iPhone 15 Pro Max does NOT import to Photos app on macOs Mojave

Ok, similar but maybe not the same. When I selected all new pictures to import, Apple Photo would hang forever and import nothing. I finally started selecting 1 photo at a time and suddenly I could import. Then I tried several at a time and sometimes yes and sometimes not. I had to disconnect the iPhone after each failure or I could not download any. Long story short, I found 5 photos out of 800 that the process did not like and would not download and stopped all downloads for all photos. Once I removed those 5 photos, then I could download all the rest with no issues. No idea what is wrong with the 5 and why no warnings or why download was broke until restarting.

After days and weeks with Apple Support without the solution, I decided to try something else. I used Open Core Patch to updated my iMac with Sonoma, sure enough, that worked for photo import. It seems the issue with level of OS that has the issue with the iPhone 15.

What changed: the iPhone or the system on the Mac?

Did you get this notification whiny first plugged your iPhone 15 into the Mac?

If you did did you install it?

This appears with any new iPhone or upon most system updates and upgrades.

And... does Image Capture work? It's an app in your Applications folder...

I am using OSX Sonoma 14.3 and iOS 17.3. as well. When I connect my iPhone 15 Pro Max to my MacBook Air with Apple M2 chip, I will get instantly a message that an external accessory has been connected and the iPhone is appearing in the sidebar in Photos. And then it will hang for hours showing the message "Preparing to import".

When I try to import with Image Capture, the iPhone is also shown, but Image Capture requires me immediately to unlock the iPhone and the iPhone is prompting me to confirm that I trust the computer, before it will do anything. And instantly hundreds of photos will be shown in Image Capture to be imported.

After launching Image Capture and confirming the trust on the iPhone, Photos will also show photos from my iPhone, finally, but Photos does not prompt the request to unlock the iPhone and to confirm the trust on its own, strange.

Within just a few minutes after launching Image Capture, Photos will show me thousands of new Photos to import:

As I am using iCloud Photos, there should not be any new items shown - my iPhone and the Mac are perfectly in sync. iCloudPhotos is interfering with the duplicate detection on Import. I am only using the manual import, when I am away from the Internet for a long time and need to transfer the new photos manually.

When I first connected the iPhone to my Mac, I have been prompted to allow the connection of accessories. Have you received such a prompt? It may be hidden behind other windows.

Does /Applications/Image Capture.app work?

mac mini m2 pro os 14.1.2

iPhone 15 pro max ios 17.1.2

Connect iphone > No software appeared.

No way to import new photos.

Created new library > import failed.

Same procedure with iphone 12 pro ios 17.1.2 works :-0

There is a BUG.

I am experiencing the same. Using iMac photo app, import photos from iPhone 12 Pro just fine, plug in iPhone 15 pro, it just display “Preparing import from iPhone 15 Pro”, nothing happens. My file system is APFS and all the OS are up to date.

I’m having the same problem. There is obviously a serious problem with the iPhone 15 Pro Max in that Image Capture does not work on an iMac. I have spent many, many hours with Apple Support to get this issue resolved, and tried all their suggestions. Same result: Image Capture fails to work.

Image Capture does not work with my iPhone 15 Pro Max.

No it doesn't.

How did you do that? Is your iMac recent? My Mac is 10 years old so can’t install that operating system.

Does not work with OSX Sonoma 14.3 and iOS 17.3.

Remark: New iPhone 15 Pro Max took over all data from an iPhone 12 Pro.