How to Sync iPhone Screenshots to Your Mac — and Mac Screenshots to Your iPhone
CloudShots keeps one private screenshot history across iPhone, iPad and Mac through iCloud. Once it is installed and signed in to the same iCloud account on each device, a screenshot moves both ways automatically — no AirDrop, no export, no manual transfer.
Get iPhone screenshots on your Mac
- Install CloudShots on your iPhone and give Photos full access when onboarding asks — iOS hides the Screenshots album under limited access.
- CloudShots imports that album in the background and syncs each screenshot privately through iCloud.
- Install CloudShots on your Mac and sign in to the same iCloud account. The imported iPhone screenshots appear in the Mac panel automatically, with no folder to check and nothing to drag over.
Get Mac screenshots on your iPhone
- On your Mac, confirm the folder your screenshots already go to — Desktop is pre-selected — and grant CloudShots access once.
- Every screenshot you take on the Mac joins the same history and syncs through iCloud.
- Open CloudShots on your iPhone or iPad, signed in to the same iCloud account. The Mac screenshot is already there — no export, no AirDrop, no email to yourself.
What actually moves, and what doesn't
- The screenshot's image and its history record sync through iCloud — the same private container CloudShots uses for everything.
- iOS and iPadOS only ever import what the system already captured to the Screenshots album; CloudShots does not take screenshots on those devices.
- macOS is the one platform CloudShots captures on directly, in addition to importing the folder you choose.
The limits
- Sync is free on both plans. Free limits which screenshots you can open — the newest 30 — not which ones sync.
- Without iCloud nothing crosses devices; capture, import, and search still work locally on each one.
- iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch (read-only) only.
See the full setup, what every device shows, and how CloudShots compares with iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, and AirDrop in How to Automatically Sync Screenshots Between iPhone and Mac.
iPhone and Mac, both directions.
No. Sync is automatic and shared — a screenshot from either device joins the same history on all of them. There is no one-way switch.
No. Once CloudShots is installed and signed in to the same iCloud account on both devices, transfer is automatic in both directions.
No. iOS keeps the system's Screenshots album; CloudShots imports what is already there in the background. On the Mac, CloudShots captures the screenshot itself.
Yes. Sync itself is free on both plans. Free limits how many screenshots in your whole history you can open, not how many sync.
CloudShots still works — capture, import, search, and editing are all local. Installing it on a second device with the same iCloud account is what starts the shared history.
More guides
- How to Automatically Sync Screenshots Between iPhone and MacSet up one private screenshot history that syncs through iCloud.
- How to find a screenshot by the text inside itSearch by the words you remember seeing, on any of your devices.
- How to free up the space your screenshots takeClear synced originals from Photos and your Mac without losing your history.
- A screenshot manager for Mac, iPhone and iPadOne searchable, synced history instead of a pile in Photos and on the Desktop.
- The iCloud screenshot manager for Mac, iPhone and iPadWhat lives in your own iCloud, how the library limit works, and what stays private.
- All guides
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