PumpkinInPortland

Q: Importing from Photos missing many photos

When i plug in my iphone to my MacBook Pro, the app photos pops up to import photos. Great, this is what I want! I just want all the photo files in a folder where I can plug it into Picasa, which is simultaneously a location I backup from, etc. I don't mind duplicates, but I don't want to miss anything.

 

But when I go to the import tab, it shows my iphone but there are only 42 "New Photos" to import. My phone lists 610 photos under "All Photos". I want to re-import all of these to make sure I didn't miss any. I know some are duplicates, I will sort that out later with other techniques. But I can find only these 42 random photos that it thinks are new.. where di the rest go!? Reboot of both mac and phone didn't change anything.

 

The history of where I've imported photos from this phone previously is complicated. Probably I got confused at one point and abandoned an import part way, etc. (so many apps to try to do this.. photos, previously iphoto, sometimes iCloud, sometimes AirDrop, .... oh my). And I've definately imported to a PC many times to clear the phone's memory which I cannot do this time due to access restrictions on that computer. So that part is my fault.

 

Is there a way to "reset" which photos are seen on this phone as new by Photos app? I've googled endlessly for this solution, which seems only to show solutions for PCs where I delete .db files. But no solutions I've seen worked for the mac and the memory is getting full.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), iphone 6s 9.3.5

Posted on Sep 30, 2016 2:27 PM

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Q: Importing from Photos missing many photos

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  • by alex_h1,

    alex_h1 alex_h1 Oct 1, 2016 4:09 PM in response to PumpkinInPortland
    Community Specialists
    Oct 1, 2016 4:09 PM in response to PumpkinInPortland

    Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities, PumpkinInPortland. 


    If I’m understanding your post right, you're wanting to do a fresh import all of the photos on your iPhone onto your Mac so that even the photos that have already been imported are imported again. I certainly understand wanting to make sure you don't miss any photos and I’m happy to help you do this. 

    There isn't a way to reset which photos the Photos app sees as being "new", but there is another way to get all of your photos imported. The easiest way to do this is with Image Capture instead of the Photos app. Take a look at the steps on how to do this here: Image Capture: Transfer images and other items from your device  After you have successfully imported your photos from your iPhone, if you would like to move them to Photos on your Mac,  you can do so by dragging the folder of photos from the Finder app to the Photos window. 


    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. 

    Take care.
  • by PumpkinInPortland,

    PumpkinInPortland PumpkinInPortland Oct 2, 2016 6:21 PM in response to alex_h1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 2, 2016 6:21 PM in response to alex_h1

    Thank you for your reply. I tried using Image Capture also, and it sees the same photos that "Photos" does, missing most of the hundreds on the phone.

     

    Any other ideas? I may have to go find a PC that I can download them with at this point..

  • by LarryHN,Solvedanswer

    LarryHN LarryHN Oct 4, 2016 8:18 AM in response to PumpkinInPortland
    Level 10 (85,108 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 4, 2016 8:18 AM in response to PumpkinInPortland

    What are your iCloud settings on the Mac and the iPhone?

     

    LN

  • by PumpkinInPortland,

    PumpkinInPortland PumpkinInPortland Oct 4, 2016 8:21 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 4, 2016 8:21 AM in response to LarryHN

    Thank you LarryHN! This was the culprit, I forgot I had selected an option in iCloud to "Optimize iPhone Storage". When I deselected Optimize iPhone Storage and set it back to Download and keep originals, I was able to download all the photos again!

     

    Funny this wasn't caught in my googling, surely others have hit this error too.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Oct 4, 2016 8:42 AM in response to PumpkinInPortland
    Level 10 (85,108 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 4, 2016 8:42 AM in response to PumpkinInPortland

    glad to have helped trigger that thought

     

    You are welcome

     

    LN