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Can't transfer photos from laptop to android.

Lana Luhm 0 Reputation points
2025-11-20T17:57:27.6133333+00:00

For some reason all of my photos on my Android phone have disappeared up until January of 2025. From January up until now are fine. I located all of my photos in Google Photos on my laptop and transferred them to a zip file folder.

I cannot figure out how to transfer the photos from the zip file back onto my phone.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage
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  1. Francisco Montilla 30,635 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-11-20T20:54:47.65+00:00

    Hi Lana,

    The easiest way is to put the photos back into Google Photos from your PC, then let the Google Photos app on your phone sync them down. You do not need to move the zip straight onto the phone.

    On your Windows PC, right click the .zip and choose Extract All, then finish the wizard so you have a normal folder full of images. In a browser on the PC, open photos.google.com and sign in with the same Google account you use on the phone. Click Upload at the top right, choose Computer, select the extracted photos or the whole folder, and start the upload. Leave the tab open until it shows the upload is finished.

    On your Android phone, open the Google Photos app, tap your profile picture and confirm it is the same account. Make sure Backup is On. Go back to the Photos tab and pull down to refresh. The images will appear sorted by their original dates, so scroll back to 2024 and earlier to confirm they are there.

    If you would rather have the pictures saved into the phone's local Gallery app instead, or you are using iPhone... tell me and I will walk you through a new path.

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  2. Lana Luhm 0 Reputation points
    2025-11-22T19:26:25.1666667+00:00

    Well, I got the photos back on my Android phone but they went to the Gallery instead of to Photos. I prefer they got o Photos but can't figure out how to move them there.

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  3. AI answer

    2025-11-20T17:58:45.3233333+00:00

    To transfer photos from a zip file on your laptop back to your Android phone, you can follow these steps:

    1. Extract the Zip File: First, you need to extract the contents of the zip file. Right-click on the zip file and select "Extract All" or use a file extraction tool to unzip the folder. This will create a new folder with all your photos.
    2. Connect Your Phone to the Laptop: Use a USB cable to connect your Android phone to your laptop. Make sure your phone is unlocked.
    3. Select File Transfer Mode: On your Android device, you may see a notification about the USB connection. Tap on it and select "File Transfer" or "MTP" mode.
    4. Copy Photos to Your Phone: Open the folder where you extracted your photos on your laptop. Select the photos you want to transfer, right-click, and choose "Copy". Then, navigate to your phone's storage (usually under "This PC" > Your Phone's Name > Internal Storage or DCIM folder) and right-click to "Paste" the photos into the desired folder on your phone.
    5. Eject Your Phone: After the transfer is complete, safely eject your phone from the laptop before disconnecting the USB cable.

    Now, you should be able to access the transferred photos on your Android phone.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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