MacOS Photos will not upload/import from iphone or HD

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Level 1

8 points

MacOS Photos will not upload/import from iphone or HD

Massive frustration

iOS18.2 iphone15pro MacOS 14.6.1 M2 macbook

connect iphone to mac via usbc(directly)
connect external HD via usbc (directly)
Launch external photos lib
Existing library opens and displays photos
iphone is visible. also let the obligatory backup of iphone occur to macbook, deselected the automagic feature to back it up that seems to have no bearing on syncing one way or the other (irrelevant to this thread)
click on the phone, click on import new, no response from the app, no action occurs, ie. no photos get transferred...just sits their and does absolutely nothing, no error, no warning, no prompt, nothing.
select a single picture, same result.
Open imagecapture, take file from phone to a HD folder, initiate import, get error about freeing up space. HD has internal has 250GB free external 1.5TB free. in short import/transfer/upload doesn't work
relocate folder from external to internal, import fails.
Read many articles on support site about lots of folks having problems...
check my external drive, oh behold its exfat. this is now a problem? oh let me read some more posts for another hour? this was not a problem before...but now it is...why
So take the 200gb photos library and put it on my desktop.
open that bag of garbage up in the app and voila that works.
click on the phone and initiate the upload and it seems to be working with the library local...

So what is the root cause? Is it the format of the external drive that now need to be journaled or apfs to be able to manage such a routine task. Why as a user does my drive format now matter so critically for a basic function. Pretty bush league bug

MacBook Air, macOS 14.6

Posted on Dec 14, 2024 11:04 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

403bjohnson Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 14, 2024 11:52 AM in response to 403bjohnson

confirming,

root cause:

if you can't import your photos from any source, phone, folder, etc.
if you are using an external drive to host the photos app library
if the external drive is formatted exfat

solution

you will need to migrate the library back to the external drive after reformatting that external to apfs (did not try anything else)

Hey apple folks, i think this could be better. I probably am not alone in buying an external drive to manage the bloated library file this app generates. Probably not the only one using the default drive format out of the box. Which worked great up to some point where it then didn't... Probably not the only...just saying.

references:

https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/119449?page=2

https://discussions-cn-prz.apple.com/en/thread/255739106?sortBy=rank

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

15,077 points

Dec 15, 2024 12:35 PM in response to 403bjohnson

403bjohnson wrote:

I probably am not alone in buying an external drive to manage the bloated library file this app generates. Probably not the only one using the default drive format out of the box.

Using the default drive format out of the box? Never a safe thing to do, even drive manufacturers often recommend reformatting drives to Mac format (HFS+ or APFS) before using on a Mac. PC formats are known to be incompatible with iPhoto and Photos libraries, it has been that way for ~ years.

"Bloated library file"? I have a Photos Library that is 21 GB in size and the folder inside it that holds all the image files is 19 GB in size. So that's 2 GB "extra" space (~ 10% in my instance) used for thumbnails, originals versus edited image files, album information, and so forth. Not too bad. Certainly doesn't require use of an external drive for storage of the library. What usually forces that is the sheer number of photos in the library. You are, of course, welcome to use third party image file programs, such as Adobe Lightroom or others, but I believe that they have similar or higher "overhead."

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,208 points

Dec 15, 2024 12:02 AM in response to 403bjohnson

check my external drive, oh behold its exfat. this is now a problem?

No, this has always been a problem, going back to iPhoto days. The risk is silent corruption and dataloss. That's why Apple have had support articles on this for years.

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