How do I import all moments - not just camera role from iPhone?

However when I go to import into Photos for Mac I can only import photos taken on the device. How do I import all moments?

Have your photos been synced to the iPhone using iTunes?

Then the mac cannot import the photos from the iPhone to Photos. Synced photos are not stored in the camera roll.

Apple recommends to retrieve synced photos by sharing them by email.

Sync photos to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in iTunes - Apple Support

You can't reimport pictures synced from your computer to your device back to your computer. You can only import pictures taken by your device, or saved to it, from your device to your computer. If you need to retrieve synced photos from your device, email the photos from the device to yourself. Then download the photos from the emails to your computer.

This is cumbersome, because you cannot share more than a few photos at a time.

Look for a third-party app that can transfer the photos, for example http://www.wirelesstransferapp.com/

Using iCloud Photo Library will migrate all photos to the Mac and keep the libraries in sync so all changes (additions, deletions and edits) made on any device are made on all devices

LN

It is not a good moment for garethjreid to enable iCloud Photo Library, Larry. The photos on the iPhone are the only copies thatgarethjreid has left.

The moment he will enable iCloud Photo Library on the iPhone it will wipe all iTunes synced photos of the iPhone and leave only the photos in the camera roll. Cloud Photo Library will have to wait, until we are sure, if the only copies of the photos on the iPhone have been copied there by iTunes sync or not. Otherwise iCloud Photo Library is very convenient, to keep the libraries in sync across the devices, as long as the library is small enough, so we do not have to fall back on "optimize".

So, how did you get the photos onto your iPhone? Have they been synced to the iPhone with iTunes, or are they in the Camera Roll and have been taken with the iPhone?

however most were from my Mac.

And how did the photos from your Mac get onto the iPhone? That is the answer we need. With iTunes? Dropbox, My Photo Stream?

Using iTunes

Then you need to install a third-party application to get the photos of the iPhone. Photos on iOS9 has not much support for iTunes Synced photos. You can only mail them from Photos - three photos at most at a time. That is Apple's own recommendation. And not really practical to download thousands of photos.

I linked to an app in my first post, but I have not tested it. I hope Larry knows other apps that can download photos from the iPhone.

Good Luck 🙂