Photos from iPhone not showing in photos on MacBook Pro

Let me get this straight: You have an old iPhone using your Apple account. You have a Mac signed on to your wife's account. You want to move pictures from that phone to an external Library in your wife's account. The external Library is not designated as the System Library. Is that right?

System Library: Unlike a phone, a Mac can have more than one Photos Library. Only one of them can be designated the System Library. The System Library is the one that other apps go to if they ask to use "the Photos Library," or "upload from Photos" or just "use Photos." It's also the only one that can sync with iCloud Photos.

Which Library is your System Library? You can find out by closing Photos, and then option-clicking the Photos icon--that brings up the Library picker:

This shows the Libraries that Photos knows about, and indicates which is the System Library. When you click on a Library, it shows the path to that Library.

I haven't tried copying files between accounts, but I'd try this:

• To be sure iCloud isn't messed up, I'd turn off wifi
• Double click on the external drive Library to open it in Photos (or use the Library Picker)
• Designate this external Library as the System Library in Photos' Settings>General:

Here, "Use as System Photos Library" is grayed out, because it already is.

Changing your System Libraries turns off iCloud syncing. You can see that at Photos' Settings>iCloud

"iCloud Photos" should be unchecked, now.

• Connect a USB-lighnting cable (like came with the phone for charging) from the phone to the Mac. You might need a USB-A to USBc adapter for your Mac.
• Open the app "Image Capture" that's in your Application Folder, and use that to transfer pictures to the Library. You could, rather, use Image Capture to transfer pictures to folders in the Finder, and then import them to Photos. I suggest Image Capture for the transfer, but you can also use Finder. See this:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

Afterward, use the Library Picker to go back to the original Library. It will no longer be the System Library, so your will need to re-assign it. You will also need to turn iCloud Photos back on for this Library, if that's what your wife would like. Don't forget to turn wifi back on.

Basically, it's

1. 1. switch System Libraries
   2. transfer pictures
   3. switch back.

Well, what do you think?

First, how is your "EHD" (which I'm guessing means external hard drive) formatted?  To avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

How did these stubborn pictures get on our iPhone? Did they come from iCloud, for web sites, from your camera, from a computer, or what?