Finding a corrupt photo so I can delete it

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Level 1

8 points

Finding a corrupt photo so I can delete it

When I try to sync my iPhone 6S to Photos on my Mac, 2 (possibly) corrupt photos cannot import. Under the "New Photos (2 photos)" label I can see 2 gray squares that contain a default photos icon (2 overlapping rectangles). I'd really like to delete these files so that importing photos can get back to normal, but since all I see are default squares I'm unsure which files to delete. Any clues about how to find the offending files and delete?

The files also don't seem to have a name, as that does not appear in the error panel that displays after an attempted import. The error in Photos says "Unreadable Files: 2" and the error panel says "The operation couldn't be completed. (co…". Unfortunately the panel cuts off the rest of the error text.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), Trying to sync with new iPhone 6S

Posted on Mar 6, 2016 12:33 PM

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Answer 1

roystanfield Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 6, 2016 2:22 PM in response to roystanfield

I spent an hour or so on the phone with Apple Support, and found the origin of the problem. Not sure if it's helpful to others, but just in case I'm writing about it here.

Apple suggested that I turn iCloud photos sharing off on my iPhone and then import all of my photos to a folder on my Mac using Image Capture. Image Capture then spit out the name of the files with the error.

I noticed that those names looked a lot like these names:

These photos are older wall papers from an earlier iOS. I vaguely remember turning these nature wallpapers on to try them out, and somehow they had gotten into my synced iCloud storage. It seems that 2 of them had become corrupted and were preventing the import to Photos on Mac.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,639 points

Mar 6, 2016 2:06 PM in response to roystanfield

The error in Photos says "Unreadable Files: 2" and the error panel says "The operation couldn't be completed. (co…". Unfortunately the panel cuts off the rest of the error text.

Try to remember, if you saved photos while browsing the web or saved attachments from Mail. If no filenames are shown, the offending photos have probably not been taken with your iPhone but saved from other applications.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,639 points

Mar 7, 2016 5:13 AM in response to roystanfield

That is really interesting, thank you. Did you have optimizz storage enabled on your iPhone?

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