Moving photos from iPhone to MacBook Pro -- where did my photos go?!!!

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Moving photos from iPhone to MacBook Pro -- where did my photos go?!!!

On Jan 4, I tried to import 538 photos from my iPhone 12 Mini (Version 18.6.2) to Photos (Version 10) on my MacBook Pro Sequoia 15.7.3.

First I tried using AirDrop. Nothing seemed to be happening after awhile, so I thought it was too many photos to handle in this way, so I attached the iPhone to the Mac Book Pro with a cable and tried to import the photos.

I don't remember exactly the sequence of what happened, only that it also didn't seem to work and, by that time, it was time to go to bed. So I shut down.

Today, I opened the Download folder for some reason and saw all these HEIC files with zero bytes. I thought, these photos clearly never downloaded, so let me throw them into the trash. When I tried, I got a dialogue box saying "Some of these items are in use by another application. Moving the items can cause problems with the application using them. Are you sure you want to move these items?"

I said "continue" and moved several of the items to the trash. They did not go easily. That made me question whether it was such a clever idea to delete them.

Then it occurred to me to check whether the photos still lived on my iPhone. When I checked for a couple of photos, I could not find them on my iPhone. Now, I'm in a panic whether photos I was trying to move to my MacBook Pro are not suspended somewhere in between the two devices!

My questions are:

How do I get my photos back?
How do I correctly transfer photos from my iPhone to my MacBook Pro?
How do I transfer the photos and delete theme from my iPhone where they are taking up memory? And without fear that I am deleting them entirely?
How do I transfer the photos while preserving the meta data in its original form (date, time, etc.)

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 18

Posted on Jan 12, 2026 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 12, 2026 6:54 AM in response to topaz51

First rule of transferring files: Never, ever, never delete stuff until you know your copies are safe! For instance, some transfer methods have an option to automatically delete pictures at the source after transfer. That is a very bad idea.

I use iCloud Photos, pretty much the best way to safely copy pictures. With iCloud, it all happens automatically, and you can use iCloud's "Optimize Storage" to reduce the size of the Photos Library on a phone to less than 10% of its iCloud storage size. And even though this is a great system, I make a backup of all my pictures on at least two external drives.

Pictures from a phone usually go to Photos on the Mac. AirDrops go to Downloads. Have you looked in Photos? Check Photos' Recently Deleted on both devices.

Here's this:

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

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