Image Capture Error: The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.ImageCaptureCore error -9956.) (-9956)

SOLVED!

In my case, four of five problematic files were photos in the new “live” format and one was a real movie, despite the fact that the error messages referred to them all as .mov files. Furthermore, my Mac OS is 12.6 Sierra, which may not be very compatible with that format. I worked around the problem by exporting the offending files via Dropbox, then importing them into Photos. I presume that I lost the “live” part in the process, but I’ll have to wait until I upgrade to find out.

But the real problem is finding the offending files! Mac OS reports them by file name, but as far as I know, that name is never used in iOS, and it’s not obvious in Mac OS.

Here’s how I connected the disparate dots:

1. From Mac OS Photos’s error dialog, save the file names of the offending files.

2. View your photos by the left-side link of “Photos,” which shows dates and locations.

3. Click on any photo, and press cmd-I to open the info inspector. Now you can finally see the file name!

4. Scroll through photos until you come to the right file name (they’re usually alphabetical, barring imports from other sources).

5. Back on Photos on the iPhone, tap Photos (or Albums, then Recents) and scroll to the right date range. You have to manually compare iOS vs. Mac OS to determine which files are the ones that failed to export to Mac OS, and select all the offending photos (or do the next step one at a time; I can’t get DropBox to appear in the list of export options with more than one photo selected); AFAIK, you still cannot see the file names.

6. Select the appropriate files, then tap the share icon, choose Dropbox, and export. If you do them one at a time, guess what? You can see the file names!

7. Import the Dropbox files from your Mac into Photos.

Is that ridiculous, or what? Why doesn’t Apple let us know the file names?! And why doesn’t Apple/DropBox permit multi-file uploads? Anyway, good luck!

Work-Around #17....

Only experienced this on .MOV files, and as was noted, not all .MOV files. Of a transfer of 120 photos and movies, 20 .MOV files failed. (error -9937 in this case)

Photos app failed. Import function on Preview and Image Capture would hang and require Force Quite. Some would transfer on the 3rd or 4th attempt. Only guaranteed method was to: Initiate transfer from the iPhone to Dropbox. Pulling from the Mac would fall over consistently. Pushing from the iPhone worked for me with all problem files.

From Dropbox, I transferred to a Finder folder (not always necessary but removed a variable) and was able to quickly Import into Photos.

Apple's latest iPhone with the latest OS going into a MacBook Pro.... One shakes one's head in disbelief.....

Gib, These are definitely .MOV files, and most predominantly longer than 20 seconds. I observe 3 to 10 second files are less likely to fail transfer. Perhaps longer is part of the problem. (I note that Time Lapse has failed every time - perhaps also a clue.)

Stats -

iPhone 11 Pro - iOS 13.3

MacBook Pro Core i7 MacOS 10.12.6

I have read others with Catalina have experienced this problem so I'm not counting on an OS upgrade making the problem go away.

I can tell you that Parallels runs flawlessly on this machine. It runs all the time and I have no problem printing, transferring files, or connecting online from the few Windows programs need to I run.

bhall7, what version of MacOS are your running when you encounter the problem?

Then I'm surprised that you're having a similar problem, because I figured mine was related to the lack of 10.12 Sierra support for live pictures. Maybe that isn't my problem…then what is…?!

gapdigital, those so-called .MOV files may actually be “live photos,” which contain both a JPEG and a mini-movie. “Live photo” is the only kind of file that I have this problem with. When you go via a cloud system like DropBox, you’re probably losing the movie along the way, and the end result is probably a plain JPEG. I suspect that versions of MacOS before 10.14 don’t make that transition well; I’d be surprised to learn that 10.15 Catalina still has the problem, but with Apple’s reduction in quality control, it’s entirely possible.

I’m curious to know what MacOS version you’re running. I’m planning to move forward from 10.12 as soon as I get Parallels Desktop so I can run MacOS 10.12 in a virtual machine for the legacy software I still run, and I’d like to know at what point this problem is solved—if indeed it is solved at all.