iPhone 12 Pro having problems importing camera roll pictures to Photos app

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iPhone 12 Pro having problems importing camera roll pictures to Photos app

I am having problems with my Photos app on my Macbook Pro (macOS 11.0.1). The app will not import any photos from my old iPhone X or iPhone12 (both running 14.2.1). I am wondering if it is an issue with the new macOS 11.0.1. Basically, when I plug my phone into my macbook and open the macbook Photos app, i click on my device name in the app and it says "Preparing to import from iPhone". It then doesn't do anything. I have roughly 250 photos/videos (12gb) worth. I am not sure if the "Preparing to import..." screen means it is in the process of grabbing the photos from the phone, and maybe it takes a long time but it has never really taken that long in the past. Also, if i unlock the phone while in the macbook Photos app, the whole app will crash. If anyone has any solutions or idea what is going on I would greatly appreciate it.

iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 24, 2020 4:32 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

210,865 points

Nov 25, 2020 11:23 AM in response to jmkern90

Can you open the library if the iPhone is not connected to the MBP?

As a test launch Photos with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Connect the iPhone and see if it will import photos without crashing. (This tells us if the problem is limited to your current library or is more wide spread)

If it does import without crashing quit Photos, open your original library and connect the iPhone again. See if it still crashes.

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2020 6:14 AM in response to jmkern90

OK - sounds like a bug in big sur - or possibly an installation issue.

A quick workaround will be to use the image capture app to first download them to a folder and then import them to photos from there.

Another thing to try is to (in finder) click on the phone - go to the photos tab. You may have an option there to disable automatic opening of photos. You should also have the opportunity to sync the phone with photos there.

If you want to diagnose the actual problem further:

Create a second user on your mac - see if that user has the same issue.

If it does, then restart your mac in safe mode and see if the problem still exists.

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Answer 3

jmkern90 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2020 12:13 PM in response to Old Toad

So I used Image Capture to import all of the photos and videos from my iPhone onto my mac Pictures folder. It found 2 videos that had errors and could not be imported. I manually deleted them from the phone. I also deleted everything completely from my iPhone after importing. I then went to Finder and backed-up and synced the phone. On my Mac i tried "repairing" the Photos library and also just deleted the old Photos Library and created a new one. I can now unlock my iPhone while in the Photos app on my mac. But now the problem is, I took a test photo to try and import on mac Photos app, when I click my iPhone device in the Photos app it now shows 108 items to import, but all of the items are blank. I tried to import one of the blank items and it does nothing. But the one test photo that I did have in my iPhone camera roll does not appear in the mac Photos app.

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Answer 4

Nov 25, 2020 12:59 AM in response to jmkern90

Can you make sure the phone is unlocked before connecting it to the mac and see what happens then?

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Answer 5

jmkern90 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 25, 2020 6:00 AM in response to TonyCollinet

Even if the phone is unlocked before connecting to the mac it will immediately launch the Photos app and the app will crash right away - "Photos quit unexpectedly"

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iPhone 12 Pro having problems importing camera roll pictures to Photos app

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