transferring photos from ipad to imac (icloud not used)

Have you tried Image Capture?

Four ways you can transfer between your iPad and iMac.

AirDrop

Notes

Email

Messaages

Airdrop would be the best route, but I have done it in a very limited way with Notes. Email with take sometime as will if you text yourself.

Once you have them on you iMac my suggestion is buy yourself a external SSD and move them to it. I don't know what the grey tiles are. Never have seen them on my MBP's.

It's not clear to me exactly what's happening, but you should know that transferring pictures using a cable can be a bit crazy. I haven't done that in a long time, but I know that pictures transfer to a phone aren't really owned by Photos, and so things can be wonky. iCloud is way more reliable.

Are you actually missing any files, or is this just in the transfer process. You should also try the Apple app Image Capture that's in your Applications folder. It's been known to work better and be more robust.

Before you switch to iCloud Photos, make sure you have all your pictures in Mac Photos. Cable transfer and iCloud syncing are not compatible, so there can be some glitches.

Four ways you can transfer between your iPad and iMac.

AirDrop

Notes

Email

Text

Airdrop would be the best route, but I have done it in a very limited way with Notes. Email with take sometime as will if you text yourself.

Once you have them on you iMac my suggestion is buy yourself a external SSD and move them to it. I don't know what the grey tiles are. Never have seen them on my MBP's.

It looks like I never asked but, despite the title of your post: Do you use iCloud to synchronize your Photos Libraries? Do you have iCloud turned on in either device?

I ask, because iCloud and cable transfer are incompatible.

Gems_ca wrote: I do not use iCloud. It was turned on when I first got my iPad (many years ago), but not since. But even then, my pics have always shown up when connected to my iMac. Nothing shows up now.

Oops-- I see you already said that in your original post-- sorry. You may notice that I'm running out of ideas.

You said, "I started seeing just grey tiles on the iMac, instead of the photos I want to transfer, but I still see how many photos there are to import." Is it just the thumbnails are wrong? Could you import those pictures anyway, or were you unable to select them?