Failure to import photos from iphone :jpegvideocomplement not found

I am trying to import photos from my iphone 6s (version 11.0.3 15A432) to my Mac Pro (Late 2013, OS 10.13 (17A405)) using Photos application.


I have the 'erase photos after transfer' option selected.


It seems to transfer some files, and the process lasts for a while, however, in the end no new photos appear in my photos app, and nothing is erased from the phone.


The error I see is this:

User uploaded file

Mac Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13)

Posted on Oct 25, 2017 5:20 AM

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Posted on Feb 25, 2018 6:48 AM

And a final note on this, I upgraded my external hard disk to a 6TB one, and took the 4TB one which was Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), formatted them both to APFS, and imports with Photos work again. I'm also syncing my libraries (iPhoto and Photos) from one to the other now, for an added backup (which I did not have before).


So, I think we've got case closed on Case-sensitive being the culprit? Again, I did open a bug on this as well.


I recognize that folks need case-sensitive drives for a variety of reasons, but Photos doesn't like them. See workaround, though, it's still do-able. Or just grab an extra drive for Photos. Who couldn't use another backup of their Photos?

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Feb 25, 2018 6:48 AM in response to Will Dinyes

And a final note on this, I upgraded my external hard disk to a 6TB one, and took the 4TB one which was Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), formatted them both to APFS, and imports with Photos work again. I'm also syncing my libraries (iPhoto and Photos) from one to the other now, for an added backup (which I did not have before).


So, I think we've got case closed on Case-sensitive being the culprit? Again, I did open a bug on this as well.


I recognize that folks need case-sensitive drives for a variety of reasons, but Photos doesn't like them. See workaround, though, it's still do-able. Or just grab an extra drive for Photos. Who couldn't use another backup of their Photos?

Feb 14, 2018 9:09 PM in response to Creator Sokin

I think this one hits the nail on the head. There's something . . . janky . . . with live photo imports, and it seems to be related to disk formatting, though I'm not sure how. Here's my test setup:


  • MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-Inch, Late 2015)
    • Import of live photo, using Photos, to internal hard drive, APFS (Encrypted) format - success.
    • Import of live photo, using Photos, to external hard drive, Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) format - fail.
  • iMac (27-inch, late 2012)
    • Import of live photo, using Photos, to external hard drive (same one as above) - fail.
    • Import of live photo, using Photos, to internal hard drive, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format - success.
    • Import of live photo, using Image Capture, directly to Photos library, to external hard drive (same as above) - success (and yes, it still appears as a live photo in the Photos library, nothing appears to have been lost in translation).


I'm stumped, but at least I have a workaround of sorts: import to your drive via Image Capture if you're getting these sorts of failures.


Best guess? Case-sensitive is causing the issue.

Nov 21, 2017 6:39 AM in response to acady

I have exactly the same problem. MacBook Pro with latest High Sierra 10.13.1, iPhone SE with latest iOS 11.1.2. Previously it worked fine with the external HD (Mac OS Extended journaled).

Is Mac OS Extended (journaled) the full format name? Photos seems no longer be able to access video components, if the external drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (journaled,case-sensitive).

Oct 25, 2017 7:15 AM in response to léonie

I am afraid this is not the problem. The iphone is already set to 'automatic', not the 'original'

I highly suspect these are the video components of the 'live photos', since I don't have any videos on my phone that I know of.


btw, I think a XEON (albeit a bit aged) with 128 Gb of ram should be able to run any decoding task, even if the codec is implemented on the hardware, right?

Nov 26, 2017 10:58 AM in response to mbaris

This is right - also in my case. I've also tried to reformat the external HD with a non case-sensitive file system. Copying the photos library back to that volumes says (after copying most of the content) that the transfer could not finish because "there is a another object on the hard drive with the same name while the file system is not case sensitiv" (?). Absolutely strange.

Only solution: Keep videos stored on the iPhone and wait till this is fixed by Apple?

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Failure to import photos from iphone :jpegvideocomplement not found

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