone.

How to Transfer Photos from Flash Drive to iPhone with iTunes

Transfer Photos from Flash Drive/USB to iPhone with AnyTrans

If you are tired of using iTunes to transfer and managing your photos on your iOS device, you may want to know how do I transfer files from USB to iPhone without iTunes. AnyTrans is one all-in-one iOS data transfer tool that can help you move data like photos, contacts, and music from a Flash Drive/USB to an iPhone or iPad. It also supports transferring data to an iPhone 12/12 mini/12 Pro/12 Pro max. It can also transfer photos from iPhone to flash drive with a few clicks.

Now, download AnyTrans on your computer and then follow the steps below to transfer photos from the flash drive to iPhone.

Click on Device Manager on Anytrans Homepage

Step 2. Tap on My Photos and click on the Add button to add photos from the USB/Flash Drive.

Add Photos to iPhone

Select Photos You Want to Add

Transfer Photos from Flash Drive to iPhone with iCloud

If you are used to using iCloud to store and manage your iPhone photos or other iOS data, you can also transfer photos from Flash Drive to iPhone with iCloud. It will take a few minutes to complete the whole process. Now please take patience to take the following steps:

  1. Log in to your iCloud account on the iCloud official website on your computer.
  2. Upload your photos from your flash drive or USB to iCloud.
  3. On your iPhone, navigate to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud , and then turn on iCloud photos.
  4. Sync the updated photos with iCloud.

This solution might be more time-consuming but you are also expected to manage your iCloud photos with AnyTrans’s iCloud Manager. Next time, when you want to share photos between your iPhone and iCloud, you can also download AnyTrans to take a try.

Click Photos Category under iCloud Manager

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The Bottom Line

Besides transferring photos from flash drive or USB to iPhone, with AnyTrans you can also transfer files from a flash drive or USB to iPhone. For example, you can easily transfer music from Flash Drive to iPhone.

So now download AnyTrans on your computer, more advantages of AnyTrans you will find. For this article, if you have any questions, please be free to contact us by Email or giving your precious comments in the below section.

— Update: 19-03-2023 — us.suanoncolosence.com found an additional article [3 Ways] How to Transfer Photos from Windows 11 to USB Stick? from the website moviemaker.minitool.com for the keyword how to download pictures from flash drive.

The following contents also apply to Windows 10/8.1/8/7 with some differences in the location of the options.

Nowadays, we have many devices to store digital data like photos, videos, music, documents, applications, etc. Usually, we keep our work data on the computer at the office while saving private data on the PC at home. Yet, what if you need to take your work home to continue working?

You may directly send the needed files to yourself through social communication apps or by email when you are at the office. Then, when you go home, just log into your account and receive those files and store them on the home computer.

However, if there is a large size of data that needs to be transferred and you need to not only use it at home but also in some other places, you may need to transfer them into a USB flash drive and take it anywhere you go.

Then, how to transfer photos from Windows 11 to USB stick (for example)? There are several ways.

How Do I Transfer Photos from My Computer to a USB Stick – Copy & Paste

First of all, you can take advantage of the most common way that nearly all compute users know to help you transfer pictures. That is copy and paste.

  1. Insert the USB stick into the USB port on your device.
  2. Open Windows File Explorer and find where the photos that you would like to transfer are.
  3. Right-click on one of the target photos and select Copy.
  4. Move to the USB flash drive, right-click on any blank area and choose Paste.
  5. Wait for the process to complete.
  6. Repeat the operations to transfer all the target images.

If you have many graphics that need to be transferred, it is troublesome to transfer them one by one. Thus, you can transfer them quickly by adopting either of the below methods.

  • Put all photos that you want to transfer in a folder and copy & paste the folder in one time.
  • Put all target photos in one location, select them all, then copy and paste them at one time.

For the copy-and-paste action, you can use keyboard shortcuts to replace the options. “Ctrl + C” can replace copy and “Ctrl + V” can replace paste. Or, just click the Copy/Paste option on the toolbar.

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If you don’t need to keep the source photos in their original location, you can cut (Ctrl + X) and paste them into the target USB disk. In this way, the time needed to complete the transmission will be shorter.

How to Transfer Photos from Computer to USB Flash Drive – Drag & Drop

Secondly, you can directly drag the target pictures to the destination.

Step 1. Connect your USB hard disk to your PC.

Step 2. Open File Explorer and go to the location where the source photos locate.

Step 3. Open the USB flash drive in Windows Explorer.

Step 4. Shrink both explorer windows and put them side by side on your desktop.

Step 5. Left-click on the target photo(s) in the source explorer, press and hold the left-click key on your mouse, drag the photo(s) to the USB explorer, and release the mouse key.

Thus, the target photos have successfully been copied to the destination USB drive.

How to Transfer Photos from Computer to USB Memory Stick – Send To

Finally, you can make use of the “send to” feature in file explorer to copy your photos from your local computer to a removable USB hard disk drive.

  1. Plug the USB drive into your computer.
  2. Right-click on the target photo(s) and select Send to. If you can’t see the “Send to” option, just choose Show more options and you will see it in the next right-click menu.
  3. Further select your USB stick as the destination.

Isn’t it easy how to transfer photos from Windows 11 to USB stick? The above solutions apply to all computers running Win11 including desktops, laptops, notebooks, and so on.

Videos/Audio/Photos Management Tools Recommended

These applications are completely compatible with Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7.

MiniTool MovieMaker

An easy-to-use and free video editing software without watermarks. The embedded templates enable you to quickly make personal slideshows and share them with your friends!

Free Download

MiniTool uTube Downloader

Free download YouTube videos, audio, and subtitles without ads or bundles. It can operate multiple tasks simultaneously at a high speed and supports multiple file formats.

Free Download

MiniTool Video Converter

Quickly convert videos and audio from one file format to another to apply to more devices. It supports 1000+ popular output formats and batch conversion. Besides, it can also record PC screens without any watermark.

Free Download

Also read: 

  • Import Photos/Videos from iPhone/iPad/iPod to Windows 11
  • [5 Ways] How to Edit Photos in Windows 11/10/8/7?
  • [2 Ways] How to Find/Delete/Remove Duplicate Photos Windows 11?
  • [Step-by-Step Graphic Guide] How to Crop a Photo on iPhone/iPad?
  • [2 Ways] How to Tag Photos in Windows 11 with Photo Tagger?

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-transfer-files-usb-flash-drive-pc-windows-10

Article post on: us.suanoncolosence.com

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