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User profile for user: Tinee13
Tinee13 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

photos on mac importing duplicate photos from iphone via usb

For about 1 month now, when I import photos from my iphone to my macbook pro via usb, it randomly shows photos already imported as not imported.


I never had this problem before. It started about 1 month ago as i was importing photos from my iphone 6, just before getting my iphone 12 pro. Then even with the iphone 12 pro, the problem persists. 


I contacted apple support, they told me the only solution is to import photos using icloud and not usb. However this is not a solution but an alternative way to import photos.


If anyone has any suggestions about how to fix this problem, I would really like to resolve this.



(Also I did start trying to import using image capture and then importing photos manually like that. And that worked up until today, where there is 1 photo that it won't recognise. When uploading using image capture and then photos, it says there was an unknown error.)

Posted on Mar 6, 2021 3:18 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,619 points

Posted on Mar 6, 2021 12:02 PM

But before you switch off iCloud, download the photos from iCloud to your device, or you can no longer access them on your iPhone. Disable "Optimise iPhone Storage" if it is enabled and wait for the photos to download back to your iPhone. Do you have enough free storage to save all your photos on the iPhone?


Directly after turning off iCloud Photos all downloaded photos may appear again as new photos, but after that it should be back to normal, once no new downloads from iCloud will appear.


alternately, you could just use iCloud Photos to sync the photos from the Phone to your Mac. The important thing is to stick to one method of importing and not to mix the method of importing and syncing.


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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,619 points

Mar 6, 2021 12:02 PM in response to Tinee13

But before you switch off iCloud, download the photos from iCloud to your device, or you can no longer access them on your iPhone. Disable "Optimise iPhone Storage" if it is enabled and wait for the photos to download back to your iPhone. Do you have enough free storage to save all your photos on the iPhone?


Directly after turning off iCloud Photos all downloaded photos may appear again as new photos, but after that it should be back to normal, once no new downloads from iCloud will appear.


alternately, you could just use iCloud Photos to sync the photos from the Phone to your Mac. The important thing is to stick to one method of importing and not to mix the method of importing and syncing.


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User profile for user: TonyCollinet
TonyCollinet
User level: Level 7
23,966 points

Mar 6, 2021 3:30 AM in response to Tinee13

Hi


What version of MacOS do you have?


This normally happens when your phone is taking HEIC format pictures, but converting them on download to your mac to JPG because the mac cannot read HEIC Format (older Macos doesn't recognise them). Then when you connect your phone again, they are different filnames, so not recognised as already downloaded.


You can check by looking at the filenames - is it .jpg on your mac, and .heic on your phone?


To fix this you either need to upgrade your mac to a version that can work work with HEIC, or change your phone to take jpg (Settings>camera>formats>most compatible)

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User profile for user: Tinee13
Tinee13 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Mar 6, 2021 4:25 AM in response to TonyCollinet

I have the latest version ... macOS Big Sur 11.2.2.


As i said this started happening with my iphone 6, 1 month ago. Not sure if there was HEIC with such an old phone. But this is happening with HEIC as well as JPG.


I managed to manually import the other files using image capture and then importing them from mac onto photos. They were both HEIC and JPG and some video files.


The one photo that still doesn't get recognised and keeps duplicating is HEIC both on iphone as well as Macbook.


I just don't understand why this is happening in the first place.

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,619 points

Mar 6, 2021 6:47 AM in response to Tinee13

Is iCloud Photos enabled on the iPhone? Please check the Settings > Your Name > iCloud. iCloud Photos could have become enabled after a software upgrade without you noticing it.

If iCloud Photos should have become enabled on the iPhone, it will prevent the duplicates from being recognised, and you will get random results for duplicates. The same could happen, if My Photo Stream is enabled. If you are using any iCloud service for Photos at all on one of your devices, you need to check all photos manually for duplicates, when you try to import.


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photos on mac importing duplicate photos from iphone via usb

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