Iphone XS Max photos and videos won't download using itunes on Mac High Sierra

I've spent 1/2 day trying to get my vacation photos on my new iphone XS Max to my MAC Pro using itunes, iphoto, and photo apps. Itunes is up to date 12.8 for mac. I have icloud turned off and I tried manually to sync photos and videos from my phone to my mac without success. ITunes used to backup everything on my iphone to my Harddrive / user / itunes photo library where I could open the new photos up in iphoto or photo app. New photos are no where to be found. I seem to have trouble downloading the videos or looped photos from my iphone. I could transfer only static photos from my iphone using the air drop from iphone to computer. Everything else "Fails" when I send videos or photo links.