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Phone to computer
Send files from your phone to a computer — no cable, no app, no account
Updated 2026-08-08 · 6 min read
Short answer
On the phone, open sendxa.app, tap the drop area and pick the photos or files — the page gives you a 9-digit ID and a 6-digit code. On the computer, open the same address, choose Receive, enter the two numbers, and download. Files arrive at full original quality with no compression, no cable and no app, in any phone-and-computer combination including iPhone to Windows.
This is the one people search for most, and it is the one the platforms have made hardest. An iPhone plugged into a Windows PC is a negotiation. An Android plugged into a Mac needs a helper app that has been half-abandoned for years. And messaging the photos to yourself quietly ruins them: most chat apps re-encode images and video on the way through, so what lands on the computer is not what came out of the camera.
The browser route has neither problem. No cable, and no re-encoding — the bytes that arrive are the bytes that left.
How to do it
On the phone, open sendxa.app in Safari or Chrome. The Send tab is already selected.
Tap the drop area. The phone offers its photo library and its file browser — pick as many items as you want.
The page shows a 9-digit ID and a 6-digit code.
On the computer, open the same address, click Receive, and type the two numbers. If the computer is yours, tap Copy link on the phone and send yourself the link instead.
Click Download all on the computer, and leave the phone's page open and the screen awake until it finishes.
Full quality, and what that actually means
Nothing on this path touches the contents of the file. That has consequences worth being ready for on an iPhone.
- Photos come across as HEIC if that is how the iPhone saved them, and videos as HEVC. Windows may need the free HEIF and HEVC extensions from the Microsoft Store to preview them, though most editing software opens them directly.
- To avoid that entirely, change the iPhone setting under Settings, Camera, Formats to Most Compatible, which saves new photos as JPEG and video as H.264.
- Live Photos are two files — a still and a short video. Both come across if you select them, and they arrive as two separate items.
- Original EXIF data, including the date and the location if you left it on, stays in the file. If that is not what you want, strip it before sending.
Sending a lot of photos at once
Up to 500 files in a single session, and you can keep adding more without the ID or the code changing — pick a first batch, start it, and add the rest while it runs.
On the receiving computer, Chrome and Edge write each file straight to a folder you choose, so a hundred photos land where you want them rather than piling into Downloads. If you would rather have one item to deal with, zip them on the phone first — the Files app on iOS can compress a selection, and most Android file managers do the same.
Speed, and the thing that actually limits it
Get both devices onto the same Wi-Fi. The two browsers then connect directly and the data never leaves the network — on a measured 6 MB test that route took 3.6 seconds where relaying through the server took 42.2.
If a direct connection cannot be made and the transfer has to relay, the limit is the phone's upload speed, which on mobile data is usually the slowest link in the chain by a wide margin. This is the case where being on Wi-Fi is not just a nicety.
Against the usual alternatives
| Method | Keeps original quality | Needs an app or cable | iPhone to Windows |
|---|
| Chat app to yourself | No, usually recompressed | App already installed | Yes |
| Email to yourself | Yes | No | Under 25 MB |
| USB cable | Yes | Cable, and drivers on Windows | Awkward |
| iCloud / Google Photos | Yes, with the right settings | Account on both ends | Yes, after sync |
| Browser transfer | Yes | No | Yes |
Questions people actually ask
How do I transfer photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC without iTunes?
Open sendxa.app in Safari on the iPhone, tap the drop area and select the photos, then enter the ID and code on the PC and download. No iTunes, no cable, and the photos keep their original quality.
Will my photos be compressed?
No. The files arrive identical to the originals. Nothing is re-encoded or resized in transit, which is the main way this differs from sending them through a chat app.
Why do my iPhone photos open as HEIC files on the PC?
Because that is the format the iPhone saved them in and nothing on the way changed it. Install the free HEIF extension from the Microsoft Store, or set the iPhone to Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats so new photos are saved as JPEG.
Does the phone screen have to stay on?
Yes, in practice. A locked phone suspends the browser tab and the transfer stalls until you wake it. It picks up where it left off, but it will not progress while the screen is off.
Can I send a video that is several gigabytes?
Yes, up to 32.0 GB per file. If the connection breaks it resumes from where it stopped instead of starting over, which is what makes files that size realistic from a phone.
Does this work on Android as well?
Yes. Chrome on Android, Safari on iPhone, or anything else modern — the page does not care which phone it is running on, or which computer is receiving.
Try it with the file you are stuck on right now
Open the page on both devices, pick the file, read out two numbers. Nothing to install, no account, and the file never rests on our server.
Send a file now →