How do I get photos from phone to laptop without iCloud?

When you connected the phone, you don't want to sync the photos as that only goes from the Mac to the iPhone, you want to open Photos on the Mac and Import your photos from the connected phone. Before you do that though, in Finder window, select your phone in the sidebar and under options, turn off the setting that automatically syncs the phone when connected, as I think that is what happened to you.

By the way, yesterday I did AirDrop 1,300 photos and although it took about 5 minutes and did work when I did not think it would. Another option for you is Image Capture to choose where you want to save the Photos.

Image Capture User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Epgunn wrote:…I actually tried the import method first.

Some people have had trouble importing that was fixed by making sure that the phone was locked before plugging it in to force Photos to ask you to unlock it. That's worth a try.

Another often useful method is to use the Image Capture app that's in your Applications folder. The "start with the phone locked" rule may be necessary there, as well.

I'm impressed with Mac Jim ID's mass AirDrop method!

Just for diagnostics, can you tell us

• Do you have more than one Photos Library? 
• Where does your Mac's Photos Library reside-- in the Pictures folder of your internal drive, or on an external drive? or on a network? on iCloud drive?
• Are you using a VPN?
• Do you use any "Cleaning" or "Virus catcher" apps?

Have restarting in Safe Mode? his 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 

Same problem here. Recently got an old iPhone 13 pro max, iOS 26.3.1 / iMac 27 Retina (2017), OS Ventura.

I connect the iPhone, open the Photos app and get "no photos." I don't use iCloud, I used to always back up to the iMac.

Can you tell us what happened when you tried each of the things listed in this thread?

Can you answer the questions we asked?