IPhone camera roll shows up in Photos but will not import

Macbook air - Sequoia 15.0.01

Iphone Xr (updated software just now)

Photos library running off external hard drive.

Hi all, when i open Photos, and connect my iphone using a cable, all the 5000 photos show up in the camera roll and in the 'Import' section. However, when i click 'import' , it does not import. It quickly flicks to the import folder and shows that nothing is imported.

I then opened up 'Image capture' and tried to import those 5000 photos that way. I selected 'import to PHOTOS'. The computer took a long time to process and import them, but they didn't end up in Photos. Photos was empty, but the computer put all those photos into the 'Pictures' folder in my hard drive.

Then i tried to import those same 5000 photos from the folder in my hard drive into Photos by clicking 'import photos' in File settings in Photos and then selecting the contents in my 'Pictures' folder to import.

It refused to import and flicked quickly to the Imports folder, showing that nothing was imported.

It seems to me that these photos from my iphone are tagged in some way that Photos refuses to accept them?

Please help! I would like all my photos in the Photos app - not 5000 pics living unfiled and unorganised in my pictures folder!