Why is my MacBook Pro stalling while uploading photos on Photos app?

Update to macOS 15.5 and iOS 18.5, if not already.

Any add-on anti-malware or firewall or security apps, add-on cleaner apps, or any “coffee shop” VPN apps?

Please download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.

You're right about cable transfers being "old school;" they are more prone to difficulties than using iCloud. Using the "Compatible" is intended mostly for older PCs running earlier Windows OSs.

As I said, I would try smaller batches. And I would separate out the videos, and get the jpgs and HEIC files moved first. I'd say, as long as there're no videos, start with 10K pictures and see how that goes. If it works, great; if not, try even smaller batches.

Let us know how it goes…

monarchdoula wrote:

I tried adjusting the Camera Capture to "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency" as suggested by another Apple Support thread, but it made no difference.

The "Most Compatible" thing is for some people who just don't like change, and mostly for people running Windows 10. Certainly if you are using an iPhone and Mac, HEIC is great fine-- smaller files for the same quality.

350 photos/videos it would not upload.

Older videos are often a problem. Some may have been made before the change from 32 bit to 64 bit. And there seems to be just more ways for videos to go wrong. If I had a problem transferring, I'd eliminate the videos first.

I've succumbed to the iCloud, though I don't really feel like I had a choice :(

I get the sad part. It took me awhile to switch, but cables always seemed awkward, and I always had problems with them. (The switch to USBc has made using external drives with iPads much easier!) I think I started out not really getting what iCloud did, expecting a replacement for DropBox and other "cloud" storage I'd used. But that's not it.

It will make a much more reasonable transition for you if you don't choose "Optimize Storage." It's a great system for saving disk space, and I use it on my iPhone, but not on my Mac or iPad which have more storage space. Using "Optimize" on a Mac makes backing up problematic.

I would also wait to sync "Desktop & Document Folders" in iCloud Drive. It works well but, again, sometimes people are surprised by the way it works. I'd play with iCloud Drive for a while before turning on D&D.

See this:

Understanding iCloud Drive - Apple Community

What do you mean by "uploading photos on Photos app?" Where are these pictures coming from? What process are you using to import them to Photos?

Have you tries smaller batches? An incompatible file can create havoc. Video files are the worst.

Are you using an external drive? If so, what's the format of the drive?

Are you using iCloud Photos to synchronize the Photos Libraries on you devices? Do you use "Optimize Storage?"

Get back to us with more information so that we can try to hepl…