How to Use Continuity Camera on macOS to Insert Photos from iPhone

A great feature available in the recent versions of macOS is Continuity Camera. While working on a Mac, it allows you to take a photo using your iPhone’s camera and directly import it to your Mac. Essentially, it eliminates the hassle of taking a separate photo, then using Airdrop to transfer it to your Mac.

Continuity Camera makes performing this task easy, and it integrates directly into your workflow, snapping the image right from an application or the Finder itself with an immediate import. This article will show you how to use Continuity Camera on your Mac and iPhone/iPad.

Note: To use Continuity Camera, your Mac should be running macOS 10.14 Mojave or later, and your iPhone must be running iOS 12 or later. Both devices should be connected to the same Wi-Fi network, and Bluetooth should be enabled. Finally, both devices should be logged into the same Apple ID and iCloud account.

Also read: How to Enable macOS Mojave Continuity Feature on Your Older Mac

How to Use Continuity Camera

Continuity camera works directly in Finder on your mac, as well as in the latest versions of Apple’s native apps (Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Notes, Mail, Messages and TextEdit). Currently, third-party apps, such as Microsoft Word, do not support this feature, but they may do so in the future. A quick solution to this is to import a photo to Finder, and insert it into the document.

Using Continuity Camera in Finder

Using Continuity Camera in Finder will allow you to take a photo on your iPhone and have the file appear instantly on your Mac. You can do this by following the steps below:

1. From a Finder window or the Desktop, right-click and choose “Import from iPhone or iPad,” and select “Take photo” or “Scan Document” from the menu. If you have multiple devices connected, you can choose which iOS device’s camera to use.

The “Take Photo” option will save the photo to a .jpg file, while the Document option will let you take multiple images of a document and combine them into a PDF file.

2. Use your iPhone to take a photo or scan a document.

3. Once you take it, the photo or document scan will appear in the location from where you initially selected the option.

Using Continuity Camera in Mac Apps

You can also use Continuity Camera to import a photo directly into a Mac app. Similarly, you can use the feature to import a document and insert it into an app:

1. Open one of the compatible apps (listed above). Right click or (Control + Click) in the open document.

2. Choose “Insert from iPhone or iPad,” and select “Take Photo” or “Scan Documents” from the pop-up menu.

3. You can now pick up the device you selected and use its camera to take a photo of the photo / document you want to insert.

4. Once you tap “Use Photo / Keep Scan” on the device, your photo/scan will automatically be inserted in the document on the Mac.

Thus, you can easily use Continuity Camera to import images directly into a document or directly onto your Mac.

Again, if Continuity Camera isn’t working for you, make sure you have met all the requirements we detailed above. If it still isn’t working, try turning the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth off, and then turning it back on. Also, restarting the iPhone / iPad / Mac may also fix the issue.

Let us know below if you found this guide useful! Also, for any questions, be sure to use the comments section below.