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

Try rebooting both your phone and computer. Works for me every time.

That was suggested to the person you are responding to a year ago when it was posted....

GB

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

This was the only thing that worked for me -- not even restarting all my devices worked. Thanks!

Thanks for this. I rarely can see my iPhone in Photos, and I usually have to restart to fix it, and am getting tired of trying all the various voodoo techniques each time. I had forgotten about Dropbox photo upload capability, and the folks at Dropbox know how to make software that "just works".

Thanks a lot... I have tried a lot of different methods e.g. quitting Dropbox, restarting iPhone...None of them works but your sol'n immediately worked for my macbook! cannot describe how excited I am now to see the 'import all new items' button available

Currently dealing with the same issue.

i don't sync/ download photos too often.

Started with my old 4s three days ago, because I was getting a new SE delivered.

I tried the listed remedies: update phone to 9.3.2, update iTunes, restart phone, restart Mac, soft reset phone, pram zap, smc zap, repair disk permissions, turn off iCloud, turn on iCloud, turn off Drobbox photo synch, rub belly and head counterclockwise while holding down CTL-shift-option-space-ESC keys (tough!).  Tried Photos, Image Capture, iMovie, iPhoto.  Nothing recognized the camera, even as iTunes synchs up fine.

BTW using Yosemite, and Apple tells me iPhoto will NOT work under El Cap.  Could be wrong, that's what the rep said though FWIW.

Got the new SE with all my pictures transferred onto it.  Expectation was, problem solved as issue would have been with old phone.  However, issue persists even with the new equipment.  It is apparent there is some software issue or conflict causing the problem.  Seems that delete and reinstall Photos would be next but that is only possible with full El Cap upgrade which I am reluctant to do.

i am currently on my third Apple phone support rep.  First two were cordial but ineffective and as puzzled as me that the "import" box does not appear nor is either phone visible as a "device".  Today was kicked up to "senior support", also ineffective in solving the problem but spent much less time with random clicking around on my screen before surmising "might have to get the engineers involved".

Meanwhile was able to upload everything to Google Drive via there Photo app.

Very, very odd that the Google software works better than the Apple software.

Just to answer your question about iPhoto, it works fine on Yosemite as long as you have version 9.6 running. If you have not yet upgraded to 9.6, you can see if you will be able to by following this User Tip:

Get iPhoto 9.6.1 if you didn't update before OS... | Apple Support Communities

I have Photos, iPhoto, and Aperture all running fine on my Mac with El Capitan.

Cheers,

GB

I had the same issue. I saw in the thread to close Photos and iTunes and start over, so I unplugged the phone from the computer and closed iTunes. I plugged the phone back in, and Photos recognized all the photos on the phone. Make sure you have the phone set to have Photos open when it is plugged into the computer first.

Make sure there's enough free disk space available.

After removing a few gb's of data, the import tab in Photos started to reappear!

I called Apple Support today on this. After screen sharing, trying a safe boot, and trying a different account, none of which solved the problem, they have said I'll need to reinstall OS X. That's actually easier than it sounds, but I'll need to leave it for a few weeks as I'm in the middle of vacation. I'll report back once done.

Turns out quitting iTunes and restarting it solved the problem.

Restarting my Mac solved the issue

Same happened with me - try another USB port

This isn't really a solution because it references iPhoto not Photos...

Worked for me too -- though why the USB port on the left side of the computer didn't work, but the right one did, is beyond me.