Turn off PHOTOS.

If you were "thrown out" of another thread for asking this question, it was probably because you hijacked someone else's question thread, rather than starting your own. It had nothing to do with hurting anyone's fee-fees at Apple. None of us here are that special.

If you don't want it, get rid of it. Open Applications, click on Photos, drag it to your trash, then empty your trash. You can't undo that, so don't decide six months from now that you actually really loved Photos, because now you're SOL.

This annoying feature can be turned off in the Image Capture app. Connect your camera and quit Photos which automatically launches. Launch Image Capture. At the bottom left of the window you will find a tiny up-arrow in box icon.

Click on it and it reveals a menu to select what launches when you connect this particular camera. The default is now Photos. Simply change it to "No application" and the harassment will stop. You need to repeat this for each camera or device (eg. card reader).

It is the same as it was in earlier versions of the OS and I had already set it in Yosemite but El Capitan had not copied this setting over.

Geoff.

PS: I don't think it is possible to uninstall Photos in El Capitan since its part of the OS

Problem is that the Image Capture solution works until you reformat your Memory Cards, then you're back to square one.

You cannot delete Photos as described above, it requires a trip to the terminal. Also, its will be reinstalled at the next update anyway, so another temporary fix rather than a definitive solution.

Terence,

Interesting.

Do you know exactly what Image Capture uses to distinguish memory cards? I guess they may have some unique identifier. In the past I was sure that once set, it worked for all of my memory cards. However, they were their directories were all named the default "Untitled". Since then I have given them different names.

I've just done a test and as you say, setting no application in Image Capture for one card does not set it for a different card. I don't know whether this is because of the different directory names or a change in El Capitan compared to earlier OS versions. Looks like some more investigation may be required.

Are you sure that if Photos is deleted it will be re-installed by updates? In the past on another machine I deleted iPhoto (for similar reasons) and it was not re-installed by OS updates.

I guess another risk to deleting Photos is the possibility that the app may include some code that is required by other apps (though that would not be good S/W practise). Other wise why would Apple 'discourage' deleting it?

Geoff.

Other wise why would Apple 'discourage' deleting it?

Geoff.

They don't "discourage" deleting it as much as the entire Applications folder is protected and the default message for all Apple apps is the same canned message regarding it being part of the OS, regardless of its importance to the OS.

With System Integrity Protection (SIP), it is a bit harder to delete things from the Applications folder.

The next time Photos pops up when plugging in your camera, memory card, etc.,

there is a check box in the upper left hand corner of the window that you simply uncheck

to turn off Photos from opening again when plugging in your camera.

You can then just remove it from the dock and you can ignore it exists.

This appears to do the same as Image Capture so probably has the same drawbacks that Terence Devlin mentions - after inserting a different SD card I let Photos run and unchecked the box you refer to. I Quit Photos and launched Image Capture and the setting for this card was now already 'No application'

What we really need to find is how set the default application in Image Capture to 'No application' The app has no Preferences but there is probably a defaults .... setting somewhere accessible from terminal.

Geoff.

GeeD wrote:

....

What we really need to find is how set the default application in Image Capture to 'No application' The app has no Preferences but there is probably a defaults .... setting somewhere accessible from terminal.

....

In this article:

Image Capture: Transfer images and other items from your device

there is a line:

"Choose AutoImporter from the “Connecting this [device] opens” pop-up menu to transfer images from a device to your computer whenever you connect it to your computer."

Which Implies to me that there should be an option for none?

FWIW, I don't get anything "auto opening" other than my camera download app when I plug in my camera which is like due to some time

past I shut things off (Unfortunately Adobe Bridge CS6 download is broke and likely never going to be fixed by Adobe since they

want to suck everyone into their 'ball and chain" system.)

OK, your camera setting in Image Capture must have been remembered.

Although there are no preferences accessible from the application there is a preference file 'com.apple.Image_Capture.plist' but it is not obvious to me what the items in it mean (opening with Property List Editor or TextEdit). Maybe someone more knowledgable can decode it to see if one can change the default application choice.

Geoff.

The preferences are set by volume UUID. They are stored in the ByHost directory individually in a com.apple.imageCapture2.UUID.plist file.

The preference UUID is not the same as the Volume UUID which can be obtained from diskutil in the terminal.

There are a couple of entries, but under the UUID parent there is a path to the auto-open app. If it is blank, nothing is opened.

I haven't tested what happens if you reformat the drive, but I imagine you will get a new UUID for the volume.

I also did not look at Cameras, but the UUID parent key has a device type entry.

Hi Matt

I see this window checkbox ONLY when I have a memory card plugged in and mounted. See if this helps you, if, you haven't found an answer.

Patrick

Thanks for this. I am rapidly getting out of my depth but out of curiosity I had a look anyway

I have one com.apple.imageCapture2.<UUID code>.plist and in this there are 4 entries, all with no path to an auto-open app. I have plugged in 1 camera and 3 SD cards and set each of them to open no application so maybe this explains that.

Since entries only appear to be created here when a device is connected, this preference file does not contain the default application path. That must be somewhere else.

Its not a big deal for me - only have to shut up Photos the first a new device or card is read so I'm happy to live with it. It's time to get on with other things.

Geoff.

Any time you reformat a card it's assigned a new UUID. Hence the issue returns.

Prior to the advent of Photos there was a universal option in Image Capture, Iphoto and Aperture: Connecting a camera opens... and you could choose any application or no application at all. That's changed now. Now there is no universal option, now the option is 'Connecting this camera open...' so you need to choose for each and every device - and each new device (and that includes reformatted cards) triggers a launch of Photos.

For those of us who don't use the app and don't need it this is a regular PITA. The solution is mind-bogglingly simple - restore the universal option. Works for everybody - those who want Photos and those who don't.