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Stuck On "Preparing to Import Photos" When Manually Connecting iPhone to MacBook

Not a question so much as a resolution that has worked but SHOULD NOT be the resolve.

1) First reboot both the Mac and your iPhone

2) When both are back up and logged in, connect your photo to your Mac

3) Go to your Photos app on your Mac. Make sure you have "Open photos on this device" check marked. It will probably still read "Preparing to Import ..."

4) Now, with your phone still connected, enter your quick setting and turn on "Airplane Mode"

5) Wait a few seconds - 5 to 8 on average. You should see the phone icon briefly disappear from the side menu as if it was unplugged and then re-appear about a second or two later as if it was plugged back in

6) A second of two later your iPhone photo library should begin populating in the Mac Photos app.


If this does work, there's a procedure to try that involves booting the machine into Safe Mode.

Be that as it may, this is clearly a bug and I hope Apple fixes it pronto because I've seen complaints dating as far back as April 2022. Manually connecting my phone to my Mac should not induce a new unknown step.

Posted on Aug 12, 2022 9:07 PM

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Posted on Aug 13, 2022 10:53 AM

Welcome to the club...


I just asked the same question and I also found other people have been asking this same question for months...

stuck on preparing to import photos from … - Apple Community


I haven't been able to upload pictures from my phone for about 2 years now with the Photos app or Image Capture. There is a 3rd party app called iMazing that works but you only get 50 photos for free and then have to pay for the app.


[Edited by Moderator]

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 13, 2022 10:53 AM in response to ShadowDancer1000

Welcome to the club...


I just asked the same question and I also found other people have been asking this same question for months...

stuck on preparing to import photos from … - Apple Community


I haven't been able to upload pictures from my phone for about 2 years now with the Photos app or Image Capture. There is a 3rd party app called iMazing that works but you only get 50 photos for free and then have to pay for the app.


[Edited by Moderator]

Stuck On "Preparing to Import Photos" When Manually Connecting iPhone to MacBook

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