Cannot get any photos of my iPhone with image capture

I had this problem but after upgrading to Monterey, it now works as expected.

Yes! Airplane mode solve the issue on Mac mini M1.

I had the same problem and what worked for me was reset the network settings.

iphone > settings > general > reset > reset network settings

I encountered this error as well and saw on reddit that airplane mode (for the phone) fixes it. Worked for me!

A simple solution for the issue of "Could not open a connection to the device module" is to turn off the phone device wait for 2 minutes and power on the device. If you have image capture open, quit that application and then connect the phone. Last open the image capture application. The connection should be restored and access iPhone photos.

For import to work, you have to put the phone on Airplane mode. Especially when the phone tries to connect to the apple server at the same time, to update or upload pictures.

So the solution is, put the iphone on AIRPLANE mode.

Succes!

mine doesn't work most of the time either. This is also how I offload + backup the 1000s of photos I take. Apple really doesn't it make it easy for their devices to talk to each other its a huge pain in the ***. After 30-45 minutes of restarting my phone, unplugging and replugging it back in it usually makes a connection somehow. It will want you to hit "trust' the computer and to enter in your passcode so if its not doing that maybe restart your computer and phone and try again. If you're getting the could not open connection error still hit Command while you click on your phone device in Image capture, it will go away then reclick on it and it might say "unlock your phone" - then I unplug / plug in / restart / etc. until it finally works. its not a great way to do it but it generally works after way too much time.

I was having this issue as well.

Randomly, I set Image Capture to open automatically when my phone connects and it started to work.

No idea why it made a difference. Hope that works for someone else.

Opening Photos seems to be the trick.

(I use Lightroom, not Photos, and Lightroom has even more trouble opening the iPhone12, but if opening Photos unlocks, that's a good thing to know.)

Didn't need the restart for me, this time.

I've had this issue for months with a new iPhone and a new m1 MBP, latest software, etc.

It usually works once after a fresh restart on both devices, then nothing.

I'm hoping the Photos trick works.

You can also try using AirDrop:

Use AirDrop on your Mac - Apple Support

I do it all the time from my iPhone to my Macs.

Please show a full screen shot of the Image Capture panel.

If that is the iPhone on the left sidebar? If it is, then it looks like it is Locked and you need to unlock it.

Hey I was facing this issue,

Just remove passcode from settings completely and it will establish the connection

Hi Theseus,

Maybe you can try switch your iPhone to airplane mode. It just solved the same problem on my device.

Thanks to omyrodriguez for his tip. Resetting network settings work with me!

Ha! A bit of luck and desperation. I noticed my phone seemed to be connecting wirelessly even though I was plugged into my iMac which I'm guessing was tripping up Image Capture. I had assumed one cancelled out the other but apparently not. They really should put some time into refining that app. It's a bit of a mess and really crucial for many users.