Why is it taking so long to import photos to my iphone and ipad?

Open the iPhoto library with the Finder as shown in this screenshot

locate the folder titled iPod Photo Cache and move it to the Desktop. Close the package, launch iPhoto and try syncing again, Does that improve the speed? That folder will be recreated the frist time you try to sync. So tray a second time also.

OT

Same issue. Maybe mine is more of an iPhoto issue.

iMac 2007 with Latest Software iPhoto 9.5(902.7), iOS 7.03 on iPhone 4S/iPad 2 or even SD Card reader or Olympus OM-D EM-1.

Blew the iPhoto Cache away as the 'Old Toad' suggested. Restarted, Opened iPhoto, things work fine (although a fair bit slower, but acceptable). Plugin iPhone, it mounts on the left sidebar but then the beachall starts and sits there until I force quit iPhoto.

Restarted and same issue. hmmm.... at least my iTunes synced but it took a LOT longer than usual.

It's hard to manage this as I have no other options in managing my photos. It's amazing, really haven't had as many issues that I've had with these upgrades. Uusally I install Apples latest and I have no issues, even feels zippier. That can't be farther from the truth this time as have had, Apple TV (Bricked for a bit), Garageband, iMovie and now these issues. Maybe the iMac 2007 wasn't meant to live.

Any direction would be appreciated. Apples been updating things lately (Garageband, Mail, iBooks) so maybe tomorrow an iPhoto update will appear.

If not, I may be looking at some sort of new system.

Sigh.

As a test launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Import some photos and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it?

That show that your original library is damaged and needs to be repaired. Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:

Fix #1

1 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.

2 - run Option #4 to rebuild the database.

Fix #2

Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library

1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.

2 - click on the Add Library button and select the library you want to add in the selection window..

3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.

4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.

5 - Click on the Create button.

Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.

Something's not right in the process, for sure.

It takes far longer than it ever did before recent updates.

I, too, have a very large iPhoto library, but that hasn't changed appreciably in recent months. And I don't sync many photos to my iPhone, and on most syncs no new photos require syncing. But yeah, during every sync, the Updating Photos stage just takes waaaaay longer than it should.

I agree in that the sync process is broken somewhere.

I have the same config as you Louis (iMac, OS versions), and also have my iPhoto library on an external drive. During the Step 5 "Import Photos" my external drive hardly does a thing. I suspect this phase is actually iTunes trying to understand what photos are already on the iPhone. I don't think that iTunes/iPhoto is trying to make images formatted for the iPhone as there isn't enough disk actvity at this time.

iTunes is lost - it is consuming a lot of CPU time, but I suspect what it is doing isn't useful. It just takes way too long.

I also had this issue and have been troubleshooting with Apple Support for months. I have found the cause and believe the solution will not be provided until Apple addresses the bug.

The issue is caused by movies. It doesn't matter if they were filmed on an iPhone or another digital camera but something has happened during a past upgrade that has currupted the handling of our movie files.

The catalyst that helped me identify this was installing Apeture. Any movies imported prior to my installation of Apeture now cannot be exported from iPhoto. Any movies exported post installation of Apeture have the date of export intead of the original date of filming.

I repaired & rebuilt my iPhoto Library... problem still existed.

I created a new iPhoto library and exported my photos (most movies wouldn't export so just exported photos). Tried syncing with iOS devices... no more "Importing Photos" for 4-15 minutes

Added movies to iPhoto and even if I leave the "include Videos" unchecked the "Importing Photos" returns and goes for minutes.

I have sent my findings to Apple and will advise if their engineers give any idea of when this will be fixed.

Thanks, Old Toad. I had a similar issue, and it was fixed (quickly!) by repairing the database.

Yes, thank you Old Toad. That worked like a champ!

My problem is similar but with a different twist. I have been taking pictures on my iPhone forever adn importing them into iPhoto, and I would delete some but not all of the pictures from my iPhone. I recently decided to free up some space on my iPhone, so I deleted all of he pictures in my Camera Roll. All the picturs there were already in iPhoto, and I just created an album of the picturs I wanted and have set that up in iTunes to sync to the iPhone. So this makes sense and I am finally starting to use iPhone/iPhoto/iTunes the way it is intended.

But now when I connect my iPhone, iPhoto starts its usual routine of checking to see what photos to import. If I have no new photos, iPhoto hangs up on "loading" forever. But if there is even one picture to import, no problem. So with iPhoto hung up, I can unplug my iPhone, take a random snapshot, plug it back in and am immediately asked if I want to import the one photo.

I can import it or not. If I do not, every time I unplug and replug the iPhone, I get immediately prompted about importing one photo. If I import it, I can unplug I and replug the iPhone, close and restart iPhoto, and each time it briefly does the loading routine and in a matter of seconds shows me the last photo imported and tells me that all photos have been imported.

But when I delete that photo, I go back to the hangup on "loading" problem. It turns out that as long as there is one photo in my Camera Roll, everything works perfectly. When the Camera Roll on my iPhone is empty, iPhoto can't handle it.

So for now I am just leaving a picture in my camera roll. Not sure if this behavior suggest a corrupted datsabase that needs to be rebuilt, but I will give that a try at some point.