ImageCapture+iPhoneX

Hi, I’m a photographer and years ago disabled iPhoto’s on my Mac as prefer using Image Capture to transfer iPhone images, videos and various edits via my Mac to external hard drives. I have not been able to populate Image capture since getting the iPhone X. 😱😱😱 I have all the most recent updates. I have iCloud photos on and keep the original and edited files in my phone. Am running out of space and would prefer to not download thousands of images from iCloud. I would very much like to populate Image Capture again. The apple store told me I need to switch off iCloud photos after having done a backup to the computer and iCloud. However am not feeling so comfy about that. Has anyone had the same problem let alone found a solution please...?