Urgent - Need way to copy photos from Iphone 7 to Mojave Macbook

[TitusVorenus]

I bought a new Iphone 7 for someone and gave it to them when I met them on vacation. They didn't have an active sim, so we set up the iphone without an account, either phone or Icloud, and this person used it to take photos during the vacation. Before they leave, I wanted to download the photos to my macbook in case there was a problem with the phone after this person left (they are very technically UNsavvy), but I'm getting promted to upgrade my macbook software (downgraded back to Mojave due to errors in the new release) instead of the dang phone connecting to my macbook to download the photos via iphoto.

Is there another way to backup the photos on my computer or cloud without an icloud account or logging into the app store? Or is there a way to log into the app store to download some cloud app program and let it back up the photos, and then sign out of my apple account?

This is all terribly difficult for what should be something incredibly simple.

 

[Saturn1217]

Having a similar issue. I don't want to upgrade to Catalina on either of the macs in my house for compatibility reasons. We don't really use iCloud so paying for it just to backup my husband's iPhone seems silly.

But I can't create a backup of my husband's iPhone. Just trying to transfer data to his new iPhone. Why is this so hard?! I'm currently upgrading my husband's iPhone to 13.2.2 without a backup and just praying that nothing goes wrong...so that hopefully then the wireless transfer tool will work properly between the old and new iPhone.

I am NEVER buying an iPhone for myself. This is ridiculous.

EDIT: updating to add that my solution ended up being purchasing iCloud storage (which I plan on cancelling once we make sure the new iPhone is set up correctly). I'm hoping that this requirement for the absolute latest version of macOS for an iPhone backup is only because they are making the transition from iTunes to Finder for backups and this isn't normal.

 

[Minorite]

Why not simply use Image Capture? It's a native macOS app.

p.s. For backups, you can use iMazing. Haven't noticed any issues on both Catalina and Mojave with iOS 13.

 

[mollyc]

If it’s just photos I would airdrop them.

 

[Minorite]

If it’s just photos I would airdrop them.

AirDrop can take time in case with a large batch of photos, so Image Capture is better as they have a Mac.

 

[TitusVorenus]

Thanks for the responses, unfortunately I had to return the phone to the person I gave it to prior to receiving them. Would image capture work if the phone will not connect to mac via USB without upgrading the mac OS?

Airdrop may have worked, I haven't used it before. Apple tech support didn't mention it as a possiblilty. I will try this out next opportunity I get.

This is the error message I get on my Mac, running 10.14.6 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208831