All new "Live" iOS 16.2 iPhone photos are now imported twice into Monterey Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120)

The issue is still occurring when importing new images from my iPhone into iMac Photos.

I followed the procedure Todd0213 detailed above to 'merge duplicates' on my iPhone.

There were 44 pairs of images tagged.

I used the 'Merge duplicates' button to resolve those.

NONE of the recent imported 'Live' image PAIRS are tagged as duplicates, even though they have the exact same date and timestamp and are the same image.

The recently imported 'Live' image pairs have unique filenames and different formats, so the 'Duplicates finder' on my iPhone iOS 16.2 does not see these as duplicates.

Connecting my iPhone SE to my iMac via Lightining cable, with Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120) open, I can select the iPhone and view images still stored on the iPhone.

Example:

The .jpg file is IMG_7335.JPG and is 4.7MB stored on my iPhone

The .mov file is IMG_E7335.MOV and is 5.8 MB stored on my iPhone

When imported into Photos, the filenames and sizes remain the same as indicated on the iPhone by Lightning attachment.

So the 'Live' image duplicate pairs .jpg and .mov, ARE stored that way on my iPhone, and have been for nearly two years. That behavior began on my iPhone almost exactly 2 years ago, on December 25, 2020.

That MIGHT be the day when I first selected 'Live' photos as the default capture method for my iPhone SE 2020 (2nd generation) camera.

But it was not until AFTER I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 16.2, and macOS to 12.6.2, that Photos (including any prior versions) EVER imported every new 'Live' images as pairs of two separate files, one JPG and one MOV.

Rob_H1

So, confirming that these posts are in macOS Photos, the proper Apple community, I'll be reporting this via your Get Support link as a new Photos 7 unwanted behavior, not a new iPhone Photos storage behavior.

It is absolutely a Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120) issue I've encountered, NOT an iOS 16.2 issue.

I've been able to pinpoint the exact day and time that my 'Live' photos duplication and Photos library corruption began.

Every iPhone 'Live' image taken and imported into my macOS Photos Library, beginning at 1:30PM EDT on October 29, 2021 now displays two files when viewed with Photos 7.0.

The same issue occurs when the photos stored on the iPhone are viewed with Photos 7.0 while connected with an Apple USB-to-Lightning cable.

I've confirmed that macOS Photos 5.0 DOES NOT display duplicate images for any 'Live' photos, including several imported in the last few days, and including new 'Live' photos captured with an iPhone SE 2020 running iOS 16.2.

The duplicated 'Live' images were taken with one of three iPhone models (SE 2016, 6s, and SE 2020) and then imported into previous or current versions of my macOS Photos Library. My corrupted Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120) library contains about 4500 of these duplicated images, so 9000 files.

To recap, there are two separate files displayed for each of these images, the three-second video clip IMG_E####.MOV and the 'still' image IMG_####.JPG that also displays a 'live' view when highlighted in the Photos viewer.

Catalina and Photos 5.0 are already running on my 2012 Intel i7 Mac mini so I have a complete, up-to-date uncorrupted Photos 5 library file. I just need to erase my 2019 iMac to get rid of Monterey, and then reinstall Catalina.

I don't have any Macs running macOS Big Sur, so I've never imported images into Photos 6.0, and I cannot confirm or deny that Photos 6.0 has the same duplication issue as Photos 7.0.

"Unfortunately, Photos will not be able to combine the two components properly, if you already imported one part of the pair, for example only the JPEG (or HEIC). When you then download all files, you will be seeing the components in photo as a video clip and a still frame. This can happen, if you have My Photo Stream turned on. My Photo Stream cannot transfer videos, and so it will only transfer the JPEG. When you then later try to import photos manually, you will get split pairs of Live Photos. My Photo Stream is preventing the proper import of Live Photos, while it is enabled."

Thanks for your feedback.

But I've NEVER already imported either part of pair of 'Live' photos separately.

So again, I'm reporting this as a new unwanted behavior, that I noticed ONLY AFTER recently updating my iPhone to iOS 16.2, and my iMac 2019 to macOS Monterey 12.6.2.

I've always intentionally used the 'Import All' feature of Photos to import everything from my iPhones while connected via a genuine Apple USB-to-Lightning interface cable, never selecting and importing only .jpg files or only .mov files.

To my knowledge, until iOS 16.2, the two separate files for each 'Live' photo stored on my iPhone were never listed separately when viewed while the iPhone was attached with a genuine Apple USB-to-Lightning interface cable while using macOS Photos.

I explicitly exclude Photos from all AppleID and iCloud settings on every Apple device.

