Photos keeps failing on import

Minor update:

i was able to get pix off of iPhone using image capture, however a problem remains:

The number of pictures in photo app on iPhone (about 3300) don't match up with the number of pix in settings -> general -> about on iPhone (5500). I'd like to delete the pix from the phone, but I don't want to miss any.

DOes the "about" number pull from other places in the phone?

update #2:

getting weirder...

I used Image Capture to delete the photos off my phone, then used iTunes to put back only the last 3 months.

iTunes put the pictures back, but they are not in the camera roll. I can only see them under "Moments" and I now I cannot delete them! (the trash can is greyed out)

I've brought the pictures on my phone down from 5,500 to 970 from the last three months, but now I can't go through and delete any of those.

I was not using iCloud Photo Library, but I vaguely remember trying it out when it was new. What it sounds like is that I had some photos that were on my phone via iCloud Photo Library and some that were on my phone via iTunes. Since they're both saved/organized differently, that's what was messing me up. Does that sound right?

Lsat night I was able to save everything from Photos to my iPhone through iTunes the way I wanted, but I ended up having more issues. I could delete some pix, but not others. I had albums created on my computer and albums created on my phone. The albums wouldn't stay in sync. I gave up and bought more iCloud storage and let it run overnight. It's only uploaded half of my pix so far, but everything on my iPhone and iPad are super nice. All the albums are synced and everything. I really like it, which is a bummer because now I'm paying more. Maybe it's easier to justify the extra cost as being chaper than a new hard drive. I was running out of space anyways.