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Level 1

30 points

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

My configuration: iMac 2007, 10.9, OS 7.0.3 on all devices, iPhoto directory on external Firewire drive.

It's always taken a while for my devices to complete the "Importing photos" step of the syncing process - maybe 2-5 minutes.

Since the iOS 7 update, and iTunes 11.1, that process is taking up the 30 minutes! I have a very large iPhoto libray (260 gb and over 49,000 items) that is stored on an external Firewire drive. All that is set to sync are several relatively small photo albums that rarely change, and a smart album consisting of "Last 3 Months." The sync takes forever, regardless of whether any new photos have been added recently. I'm seeing the same behavior on my iPhone 5 and iPad Mini.

iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 10:23 PM

20 replies

Old Toad

Level 10

207,721 points

Apr 25, 2014 8:41 AM in response to djcushing

As a test launch iPhoto with the Option key held down and create a new, test library. Remove all photos from your iPhone, connect the phone to your Mac and test to see if the same problem persists. Does it?

Apr 25, 2014 9:10 AM in response to Old Toad

Exactly the same behavior. FWIW, if I am looking at the iPhoto screen where it presents a button I can click on to delete the photo from my iPhone, if I click on that it deletes the photo and goes right into the "loading" lockup.

Apr 25, 2014 9:14 AM in response to djcushing

And also in case of interest, I have an iPhone 5 running iOS 7.1.1, iPhoto version 9.5.1, running on a Macbook Air running OSX 10.9.2

Apr 25, 2014 9:17 AM in response to djcushing

And I get the same behavior on my iPad Mini also running iOS 7.1.1.

Apr 7, 2017 3:06 PM in response to Old Toad

I did Fix #1 and it worked great!

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