Certain videos will not import from my iPhone to mac over usb.

Question

Level 1

4 points

Certain videos will not import from my iPhone to mac over usb.

When attempting to import photos/videos from my iPhone 14, running iOS 26.2, to my Photos app on my Macbook, running MacOS 26.2, certain videos simply do not import.

To initiate the import, I first connect my iPhone via lightning cable to my macbook, then I open up the Photos app. In the photos app, I click on my phone name under "devices" and in the top right click on the "import all new *" button. I am then redirected to the "imports" page, where nothing imports, my phone disconnects for a moment, reconnects, and ultimately nothing is changed.

This only occurs with certain videos; if I manually select around the problem videos, everything imports fine with no issues, but these videos in particular absolutely refuse to import.

What can I do about this? This feels like a bug to me, and I'm really not sure what to do when one encounters such a bug.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Posted on Jan 7, 2026 6:27 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

17,329 points

Jan 8, 2026 8:29 AM in response to pattydaone

Following what Matti Haveri and léonie were saying, video files seem especially susceptible to corruption, and the encoding changes and can't be counted on to be standard. The extension .mov doesn't always mean the same thing. Videos imported from other sources are unpredictable.

Can you go into Edit mode with these videos? Can you Delete them, moving them into Recently Deleted-- and then restore them? Can you use Share to save them in the Files app?

What happens if you use AirDrop with them from either the Photos app or from Files?

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,621 points

Jan 8, 2026 2:13 AM in response to pattydaone

Could you give us some more background information?

Is perhaps iCloud Photos enabled on your iPhone?
Have the videos in question been taken with the iPhone or saved from some other source?
Where is your Photos Library stored on your Mac? Is it on the internal volume or on an external volume?

Can you import the videos in question, if you try to download them with Image Capture from the iPhone? Try to use Image Capture and save the video to a local folder on your Mac, not directly to Photos. If that succeeds, try to open the video in QuickTime Player or some other app, where you can inspect it.

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2026 11:22 PM in response to pattydaone

That's weird. How do these movies differ from the others:

Codec (HEVC, H.264, or some non-supported codec like VP9 to which Google Photos by default converts movies)? Resolution, HDR, audio codec (AAC, PCM, Opus or some non-supported codec like vorbis)?

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