How do I backup photos from my iphone to external storage on my iMac, without using iCloud?

Try this; it's easier and faster than asking Apple.

1) Connect your iPhone to your iMac with cabling appropriate to your devices.

2) Find the included apps Iamge Capture in your Applicaitons folder and launch it.

With the phone unlocked, Image Capture will show what images are on your phone and in iCloud:

I did the screenshot for my iMac about five minutes ago and it shows all iCloud images I saved from my iPhone (bought in Nov 2021) PLUS the oldest picts I took with and iPad in 2016. Note the Cloud indicator under "Devices."

3) In Image Capture you can select what images to move to your iMac without endangering what is stored in the Cloud. This Apple article is about using Image Capture to move images to a Mac computer.

Transfer images in Image Capture on Mac - Apple Support

Hello Scoobiesnacks,

Welcome and I know that I would want more information about this as well. I know that there have been some great info shared already. I would like to add a bit to it. I would like to take them one at a time

Problem 1

That message is not an error. When using icloud photos, using itunes on a PC or finder on a Mac to import is disabled. iCloud exclusively manages the photos.

Problem 2

Your are using iCloud photos (a syncing service). Turning that feature off will remove the photos from the device or allow you to download them for offline use with the feature off. Basically iCloud photos is like the movie Independence day (the old one). iCloud is the mother ship and your devices are the little baby ships. They can only mirror what the mother ship has. So turning that off is like stranding that device while the fleet goes to conquer another world. You get the option to keep the stuff you have or go solo and delete it all.

Problem 3

The photos app will only really be able to pick up photos that have not been uploaded or are not being governed by iCloud photos. If it does not complete there may be an issue that an expert at Apple may need to look into with you.

Traditionally the best way to accomplish this is to go to icloud.com and download your photos directly to the external drive like a download. Additionally you can manage your photos from the device or the website (mothership console) and the changes will reflect on all the other devices.

Here are some great articles to explain this much better than I

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Download iCloud photos and videos - Apple Support

Thank you

Mikel

scoobiesnacks wrote:

iCloud doesn't have enough space to manage all my photos. So I can't use that as the "mother ship"

To be clear, I do not want to use iCloud. I want to get off Cloud. At the moment some of my photos are on iCloud - up to the free limit, most of them are on my Phone

The instructions that Allan Jones provided are excellent. iCloud will not be involved.

Call the 1-800-MY-APPLE for Apple Tech support, they will help resolve this over the phone for free. They are good at Photos issues. Good luck and Happy Fathers day too.

If you are worried about data loss, put the photos on an external drive then detach it after copying the files over. Once detached, they're safe.