Photos app doesn't recognize my iphone when plugged in. how can i fix this problem?

when i plug my iPhone to my mac, iTunes recognizes my phone, but the Photos app doesn't. therefore, i cannot import any pictures from my iPhone. can someone please tell me how i can fix this problem?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 22, 2015 11:08 PM

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Posted on Dec 6, 2017 6:36 PM

i had the same problem but i finally found a solution that worked!!! on your iphone, go to settings > general > reset > then click reset location and privacy settings. this will reset all connectiions your phone had with your computer and will re connect! hope this helps other people

82 replies

Aug 16, 2015 8:40 AM in response to gail from maine

Hi,


I have the same problem. I am running Photos on Yosemite 10.10.4 and iPhone 7 iOS 7.1.2.


After I set up Yosemite on my Mac the Photos app wasn´t there I had to manually install it via the app store.


iTunes recognizes my iPhone but I can´t transfer my pictures. Photos does not recognize my iPhone.


How can I get my pictures of my iPhone?! Can somebody please help.

Nov 8, 2015 5:01 PM in response to mhufana16

I also have this issue. When I contacted support they said the only option was to pay for an increased iCloud storage package and use that to sync all my photos from my phone to iCloud before then downloading them back onto the Photos app. Recent updates to iPhone software still hasn't helped 😟. My husband has the exact same model phone, and is using a separate user name on the same computer and doesn't have this issue.

Nov 14, 2015 3:00 PM in response to mhufana16

This is a common complaint regarding Photos around here lately. Report you problem to Apple via https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html.


Try this temporary workaround posted by jdooley:

jdooley

Oct 23, 2015 1:36 PM

Re: Photos on Mac is not detecting and importing photos on iPhone

in response to jdooley

Solved

the solution that works for me is I plug in my iPhone to my iMac and then do a soft reset(restart) on the iPhone hold the home button and top right lock button uuntil you se the apple logo. After this the photos show up in iPhoto with the import/(delete after import) buttons highlighted in blue.

User uploaded file

Dec 5, 2015 8:42 AM in response to Old Toad

This worked for me as well. To be more specific. Shut down your iPhone. Then do a soft reset(restart) on the iPhone by pressing the power button and holding it until the Apple logo appears, then release the and let it start normally. Then enter your passcode to unlock your phone. Photos should now see your iPhone. Just click on your phone under Import and take it from there.

Jan 9, 2016 6:24 AM in response to mhufana16

I think I can help with this thread. This has been a frustrating issue for me, since I feel the photos app hasn't been the easiest to work with since transitioning from iPhoto. I contacted Apple support to shed some light on this and the support member did say this is a common issue, but also seemed as if they have several causes for this issue, depending on the individual user. I made the call while i was at work, so the agent was only able to give me suggestions, as i was not in front of my iMac. He asked if i had a dropbox account. I wasn't sure, so when i returned to the iMac, I searched for that application, but i did not have a dropbox account. This lead me to believe that I might have possibly downloaded a program that allows access to my photos. I downloaded the amazon photo app a few months back ( this amazon photo app was downloaded after my last successful photo backup). I deleted the app from my iPhone and plugged in my iPhone, only for the dreaded "white screen" to appear in the "import" tab with no photos to preview. I followed the procedure listed from user "Old Toad" and "RobertF8" from this same thread. After performing the soft reset and unlocking my iPhone, the "no photos" message appeared on the Import tab. I disconnected my iPhone and reconnected it right away. This brought up the imports tab again, recognizing my iPhone and sure enough, all of my photos appeared on my preview list and the "Import all" was finally clickable. This has been an ongoing issue for me for several months, as it recognized I had about 5,134 photos to back up from my last back up.

I think this might vary from user to user, depending on any non apple photo app that allows access to your photos. I feel this was a lousy way to go through these steps, as apple does not have a solid fix to this issue yet. If you have dropbox, I suggest closing the app from your iMac as well. Good luck.

Feb 8, 2016 4:05 AM in response to RobertF8

iPhoto is able to detect my iPhone after following the soft restart. Problem is it will hang at downloading. Even after waiting for an hour, no photo appears. So I can't proceed with the import. No sure if anyone experiencing this. This happened around the same time after I did an iOS update in December 15. Issues also occurred for my iTunes backup. Intermittently, it will say that my iPhone disconnected. This is extremely frustrating.

Feb 23, 2016 8:10 AM in response to mhufana16

I am having the same issue after trying everything that's been mentioned on this thread. Photos does not even open when my iPhone 6s plus is plugged in, and iTunes does and operates/syncs normally. When I open photos manually, no import options exist. If I select import from the pull down menu, it brings up a finder window and no iPhone is mounted as an option to import from.

Feb 24, 2016 5:12 PM in response to mhufana16

Per Gale From Maine's reply above:


1. Connect your iPhone (or iOS device).

2. If Photos does not launch automatically, go to Launch Pad and open Photos.

3. The Photos window opens. Look at the top of the window where the menu is. There should be a menu which says "Photos", with < > arrows next to it.

4. Click on this and you can select "Import", which when you do, Photos will now recognise your device connected on USB.


I hope this helps.

Feb 24, 2016 5:15 PM in response to terriergal

Per Gale From Maine's reply above:


1. Connect your iPhone (or iOS device).

2. If Photos does not launch automatically, go to Launch Pad and open Photos.

3. The Photos window opens. Look at the top of the window where the menu is. There should be a menu which says "Photos", with < > arrows next to it.

4. Click on this and you can select "Import", which when you do, Photos will now recognise your device connected on USB.


I hope this helps.

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Photos app doesn't recognize my iphone when plugged in. how can i fix this problem?

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