iPhone videos not importing to iPhoto but are no longer on iPhone

My iPhone videos are not being imported to iPhoto. I've tried photo stream as well as manually importing via USB. However, the problem really lies in the fact that the thumbnails are still on my phone, but not readily available to share. For example, if I click to play a video on my phone that i had attempted to import, it's almost like its in the cloud and needs to "prepare" to be seen or shared (the little wheel spins for a LONG time before it is ready to view). I am able to email a video to myself, download it to my computer, and import it to iPhoto that way, but each video takes 5-10 minutes to "prepare" itself on my phone before I can send it. That process would take hours for all of the videos over the last few months. I've tried airdrop, but my phone won't see my iMac. Any suggestions other than slowly emailing each individual video? Thanks!