PERMANENTLY Prevent Photos from Opening Automatically

Hey guys. I've had just about enough of the Photos app trying to assert it's dominance over my media cards... Trying to delete the app altogether, the OS gives me an alert that it cannot be modified or deleted because it is required by the operating system. Well too ****** bad! So I took a heavy-handed approach that seems to have solved my issue.

!!! I do not recommend this approach unless you thoroughly understand the implications. Proceed with extreme caution.

I right-clicked on the photos app icon, and selected "Show Package Contents." For safety, I first selected everything in the "Contents" folder and right clicked again to "Compress selected files." I left the new zip-file in place so that I can extract contents if I need them in the future, but then deleted all of the original files within the Photos App's Contents folder. This prevents the app from opening at all, because it effectively removes all of the application code from where it should be. I still have the Photos.app icon in my Applications folder, but effectively it is an empty container.

In addition to preventing the photos app from opening, this will prevent the operating system from performing any task that requires the photos app. As far as I can tell, this disables PhotoStream. I am not sure about AirDrop, but I don't care at all about those kinds of services. If you're still reading, probably neither do you. This solution remains effective after restarting, but I recommend disabling automatic updates in the App Store as well.

This is not a consumer-appropriate solution, but for we professionals who rely on professional imaging software, it does seem to do the trick. Use your own best judgement, but I hope this helps!

Update... This solution worked for about 2 weeks, but today, the application package files that I had previous removed seem to have re-installed themselves. I have disabled automatic updates from the app store, so I am not sure what mechanism was able to replenish these files.

This time I have deleted all of the files in the Photos.app package as before, including the .zip backup I had previously retained. On the now-empty Photos.app/Contents/ folder I have changed permissions to give "System" "Read Only" access.

In response to some of the above comments, I applaud the suggestion to change the default app to be opened on card insertion. However, I use my media cards for more than just media capture, and I frequently prefer to move files into desired locations manually, rather than importing into any managed library.

I am not certain of the permanence of this approach, but deleting the photos app as needed is easier than fighting it for control. I will continue to check back here until apple offers an official solution.

This is really very good to know, thank you, that El Cap tightens the grip even further! I am still on Yosemite, and only there because the 2015 version of Adobe CC complained about Mountain Lion. Generally, I advise people not to upgrade until they have to. Regular security and other minor updates are a good idea, but if your operating system is working for you, leave it alone until it isn't, anymore.

And a big thank you again to everybody who has posted! I know the discussion pages are not direct-feedback to Apple, but the more of us who complain about the same problem, the better the chances of a fix down the line. Please also submit direct feedback to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

Cheers

If you had read all of the previous posts, you would have seen discussion of versions of this solution. It is no solution at all, because the setting is lost when cards are reformatted.

Whether in Yosemite or El Cap, Image Capture or Photos...

When you are juggling a dozen media cards, and reformatting between each session (which makes a previously known card appear to be a new device), and swapping cards with coworkers, clients, and friends... It is simply untenable to perform a setting for each card again and again and again. What we need is the ability to set a DEFAULT behavior. We need a setting to IGNORE ALL MEDIA CARDS by default. No card-specific solution is appropriate for media professionals.

I apologize for treating your post as totally unhelpful! But it is. You have simply regurgitated the very common answer that frustrated me enough to begin this discussion thread in the first place.

Thank you Old Toad! That is precisely how one contributes to a discussion thread!

For the time being, my Photos.app/Contents folder remains completely empty, and Photos remains disabled for me. However if Photos revives itself again, I will keep your post in mind!

Cheers!