Use your iPhone or iPad as a USB drive on Mac or PC

Learn how to turn your iPhone or iPad into a wired or wireless thumb drive to store and transfer files between your Mac or Windows PC.

The basics

Several iOS apps show up as potential locations to save files in Finder on Mac and the Apple Devices app on Windows PC.

Using these apps, you can keep any file you want on your iPhone or iPad, including files that are incompatible with iOS or with third-party iOS apps. In other words, regardless of the file format, these apps can save your Word files, PDFs, ZIP, DMG, APK, MP3, MP4, MKV, AVI, Photoshop files, Sketch files, or anything else.

Now, before we move forward, you must download an iOS app on your iPhone or iPad that will show inside Finder or the Apple Devices app on a Mac or PC. The app has to be one that works with File Sharing. I’ve listed some of these apps below. You can try a few and decide which one works best for you. If your only goal is to store the files, any one of them will work fine.

• Apple’s iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Keynote, or Numbers
• Documents
• VLC
• Infuse
• Secure FileManager (allows you to put a password lock on the app)
• Files Go
• Total
• iFiles

I use VLC and iMovie, as I trust them more.

Use iPhone or iPad as a USB drive on Mac or Windows PC

1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC using an appropriate cable. If you’re using a Mac laptop with Apple silicon, you’ll see an alert asking you to allow the accessory to connect. Click Allow.
2. Open Finder on Mac or Apple Devices on Windows PC. Note that you’ll have to use iTunes if your Mac is running macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, or if your PC is running Windows 7 or earlier. The Apple Devices app is a free download from the Microsoft Store and needs Windows 10 or later.
3. Locate your iPhone or iPad by selecting it in the sidebar of Finder or the Apple Devices app. If you’re in iTunes, click the Device button near the top-left corner of the iTunes window.
4. If this is your first time connecting your iPhone or iPad to this computer, unlock the device and enter your passcode if you have one. Then select your device in Finder or the Apple Devices app and click Trust. (In iTunes, click Continue instead.) If your Mac shows a dialog asking you to trust the device, select Trust This iPhone or Trust This iPad. Finally, on your iPhone or iPad, tap Trust to confirm that you allow the computer to access your data. Once you do this, you authorize your iOS device to trust the concerned Mac or PC, thereby allowing an exchange of data between the devices.
5. With the initial setup completed, bring your attention back to Finder or the Apple Devices app and go to the Files section. On a Mac, click Files in the row near the top of the window. On a Windows PC, select Files in the sidebar.
6. You’ll see the iOS app you downloaded earlier. Make sure the Finder (or Apple Devices) window isn’t taking up the entire screen, and open the computer folder where you have the files you want to store on your iPhone or iPad.
7. Drag the file or selection of files from the computer folder onto the app name in the Files list. The files are transferred to your device right away and you don’t need to run a sync afterwards, although larger files will take some time to copy.
8. Once done, eject your iPhone by clicking the Eject button in the Finder sidebar (or in the sidebar of the Apple Devices app) before you disconnect the cable.

You have successfully moved files from your Mac or PC to your iPhone or iPad.

Where to find the stored files on your iPhone

The files you transfer using the above steps can appear in the following locations.

Option 1: Inside the iOS app

If the files you transferred are compatible with the app, or if the app is a file manager, you can access the files within the app itself. Look for a folder or section named iTunes, Files, File Sharing, Computer, or something similar. For example, if you transfer a PDF to the Documents app, it can open it. Similarly, if you store an MKV, MP4, or AVI file in the VLC app, it can play it.

Option 2: Inside the Apple Files app

Go to the On My iPhone or On My iPad section of the Files app, and you may see a folder that has the same name as the iOS app. You should see the files you transferred from your Mac or PC here.

Option 3: Only when connected to a computer

It’s also possible that you may not see the files inside the concerned app or the Files app, because depending on the file type, some apps can’t open files in other apps or locations. However, rest assured that your data is saved on your iPhone or iPad. You can access it when you connect your device to a Mac or PC and navigate to the Files section (explained below).

Move the files from your iPhone or iPad to a computer

1. If you want to access those files on a Mac or PC in the future, follow steps 1 to 6 mentioned above. If it’s the same computer, you won’t have to go through the entire trust process again. But for a different computer, you’ll have to authorize it.
2. Now, head to the Files section in Finder or the Apple Devices app.
3. Click the arrow beside the app name in Finder to see the files already transferred to your device. On a Windows PC, select the app from the list. You’ll see all the saved files here.
4. Drag the files from Finder (or the Apple Devices app window) to a folder on your computer.

Delete the files

You can delete the stored files from your iPhone or computer.

From iPhone

Open the concerned app or the Files app where these files are saved. From here, select and delete them.

Aside from that, if you delete the app where the files are saved, it automatically removes all the files stored inside it. For instance, if I delete the Documents app, all the files and folders I have saved there will be removed — and they’re removed from your backup as well, so copy anything you want to keep to your computer first.

From computer

1. Access the files saved on your iPhone or iPad inside Mac’s Finder or PC’s Apple Devices app.
2. Select the files under the app name, press Command-Delete on a Mac or Control-Delete on a Windows PC, then click Delete to confirm. The files are removed from the device immediately.

Use iPhone or iPad as a wireless USB drive

In the above steps, you saw how to copy files from a computer to an iPhone or iPad and vice versa via a Lightning or USB-C cable.

You can also enable wireless access after successfully connecting your iPhone or iPad to your computer. Once you do that, your iPhone or iPad will appear inside Finder or the Apple Devices app when both your iPhone/iPad and computer are on the same Wi-Fi network.

1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with a USB or USB-C cable and complete the trust process described above.
2. Select your iPhone or iPad in Mac’s Finder or PC’s Apple Devices app.
3. On a Mac, click General in the row near the top of the window. On a Windows PC, select General in the sidebar. Then select the ‘Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi‘ checkbox.
4. Click Apply.

You have successfully set your iPhone/iPad to appear inside Finder/Apple Devices app when both the iPhone/iPad and Mac/Windows PC are on the same Wi-Fi network. From now on, you won’t need a cable to transfer files between devices, though syncing over Wi-Fi is slower than syncing over a cable.

Important note: Keep your iPhone or iPad screen awake and unlocked during the wireless transfer. The transfer will fail if the device locks. For example, if you’re transferring a 3 GB movie file from your computer to your iPhone, it may take a few minutes. If your iPhone locks during the transfer, it could fail, and you’ll need to restart the process.

See also: How to access a USB drive with iPhone or iPad