download my photos from my Android phone to my Mac

Hi,

In an article Move content manually from your Android device to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support, an app called Android File Transfer (link provided) is mentioned in connection with Mac. However, this article is published November 30, 2020 and does not mention macOS Big Sur.

There is always a certain risk with any file transfer. Data may be lost. So, before doing anything else, it may be wise to create multiple backup copies of all your photos, directly from your Android phone, on memory cards and/or USB storage devices. If you already have access to a Windows PC, copy files to that computer, too.

If you are using a Mac running macOS Big Sur, and if you do not have an earlier Mac, it would probably be a good idea to wait for comments/replies here about compatibility.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smarterdroid.wififiletransfer

WiFi file transfer is installed on your Android device: it acts as a server - when turned on it gives you a URL you can type into any browser to access your device, and you can navigate to where the photos are kept and download them. As you are using a browser it should work with any system.

The URL it gives you is http://192.168.0.24:1234 which is on your local network and not available outside.

Your photos will probably be in the 'Pictures' folder (off the bottom of the screen in that screenshot)

Selecting photos and clicking the 'Download' button will download the photos.

The app is free. (I have no connection with this firm.)

Another option is to use a cloud storage service like Dropbox (there are others) to upload your photos to, from your phone. Then you can download them to your Mac. Some of these cloud services provide nominal free space (you can purchase more above the free amount) and are optimized for photos storage.

Note that the creation date assigned to images transferred to the Mac by means other than Apple's Image Capture utility will not be the internal EXIF DateTimeOriginal, but the current date/system time of the transfer.

Using Dropbox or similar has the advantage that you can upload photos while you are away from home, for retrieval later: however there is of course a cost associated with doing this since you would be using mobile data.

At home, the advantage of WiFi File Transfer over Dropbox is that it's a single process from the device straight to the Mac, and as it's local it's fast; as opposed to uploading and then downloading over the internet.