Photos not downloaded from iPhone 11 pro to iMAC photos app

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Level 1

9 points

Photos not downloaded from iPhone 11 pro to iMAC photos app

I've recently bought an iPhone 11 pro. When I connect it to my iMAC (with USB cable) and I open the Photos application on my iMAC I can see all the pictures that are on my phone.

But when I want to download them to the Photos library it does nothing.

If I put files on my iMAC and load them into the Photos library, it works like it always did, I just can't get them pulled from my phone.

I've tried the following so far:

I don't use iCloud for photos, so it's switched off on the phone and on the iMAC
I reset the location and privacy settings on the phone
Reboot the phone
Reboot the iMAC

Any ideas / tips ?

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 13

Posted on Jan 3, 2020 2:49 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

i_rina

Community Specialist

Jan 7, 2020 12:45 PM in response to manriki256

Hi manriki256,

Great sleuthing to figure out what was happening with your System Library for the Photos application on your Mac. Since there seems to be an issue with the previous library on your Mac, I would suggest starting fresh with your new System Library. You can access the images from your previous library anytime by pressing the Option key when you launch the Photos application. You can also export any albums that you want from the previous library to a folder on an external drive as an additional backup to Time Machine. Here are a few resources to help you with this:

Designate a System Photo Library in Photos

"If you designate a new library as the System Photo Library and then turn on iCloud Photos, the photos and videos in the new library will merge with those already in your iCloud Photos. If you want to keep the contents of your photo libraries separate, don’t turn on iCloud Photos for more than one library in Photos."

Export photos, videos, and slideshows from Photos on Mac - Photos User Guide

Take care.

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Answer 2

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Jan 6, 2020 5:37 PM in response to manriki256

Good afternoon manriki256,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

Congratulations on the purchase of your iPhone 11! I understand you are trying to transfer photos from your iPhone to your iMac. Are these photos that you have just taken on your iPhone, or photos that were restored to your iPhone from a backup? Are you seeing any error messages when you try to import photos? Are your iPhone and your Mac updated to the most recent version of the iOS and macOS operating systems?

Try following the steps to "Import to your Mac" from the resource below:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Please reply to this thread with the additional information requested, and I'll do my best to help you with this!

Take care.

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Answer 3

manriki256 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 7, 2020 10:36 AM in response to chuck_3rd

I've figured out the problem is the System library in the iMAC Photos application. It's no longer allowing import of photos from my iPhone. I tested it by created a new user on my iMAC and opening a Photos (with a new / clean system library) which imported the pictures like normal.

So I need to create a new library and transfer all my 40K photos of my 'old' library to the new one.

(Repairing the old library didn't fix the issue)

So a lot of work ahead of me with this one.

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Photos not downloaded from iPhone 11 pro to iMAC photos app

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