Unable to import photos from iPhone 4

Greetings,

It is possible you have one or more corrupt images / movies in your camera roll which is upsetting the import process in iPhoto.

To try and resolve your issue:

Ensure all your software is up to date (Apple Menu > Software Update).

Remove the following to the trash and restart the computer and try again:
Home > Library > Caches (I remove the whole folder. It will be re-generated upon restart.)
Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.iPhoto (There may be more than one. Remove them all.)

If the issue persists try rebuilding your iPhoto Library following this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638. Use the bottom 3 rebuild options.

If the issue persists these jpeg files may be damaged. Try importing them using Image Capture found in Macintosh HD > Applications.

If Image Capture can import them you can then try to add them to iPhoto.
If you still get the same error message try opening the files with Preview by double-clicking on them. You can then go to File > Save As > Format > TIFF and add those files to iPhoto.

When you import pictures from the iPhone to iPhoto you are offered the option to delete the images post-import. Like iPhoto, Image Capture will also allow deletion of items in the camera roll post-import. Check off the option to "delete after import" in the bottom left of the Image Capture window.

For questions on using the iPhone itself consider posting in the iPhone forum http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=201.

Hope that helps.

I was having the same problems tonight and after upgrading to iPhone 4.0.1, it's able to import images from my iPhone to iPhoto as we speak. Hope this helps.

Had exactly the same experience as whateverjulie above. I downloaded os4 to my iPhone 3GS 2 days ago and iPhoto immediately became unable to read the photos on my phone. Image Capture couldn't see them either. I did a manual check for software this morning and found that os 4.0.1 was available already. I installed that and restarted everything and now iPhoto can see my photos again. The first couple of times I downloaded them it had a problem deleting them from my phone after download - but that seems to have sorted itself now.

Unfortunately, after updating to 4.0.1 I can't download photos or video from my iPhone 4. Tried iPhoto and it says they're corrupt. Tried image capture and it says I have zero items to download. I have 113 photos and videos from a family vacation I'd prefer not to lose.

Just tried using PhoneView 2.5.2 and it brought in photos and video perfectly. Go figure.

Greetings,

If both programs report bad pictures / no pictures then there very well could be an issue with these files.

That said consider trying the following:
__Safeboot the computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
__Once in Safeboot remove the following folders (or their contents) the the trash:
User > Library > Caches
Macintosh HD > Library > Caches
__Restart the computer again normally
__Attempt to import again with Image Capture or iPhoto

If the issue persists take a look at this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3195
__Sometime having unreadable files mixed in with your pictures can cause the entire batch of images to become unreadable / un-importable.

Finally, you might want to consider posting this issue in the iPhone forum as they may have more suggestions there: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=201

Cheers!

I also started having the problem after updating my iPhone 4 to 4.0.1. I'm not sure if a picture/video was corrupted or not. I do remember getting a phone call while capturing video once on that roll, but hopefully that was not the cause.

I initially tried trashing the cache and iPhoto preferences as advised in the first reply, but this didn't work. I eventually had success downloading photos/videos in batches using PhoneView 2.5.2 (free demo only lets you access first 20). After downloading those 20, I deleted those from the phone, then did the next batch (a "new" first 20). Once downloaded, they imported into iPhoto without problem.

This standard message about corrupt files on the iPhone is obviously complete nonsense, when you see how many people are having problems doing a simple import.

It's obvious that Apple have screwed up here and should be working on a fix instead of assuming that loads of people (sorry, customers) have suddenly been afflicted by corrupt files.

Thanks for the editorial. Have you tried any of the simple fixes that have worked for other folks?

Regards

TD

great suggestions..... allowed me to import a few additional photos, but at the end there were a few videos that could not be imported as they appeared to be corrupt....

however, after I rebooted my Iphone, I was able to import all of the remaining videos..... it turned out none of them were actually corrupt.... just a bug in the Iphone software.....

cheers!

I'm not having a go at you or anybody else who is trying to help other users. Your suggestions are much appreciated, but it's a little bit trial and error. In other words, what works for one user does not help for somebody else.

So far, I have deleted various cache files (the suggestions are not always the same), powered iPhone on and off, created a new iPhoto library, and restarted Mac. All to no avail.

I have yet to rebuild my iPhoto library (over 12,000 photos), as I was hoping for a fix that you would describe as "simple".

My point is that one of Apple's key selling points is indeed its simplicity - things should just work. This is what persuaded me to switch from a PC and for many years I have on the whole been more than pleased with their software. However, it seems clear to me that this time they have dropped the ball and this is a problem at their end - and not one that has been caused by a sudden attack of corrupt images.

And yes I have made them aware of this through the usual channels.

Hi, I've suffered this same problem. I recently migrated from a PC to a Mac and none of the other posts I've found on Apple have helped. I tried deleting the plist file for iPhoto, resetting the iPhone and doing any of the iPhoto library rebuilds. In the end, I found this post online that helped me 100%. I'll post the steps and the link to the post for credit. I hope this helps someone else too. Please see the post about restarting the computer or not.

Post: http://www.calpernia.com/iphoto-wont-import-iphone-4-media-a-fix/

Steps:
* Quit iPhoto
* Open Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app)
* In the search window at the top right, search for PTPCamera
* Click on PTPCamera in the list of results to highlight it
* Click on Quit Process (the red stopsign icon in the upper left of Activity Monitor)
* Choose “Quit”
* If you don’t already see “Image Capture Extension” in the list, search for it in the search box. Click on “Image Capture Extension” in the list of results to highlight it
* Choose “Quit”
* Go to Macintosh HD > System > Library > Image Capture > Devices and open PTPCamera.app back up
* Unplug and re-plug the iPhone 4. iPhoto should open, if you’ve set it to do so when a camera is plugged in. Otherwise, open it. You should see your media available for import from the iPhone 4 when you click on the iPhone 4 in the devices list.

Thanks very much, mbcfdude.

That worked perfectly!

After so many attempts to figure out why my iphone 4 photos were no longer importing to iphoto, I went under Image Capture under Applications and saw that a short video I created would not import, so I deleted it..... bingo! That did it, seems like the video was somehow corrupt and prevented me from importing my photos...everything is working again, thank you! 🙂

mbcfdude, this worked perfectly. Thanks.