Slow import from camera to Photos

I too have been plagued by uber-slow photo downloads. There has been tons of questions about what is your camera, transfer medium, etc. Those are irrelevant.

I found the solution...it has to do with iCloud. The default settings try to upload your images to iCloud. What I did was went to Photo preferences and selected the iCloud tab. There is a setting under iCloud Photo Library that lets you, "Pause for One Day". As soon as I did this, my photos downloaded immediately, all 1742 images in under a minute.

After they downloaded to my local Macintosh, I went back to the same tab and selected, "resume". Now they are uploading in the background.

There are more questions that I have, like I only want to keep about 10% of the images that I took. Once I delete them on my local machine, will they automatically delete in iCloud, or do I have to delete them twice?

This is the most helpful post I have seen on this topic. This appears to be a huge oversight on the part of Apple. It is very Microsoft-like, i.e. apparently seeking to do something in the background that the user did not request that prevents basic functionality from still working. Perhaps making iCloud sync an option with a reminder would be best.

So yes, the answer seems to be that simple, i.e., turn off networking. I will add something here that may be helpful: you need to turn off networking to initiate the import, but once the import starts, you can turn networking back on and importing continues successfully. I found this as I came home from an Alaska cruise and went to import over 1,300 photos, and needed to get back on line for the lengthy period of time it would take to import that many photos.

Thanks again.

Mark

Thanks! This finally did the trick for me: shut everything down, update OSX with latest update (duh), reboot, turn off WiFi on Mac AND ON iPHONE, then plug in iPhone to Mac. Photos started up and grabbed the 1200 photos/videos in about 10 min.

Apple: this is UNACCEPTABLE. It is RIDICULOUS that people have to beat their heads against the desk for hours before finding some secret trick in a support forum. Repeat: RIDICULOUS. Fix this!!

Just followed through this thread. For me it worked to turn off wifi, terminate Photos, then restart Photos, reconnect camera - much much quicker import.

Yes - this worked well for me. Instant response. Seems a bit crude for what should be a top notch product. Hopefully Apple will sort this soon

Good advice about narrowing down the problem. I have had this problem with a blank import window when trying to import from a camera (Sony) into Photos. So here's how I tried to narrow it down:

1) My computer can see the camera's SD card and I can open photos directly from the desktop.

2) Image Capture can also see the SD card and the images on it.

3) iPhoto can still open an import window successfully and import images from my USB connected camera.

4) Photos can't - at least not every time i connect. For some reason sometimes Photos will successfully populate the import window although it takes significantly longer than iPhoto used to - maybe up to 15 minutes.

I have reported this to Apple (via Support and the webpage for feedback) and think it's something they will have to address in an update. In the meantime I am working round by dragging images from the SD card on the desktop directly onto the Photos icon in the dock. That always works but it's a backward step in usability!

Is anyone really working in this SW company since the death of its founder??

We are in August and despite numerous complaints the problem is still a reality (like many others in this "new" iOS).

It's unacceptable this Apple Inc passivity!

Patracula wrote:

Is anyone really working in this SW company since the death of its founder??

We are in August and despite numerous complaints the problem is still a reality (like many others in this "new" iOS).

It's unacceptable this Apple Inc passivity!

Actually one update has been released and an upgrade has been announced for this fall and is currently in Beta testing - guess things go on in spite of the unfortunately demise of Mr. Jobs - he did a great job of organization and personnel select to assure continues great success - which as one can see form the stock price and the amazingacceptance of new products is working beyond anyone's wildest dreams

You all have a nice day you hear

LN

Hi, I have just found the solution.

If you open Image Capture and make sure you see all your photos inside Image Capture (don't import it), then open Photos. you will be able to see all your images very quickly and import it fast. I think some how Photos need Image Capture to connect to external sources such as USB card or iPhone to read all photos file.

It works with me.

Cheers.

I left networking active (wired connection still connected) but I turned off all Photos-related options under Preferences / iCloud.

Thanks to all who pointed us in the right direction!

I don't understand why Apple can't fix Photos after all this time.

iPhoto was a lot way faster than Photos in doing things like importing photos.

It is important that Apple fixes Photos to work as iPhotos.

If you try to import thousand of photos thru the Photos App it is too slow.