AirDrop makes it easy to send videos between your iPhone and your Mac, but big files can push it past its limits. If you’ve ever tried to send a long 4K video or something like a feature film from your camera roll, only to watch the transfer stall or fail, you’re not alone. AirDrop isn’t always reliable, especially with multi-gigabyte files.
That’s where one of MacOS’ built-in, often overlooked tools comes in: Image Capture. It’s wired, fast and works, even when AirDrop doesn’t. In this guide, I’ll show you how to use Image Capture to transfer large video files or photos directly from your iPhone to your Mac without relying on AirDrop.
Transfer large video files between your iPhone and Mac
Using a compatible iPhone cable, connect your iPhone to your Mac. Once you’re plugged in, unlock your iPhone and tap Trust This Computer if prompted.
Next, on your Mac, hit Command + Space and type Image Capture, or just find it in the Applications folder. This built-in utility is super lightweight and doesn’t try to sync or convert your media. You can just drag and drop what you want, quickly.
Click on your iPhone in the left-hand sidebar, under Devices, and you’ll see a list of all the photos and videos in your camera roll. Scroll through and look for the large video files you want to export — you can sort by file size or capture date to make it easier to find what you’re looking for.
At the bottom of the window, choose where you want the files saved on your Mac. Then select the video or videos and then click Import. You can also use Import All if you want to import your entire camera roll to your computer.
I imported a 3GB file with AirDrop, which took approximately 1 minute and 37 seconds. The same file, imported with Image Capture, took 1 minute, 17 seconds — roughly 20 seconds quicker than AirDrop.
Note: You can only transfer from iPhone to Mac with Image Transfer, not the other way around.
So why use Image Capture over AirDrop?
Image Capture isn’t just faster than AirDrop for moving photos and videos, it’s also significantly more reliable. It doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, just a simple wired connection between your iPhone and Mac.
And that makes a big difference, especially when dealing with large files. In my experience, AirDrop consistently struggles with massive transfers, like full-length movies or high-res TV episodes. That’s where Image Capture beats out AirDrop.
For quick photo transfers or a few short clips, I still use AirDrop — mainly because it’s wireless and convenient. But I plug in and launch Image Capture when I need something dependable for large video files. It’s a no-fuss solution that just works.
