Q: Photos keeps failing on import
I'm trying to get photos off my iPhone and onto my Mac. So far I've been depending on iCloud backup, but that space is full. I'd rather not upgrade the plan and would like to just save pix to my HD.
So far Photos keeps failing after downloading a few videos. iTunes can still see my iPhone, but Photos seems to lose track of it. I have to unplug and replug my iPhone to get a few more to download. I have 20GB of photos and far less patience.
OS 10.11.15
iOS 9.3.2
Photos 1.5
Ideas?
Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), 2011-2012 version
Posted on Jun 25, 2016 12:55 PM
So far Photos keeps failing after downloading a few videos. iTunes can still see my iPhone, but Photos seems to lose track of it. I have to unplug and replug my iPhone to get a few more to download. I have 20GB of photos and far less patience.
The problem is, that you had been using iCloud Photo Library with the iPhone. If your photos are stored in iCloud, the Import panel in photos and also Image Capture will only see a few photos, the ones that are currently stored locally on the iPhone.
I used Image Capture to delete the photos off my phone, then used iTunes to put back only the last 3 months.
Photos you are syncing using iTunes are stored differently from the photos you are taking with the iPhone camera. Synced photos do not appear in the Camera Roll and they cannot be edited or deleted. To edit them you have to save a copy to the Camera Roll. Then you can edit the copy. And to delete synced photos, you have to sync again with iTunes. Syncing replaces the previously synced photos by the new synced albums.
See this help page: Sync photos to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in iTunes - Apple Support
Posted on Jun 26, 2016 7:44 AM