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

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.

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.

I find that I sometimes also have to log out some (or all) other users to get Photos to recognize my iPhone. Restarting the phone is also necessary sometimes.

I had this problem while my phone was connected to my Mac through a hub that had a few other devices connected to it. I unplugged the hub and connected the phone directly to the Mac and then the phone appeared in Photos. What's odd is that the phone had appeared in iTunes all along.

I did a work around by sending the photo's via AirDrop.

Your files will be in the Finder/Downloads.  Send these to Photos.

I think there was a photo format as about half way through this process I was able to complete the transfer through Photos.

You will also have to delete the photos from your 'recently deleted' file on your device.  Long press and drag to the bottom of the screen was a good discovery to select items.

This fixed it for me. I was logged into two accounts and restarting the computer allowed Photos to see my iPhone. Thanks!

Plugged phone into a different USB port and that fixed the problem.

I was having this problem as well. My iPhone was plugged into an available USB port on my Apple keyboard. iTunes syncing no problem, but the phone didn't show in Photos. I unplugged it from the keyboard and plugged it directly into my laptop's USB port. Bingo, showed right up in Photos. Must have something to do with the power requirements being different for Photos? Only thing I can think of...because the keyboard doesn't provide the same amount of power to the devices as the built-in USB ports.

I had the same problem. The only way to fix was to restart the computer !! (restarting the iphone didn't work, neither re-pluging the USB cable)

Looks like this is the key for me. Bless you!!!!!!! Seriously. ~ Linda

Yep, same here. I tried all the other "remedies" (restarting my iPhone 6S Plus, etc.) and in the end, the only thing that worked was restarting OS X (El Capitain, 10.11.4). Go figure.

Thank you, thank you, thank you @Noeffort310!!!  I was having the same issue and it was caused by my DropBox Application like you mention!  All I had to do to fix it was temporarily pause DropBox syncing and then went to --> "Selective Sync" settings in the DropBox app (on the Account tab) and unchecked "Photos from iPhoto" (even though this is not the iPhoto app) and it worked almost instantly!

I think this post is not about iPhoto, but about Photos.

What makes you think OT was responding about iPhoto. OT's post was clearly about Photos....

Cheers,

GB

I am having this problem consistently with both iPad and iPhone. Once in a great while "Import" shows up as an option on the menu bar of Photos, but otherwise I go through convuluted pathways of turning things on and off, plugging and unplugging, it's just ridiculous. Apple- FIX this. Sometimes it takes days beforee I can download photos or videos, and I do this for my JOB. Software needs to be more reliable.