Photos not importing in Mac OS sequoia Library

Please check the status line in Photos below the "All Photos" view. Does it say "Restoring from iCloud" or similar, as shown in the first screenshot below the OP? Then the Photos Library cannot be updated properly for Sequoia. It may be on an unsupported volume or in a synced folder, like the Desktop or Documents, or contain media that cannot be processed. Check the location of your library, like Matti Haveri recommended (Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support), and check, what the status line is telling you (Check the status of your library in Photos for macOS - Apple Support)

When I am seeing an endless "Restoring" for days for my iCloud Photos Library, I am starting over with a new, empty photos library in my Pictures folder and let the photos download from iCloud to this library. It is the fastest and easiest way to rebuild a Photos Library and to ensure that only items compatible with iCloud and the current version of Photos are in this library. I am keeping a copy of the old library on an external drive, so I can recover items that are missing from the new library, because they might not have been uploaded to iCloud. Also the projects are not syncing with iCloud and I may need to look up missing face names.

Hi all, I found another thread here on the forum and it has something to do the way the drive is formatted. I forgot to mention that my photo library (and other media files) are stored on an external HD to save space on the internal drive. Turns out that the latest versions of Mac OS don't like drive that are formatted in ways that makes them compatible with Windows machines (which in the real world, you may occasionally encounter ), so if the drive is formatted in exFAT for example, it can cause issues like this. I'm now in the process of copying all my files onto another drive, then reformatting the media drive APFS format, copying everything back, reload the library from there and try again...... wish me luck...

Oh yes. This just happened after the Sequoia update. iPhone has. been updated to 18.01 as well so I don't know where the issue lies. Photos app or iPhone 18 software.

I have even tried a new library with the same problem. The images from my phone appear as blank squares in the photos app. I can copy them onto my Mac and then frag and drop on the photos app. this is the only thing that works.

timmilner wrote: … the photos ONLY appear in the import file - not the Photo Library.

When you open the Info Window for a picture, do you see a date and time that makes sense? Imports shows pictures arranged by the date of import, but Library shows them in the order they were taken, so if the date is crazy for some reason, they may be in crazy places in the Library.

My problem also. Have tried to download to my backup external drive also; no joy. I tried importing from iPhone 15 to drive using airdrop. Download folder accepted all photos. Photos app won't accept photos from download file

either.

mine won't even import. I connect my phone and it is visible in the side bar, I can see the photos on it, photo's even recognises which photos were previously imported, but it doesn't matter if I select just one, or multiple photos/videos, the moment I click the button to start importing it, the screen immediately switches to the last import overview and nothing gets downloaded/imported at all, no matter how long I wait. They don't show up there or as part of my library...

Using Mac M1 Sequoia 15.1 and iPhone 15 with OS 18.1. After loading Sequoia 1.5.1, update went through a rebuild of photo libraries both on home drive and external SSD. All seems normal working with the libraries. My Photos library of choice is on an external SSD due to its size. When trying to import new photos from the iPhone, Sequoia sees the photos on the phone and ones already imported. When selecting new photos to import, nothing imports, but system doesn't hang. Tried to import by cable, airdrop, and from downloaded photos within a folder. Yes they download from the iPhone to a folder. All of the above is working as normal with the external photo library on an SSD. Solution was to re-start Photos and re-select Photos on the home drive to test the iPhone import. It worked. Re-selected the external Photos library and tried to import again from the iPhone. It also worked. All photos are downloading from the iPhone and sorted to my external drive as normal. Airdrop is also working importing to my external Photos library again as are photos within a folder on the desktop. The problem from Sequoia 15.1 1Nov install until 14Nov was concerning. Hope this helps someone....

Is the Photos library on a APFS or MacOS Extended formatted volume? Other formats like exFAT are not supported.

I've got the same problem. Photos app will not import the pictures (CR2 RAW) from the CF card.

My library is stored on an external thunderbolt 4 SSD formatted in APFS.