Image Capture only displaying recent photos

Question

Level 1

8 points

Image Capture only displaying recent photos

For years I've been using Image Capture to transfer photos from my iPhone to my computer. (iPhoto has never worked properly on my machine.) I just plugged my phone in and opened Image Capture to download my latest photos, but Image Capture is only displaying photos back to Dec 2. I can't see any photos from before that date. I can see all photos before that date as expected on my phone (Albums --> All Photos). I've tried restarting and plugging phone back in to no avail.

I thought back on any recent changes I made, and could only think of two, neither of which occurred on Dec 2 (I was traveling abroad at that time).

1. I installed iOS8. I can't recall date, but it was definitely well after Dec 2.

2. I turned on iCloud Photo Library (Beta), but closer to mid-Dec.

Since a "feature" of iCloud Photo Library is that you can download your photos from there, I attempted that as a means to get my photos onto my computer, but it failed miserably and Apple should be embarrassed by the user experience (blame it on the Beta?) You can't drag and drop, you can't choose what folder the files download to, and I can't actually get it to download the photos I've selected. One time, it downloaded 1 photo I did not select rather than the 1,000 photos that I did select. All other attempts failed to download a single photo. But that's besides the point -- I'd rather be using Image Capture anyway.

So, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

iPhone 5, iOS8, Image Capture 6.3, tried on both MacBook Air and iMac

iPhone 5, iOS 8.1.2, Image Capture, iPhone Photos

Posted on Jan 13, 2015 5:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

AdamOmaha

Level 1

4 points

Jan 17, 2017 8:31 AM in response to jkvill1

I had the same problem a few days ago, probably on a newer version of iOS. It turns out my iPhone was offloading photos from the camera roll to iCloud and keeping only reduced resolution copies on the phone. Image Capture would only recognize the recently-taken photos and videos because they had not yet been offloaded to iCloud.

I fixed this by syncing with iTunes and deleting all music and video from the phone (to temporarily free up space), then going to Settings -> iCloud-> Photos -> and selecting "Download and Keep Originals." After waiting 1/2 hour or so, the original photos were back on the phone, and available to copy via Image Capture.

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Answer 2

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Jan 17, 2017 10:15 AM in response to AdamOmaha

AdamOmaha wrote:

I had the same problem a few days ago, probably on a newer version of iOS. It turns out my iPhone was offloading photos from the camera roll to iCloud and keeping only reduced resolution copies on the phone. Image Capture would only recognize the recently-taken photos and videos because they had not yet been offloaded to iCloud.

I fixed this by syncing with iTunes and deleting all music and video from the phone (to temporarily free up space), then going to Settings -> iCloud-> Photos -> and selecting "Download and Keep Originals." After waiting 1/2 hour or so, the original photos were back on the phone, and available to copy via Image Capture.

You could have simply opened Photos on your computer and downloaded them from your iCloud library. No need to involve the iPhone at all.

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Answer 3

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Jan 13, 2015 5:24 PM in response to jkvill1

jkvill1 wrote:

For years I've been using Image Capture to transfer photos from my iPhone to my computer. (iPhoto has never worked properly on my machine.) I just plugged my phone in and opened Image Capture to download my latest photos, but Image Capture is only displaying photos back to Dec 2. I can't see any photos from before that date. I can see all photos before that date as expected on my phone (Albums --> All Photos).

Image Capture will only transfer photos in the Camera Roll.
The other photos are already on your computer and were sync’d back to the iPhone using iTunes.

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Answer 4

jkvill1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 13, 2015 5:25 PM in response to jkvill1

Additional test:

When I plug into a computer that has a functional version of iPhoto, it too is only displaying photos back to Dec 2. Again, I can see all photos prior to Dec 2 on the phone itself. Many thanks.

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Answer 5

jkvill1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 13, 2015 5:28 PM in response to Chris CA

Thank you for the speedy reply, Chris.

If there are photos on my phone that I have never downloaded to my computer, and they are not appearing in either Image Capture or iPhoto, how do I go about downloading them? And what should be my proper method of downloading photos from my phone going forward?

Thanks again!

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Answer 6

joots

Level 1

4 points

Aug 29, 2015 10:28 AM in response to jkvill1

im having this same problem. been using image capture for years. now only recent photos show up.

i realize that these photos may have been saved to a backup file, but i also want them stored as simple jpegs in the folder of my choosing.

how can i backup these older photos on my phone manually?

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Answer 7

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Aug 29, 2015 5:00 PM in response to joots

joots wrote:

im having this same problem. been using image capture for years. now only recent photos show up.

i realize that these photos may have been saved to a backup file, but i also want them stored as simple jpegs in the folder of my choosing.

how can i backup these older photos on my phone manually?

You don’t need the iPhone.

Simply copy them from wherever they are on your computer to wherever else you want.

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Answer 8

Sep 10, 2015 8:45 PM in response to jkvill1

I'm also having this issue.

Connected my iPhone 5s to iMac (10.7.5).
Opened Image Capture.
Photos only go back to April 13, 2015.
Same with iPhoto.
I've always done it this way as another backup.

Please help!

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Answer 9

joots

Level 1

4 points

Sep 19, 2015 9:46 AM in response to Chris CA

they arent on my computer yet. they are only saved on my phone. im trying to save them to my computer by plugging my iphone in and using image capture like i have always done. however, image capture is only showing photos from a few weeks ago, not all my photos from the last few months. so i cant back them up and ive run out of space on my phone.

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