Unable to import photos from my iPhone to iMac

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Level 1

4 points

Unable to import photos from my iPhone to iMac

At first, the import was working just fine, backing up photos at a noticeable speed, but I tried to backup my phone during this process, which probably messed it up. I cancelled the backup several times or interrupted by disconnecting my phone from the iMac, which resulted in the iMac attempting to backup my iPhone every time I connected it.

I thought allowing it to do its thing would solve the issue, but after backing up my phone and getting rid of some photos from my Mac I accidentally synced to my phone, the photos still won't import. I have tried restarting both devices and this hasn't worked either.

Posted on Feb 7, 2026 11:04 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Richard.Taylor

Level 6

17,811 points

Feb 7, 2026 11:15 AM in response to Doonge

Try Restarting your Mac in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Then do a normal re-boot.

And try a forced restart of the iPhone:

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

This is different from a simple Power Off. I had to continue holding the button down 5 or 10 seconds past the "slide to power off" message, and then I released the button only after the Apple Logo appeared indicating a re-start.

Let us know-- we might think of more things to try if these don't help…

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Answer 2

Doonge Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 7, 2026 11:32 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thank you so much for the reply!

I don't seem to be able to restart my Mac in Safe Mode, which I think might be because it is an iMac using a Bluetooth keyboard (so it isn't registering the fact that I am holding the shift key as it boots up). I have tried two times without success.

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Answer 3

Feb 7, 2026 11:55 AM in response to Doonge

Doonge wrote: …I don't seem to be able to restart my Mac in Safe Mode, which I think might be because it is an iMac using a Bluetooth keyboard (so it isn't registering the fact that I am holding the shift key as it boots up).

You're exactly right! Bluetooth is one of the last things to activate during startup. So, you need to wait for the startup chime before pressing the shift key. This is supposed to work…

Alternatively, there's usually a way to plug such a keyboard in-- can you do that?

Here's an article that might help:

Mac startup key combinations - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Doonge Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 7, 2026 12:18 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks for the help!

Unfortunately, I think it might be a problem with my phone as I tried to backup the photos on a Macbook instead, and while it worked for the first 1,000 photos or so, it's frozen again and refusing to import the rest of my photos. Am I just being too impatient, or do you think there is an underlying issue?

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