iphone wont sync to photos in el capitan

hello marknee,

It sounds like photos cannot import your photos for some reason. I would use the troubleshooting in the following article to help you determine what might be causing that to happen:

If you can't import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Hi sterling r,

Do you have any other help?
I tried following the advice that you provided and it was no help. I don't synch my iPhone to the cloud as it takes up to much room and I have been saving photos to my iMac for that reason. Connecting my 5S, iPad Mini (Gen1) and other iPads (we have about 3 of various generations that get attached my iMac) I have the same situation. If I import photos from my dSLR memory card photos works properly. It just doesn't seem to work for the iDevices. Any advice or help would be appreciated as I have to see the apple store on Wednesday about an issue with my phone and I would like to be able to back up my photos.

Thanks 🙂

never mind
apparently I needed to do a restart for an update that I wasn't aware of
all working as it should be

I have an iPhone 5 running 9.0.2 and a Mid-2008 24" iMac with best processor, maxed Ram, and running OS X 10.11, and I am having intermittent problems with my iPhone syncing with Photos. The only work around right now is to re-start my iMac in order for my iPhone 5 to be recognized once again by Photos - especially for importing photos.

After I re-start my iMac, Photos immediately recognizes my iPhone 5 and I can import, share, etc. When I am done, I unplug my iPhone from the iMac via the lightning connector and leave Photos open. When I go back to my iMac and pug my iPhone back in, Photos does not recognize my iPhone. I can close Photos and open it back up and my iPhone is still not recognized by Photos. The only other device that is connected to my iMac is my iPod Touch that is running 5.5.1 and that has no problem being recognized by Photos.

And yes, I have the command button checked for Photos to be opened when my iPhone is connected.

I never had this problem before until I downloaded El Capitan to my iMac. I tried all the suggestions from Apple and nothing works. It's possible that there is a security issue or synching issue when I move from a late 2012 21.5" iMac at work running OS X 10.10.3 to my iMac at home. But unless I restart my iMac at home, Photos on my iMac does NOT recognize my iPhone 5.

and I'm back
and my issue is back - just plugged my phone in to get some photos off it and nothing. Photos doesn't show my phone in the sidebar. iTunes will say that my phone is there.
I'm not going to restart my iMac every time I want to get some photos off my phone.

What iOS are you using on your 5s? That would be helpful to know.

I got home from work yesterday and plugged in my iPhone and Photos did not recognize it but iTunes did.

I had to reboot my iMac and Viola! Photos recognized my iPhone 5. Hummmm.....

I've got an iPhone5S and I'm on El Capitan
It worked when I rebooted - but when I went to plug my phone back in it wouldn't recognize the phone. I don't think I should have to restart my iMac every time I want to get photos off my phone or iPad

I am having this same exact issue. iTunes sees my phone but no photos show up in the import pane — even though there are photos on the phone. I have to restart the computer to get them there. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry, but there is no work around other than rebooting your computer. I downloaded iOS 9.2 and OS 10.11.1 and that didn't fix the problem.

And I like to stated before, I tried all of Apple's suggestions to fix this problem and none of them work.

Thank you! I have submitted feedback about this to Apple.

same thing is happening to me.

plug, re-plug, restart app, etc. it knows the iPhone 6 is plugged, but no photos show in the macbook app.

all photos ready to import are in the "Camera Roll" on the iPhone.

hope there's a fix to this.

iPhone and iPad have the same issue - permissions updated, all latest software and only a restart let's me see photos on devices

.... 😕

Are you using a different Mac in another location? The reason I ask is that I am using a different iMac at work that is running Yosemite and my iMac at home that is running El Capitan. I'm just wondering if there is some kind of synching issue going on between iOS 9.1 and two different OS X programs when I'm switching back and forth.

I can tell you that when I plug in my iPhone 5 into my iMac at work Photos immediately recognizes my phone - but not my iMac at home.

I am just using a mid 2013 MBP with el cap on it; no other computers.

I tried using both Image Capture and iPhoto as work arounds to import my photos and neither one of these programs recognized my iPhone 5 on my iMac @ home.