Photo app not recognizing my iPhone 5

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Photo app not recognizing my iPhone 5

I have an iPhone 5 and a Macbook Pro Retina. Both are updated and working fine except I cannot get my Photos app to recognize that my iPhone is plugged in. I haven't even owned this Macbook Pro for more than a week yet and it is brand new. I got my iPhone in January so it is also new. My iTunes is picking up that my iPhone is plugged in but my Photos app refuses to do so.. When I first plugged my phone into the laptop the other day I was in a rush and didn't want to import any photos at the time but my Photos app was picking up my iPhone. Now it's not.. What do I do!? I just want my Photos app to pick up my iPhone and allow me to import photos. I don't want to have to go through Image Capture or any other app to do so. Such a pain. Please help me!

iPhone not showing up on the top bar. It should say Katie's iPhone and show my photos..

iTunes showing my iPhone on the top bar.

I don't understand why the Photos app isn't picking it up but yet iTunes is. I never had these problems with iPhoto and iTunes on my old Macbook.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 13 inch, 2015

Posted on Feb 8, 2016 12:45 PM

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Answer 1

Katiektktkt Author

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Feb 8, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Katiektktkt

Sorry, I meant to type iPhone 6. I don't have an iPhone 5 anymore.

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Answer 2

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Feb 8, 2016 12:49 PM in response to Katiektktkt

When you plug your iPhone into the computer, does an Import tab appear in Photos?

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Answer 3

Katiektktkt Author

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Feb 8, 2016 1:00 PM in response to Katiektktkt

I just tried unplugging the iPhone and then plugging it back in and Photos recognized it. I quickly clicked the Import button and it started importing new photos. The Photos app wasn't loading all of the photos on my phone and it was acting pretty slow and weird. It hadn't even finished the import and then I get this message:

Why on earth is this happening? Someone please help meeeee

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Answer 4

Katiektktkt Author

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Feb 8, 2016 1:07 PM in response to Pmintz25

At first the import button wasn't showing up at all. It's showing up now when I unplug and plugin my phone but my photos aren't looking right.

It should be showing previews for all of my photos but I can only see six of them. I wait for the photos to show up and then the Photos app just removes my iPhone as if I had unplugged it from the computer but I never did. The import button also disappears when this happens. I hope this makes sense. So strange!

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Answer 5

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Feb 8, 2016 1:22 PM in response to Katiektktkt

Here are some trouble shooting steps. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204597

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Answer 6

Katiektktkt Author

Level 1

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Feb 8, 2016 2:06 PM in response to Katiektktkt

Image Capture was giving me the same problem and it would disconnect my iPhone. I had to delete a bunch of photos off of my iPhone then I kept trying to import to the Photos app until it finally worked randomly. I have no idea why this was happening and I really didn't even do anything to fix it.. it just decided to work for me after I deleted a decent number of photos. Weird.

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Answer 7

Pmintz25

Level 4

2,058 points

Feb 9, 2016 8:09 AM in response to Katiektktkt

There could have been a corrupt photo on your iPhone. This could cause Photos to have an importing error.

But for the phone to not even show up is a different story. You may want to back it up since it appears in iTunes and restore the iPhone.

Best of luck

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