what replaced its for photo syncing

I had connected my iPhone to my Mac. Each time it either said something like “loading” but it never loaded….or came back saying no photos found. Tried numerous times without success. Finally it worked, but then didn’t again. Tried so many different ways I’m not sure what combination finally worked. I did load the latest update, after which it did work, but then next time it didn’t work with my iPad. If there’s a glitch, hope it’s fixed before I need to use it again.