'My Photo Stream' has never been intentionally enabled across my universe of Apple devices.

Could 'My Photo Stream' have been unintentionally enabled by the most recent iOS and macOS updates?

Unlikely, since I still use only the 'free' 5GB iCloud account. My iPhone contains 75GB of images, and my iMac Photos library is over 400GB, so there's simply no room available in iCloud.

I routinely use Finder to back up my family's mobile Apple devices to two Macs: the 2019 iMac Intel i5 21.5" 4K (mentioned above), and a 2012 Mac mini Intel i7 running macOS Catalina.

Then I upload whatever the heck it is that iOS Photos captures to the latest applicable version of Photos on the macOS devices.

Photos on macOS Catalina HAS NOT exhibited the unwanted behavior of importing 'Live' photo JPGs separately from MOVs.

I've always intentionally used the 'Import All' feature of Photos to import everything from my iPhone when connected via USB-to-Lightning interface cable, never selecting only .jpg files or only .mov files.

Seeing no resolution at this point, I'm going to purge my current Photos library on my 2019 iMac and all the corrupted backups, downgrade macOS back to Catalina, and then re-import my 400GB of digital images into the Catalina version of Photos, when none of this duplicate file nonsense was visible.

This only occurred recently.

I first noticed it after I updated my iPhone from 16.1.2 to 16.2, because importing photos into Mac Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120) was taking much longer than I expected for the small number of photos being imported (less than 50).

No duplicates of the original images are being created in jpg and mov formats on my iPhone.

No photos on any Apple devices are automatically being synced to iCloud.

As I stated, the 'Live' photos are being imported twice, once as a 3-second .mov video, and also as a 'Live' jpg.

I use the jpg format on my iPhone because I need compatibility with older devices and programs that do not support HEIC and HEIF.

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PERHAPS RELATED: When I connect my iPhone SE (2020 2nd generation) via a genuine Apple Lightning-cable-to-USB-A on my 2019 Intel i5 6-core iMac running Monterey 12.6.2, and then open Finder, I see the message 'A software update is required to update your iPhone.'

I click 'Install' to install the update.

The update downloads and begins install, but as it nears completion, the last screen displayed is always 'Installation Failed'.

I've tried restarting the iMac in Safe Mode, but then the USB-attached-iPhone is not recognized in Finder, so it never prompts me to install the required update.

The only way I can now install iPhone updates is to plug the Lightining cable into USB Apple power cube, and then download and install the update from the iPhone itself.

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I've encountered a similar 'You need to install this software update to connect this iPhone' message and failures to install the updates on two older computers running the latest Apple updates for macOS Catalina and macOS High Sierra.

In both cases, the installs fail, yet when attached via Apple Lighting to USB-A, the phone WILL always successfully automatically connect to the applicable version of Photos and permit importing photos.

Turns out the internal SSD on my 2019 iMac is still running on Catalina, so I didn't need to downgrade the back to Catalina, just reboot to the internal SSD, instead of the external Monterey SSD

While still on Monterey, I exported everything, about 79,000 images and videos from the corrupted Monterey Photos Version 7.0 (460.0.120) photoslibrary file to external storage.

Attempting to import everything in the exported files directory with a single import command resulted in tens of thousands of the images rejected with 'You don't have permission to access the files on (storage device)' errors. Even marking the external drive, the directory containing the images, and the individual file permissions as 'read & write', did not permit me to mark larger batches of files and successfully import them.

Trial & error has led me to an ideal import size of about 800 images at a time, using Finder to highlight the group of images, and then right-click, and Share, Add to Photos.

So, over the last week, I have been importing about 800 images and videos at a time into a brand new uncorrupted Photos 5.0 photoslibrary file as time permits. I'll post back again when the task is completed.

After reading about performance issues when running Ventura on externally-attached non-Apple SSD's, I'll probably never upgrade again beyond Catalina on my primary image storage devices.

I've now completed my leisurely Share/import of my 20-year archive containing nearly 80,000 valid files, into a fresh Photos Version 5.0 (161.0.120) .photoslibrary container. It will likely remain in Version 5.0 until Apple abandons Photos for something different.

This will likely be my final update on my duplicate files in Monterey Photos.

I don't expect to see a fix from Apple.

I'm sure development efforts are now focused solely on macOS Ventura, and whatever long-dead vintage vehicle moniker is next in macOS cue: (after Pontiac Catalina, Mercury Monterey, and Pontiac Ventura, maybe Studebaker Hawk, Mercury Cougar, Plymouth Duster, or Oldsmobile Cutlass?)