How to Get a Picture From an Android Phone to a Windows 8 PC

By Nick Peers

The quality of the picture depends on the phone's camera.
i Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

All Android smartphones have a built-in camera, so they can take pictures and store them on the SD card. You can transfer a picture from your Android device to your Windows 8 computer using the USB cable. You could also email the picture, but you need Internet access on both the phone and the computer, as well as an email account set up on the phone, to succeed. You don't need to install additional software on your computer to connect to the Android phone. Windows 8 is able to install the drivers for your device as soon as you connect it to the computer.

Step 1

Connect the Android phone to your computer by using the USB cable that came with the phone.

Step 2

Tap "USB Storage" on the phone and then tap "OK" to confirm. Windows 8 detects the phone in a matter of seconds and installs the correct drivers in less than one minute. It then assigns a new drive to your phone.

Step 3

Click "Open folder to view files" when the AutoPlay window appears. If the window does not appear, press "Windows-X," choose "File Explorer" from the Power User menu and then select the new drive in File Explorer to view the contents of the phone.

Step 4

Double-click the "DCIM" folder and then double-click the "Camera" folder to view all pictures on the Android phone.

Step 5

Select the picture you want to transfer to the computer and press "Ctrl-C" to copy the picture to the clipboard. To view picture thumbnails, right-click on an empty spot in the folder, choose "View" and click "Tiles."

Step 6

Navigate to the folder in which you want to store the image and press "Ctrl-V" to paste the image from the clipboard into the folder.

Step 7

Right-click the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" icon in the system tray and choose "Eject Phone_Name" from the menu to disconnect from the phone.

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