mojava breaking photo import from Android

Photos on Mojave is broken, not Android. I'm running High Sierra and Mojave on separate partitions, and Photos can import from my OnePlus 3T just fine on H.S., but not on Mojave.

No need to make excuses for app developers; if they don't want to support the photo transfer protocol that everyone has been using for years, people can make up their own minds how many new red marks go in the Apple column of their platform evaluation matrix. I use W10, Ubuntu, MacOS, and a couple of odd platforms, and right now, Mojave is the only one that can't do it.

I'll do the ol' feedback thing and expect to see it fixed just in time for 10.15 to be announced next June.

Meanwhile, there are several inconvenient workarounds based on copying the photo files to the Mac using, for example, Android File Transfer, which still works, and then importing them into Photos. Works, but is unpleasant.

It is always up to third party app developers to maintain their apps to continue working with OS upgrades. Neither Apple nor Microsoft have the time, knowledge, access, nor resources to update hundreds of thousands of third party apps.

I very much doubt that the Apple developers that are responsible for Photos, tested it with every (or any) Android phone. Their first responsibility in a busy product cycle is to Apple product (Mac, and iOS devices) owners, and images from cameras where collaboration exists between Apple and the camera vendors. Android, if at all, is likely at the end of the list for minimum ship criteria.

In addition to my iPhone, I have a Nokia N9. I put the N9 in Mass Storage mode and it mounts to my Desktop, where I drag out the images that I want to my Desktop. From there, I may decide to add them to Photos via the Finder Share menu.

I don't make excuses for Apple, or any other developers. Wait for 10.14.1, or 10.14.2, and see if the Android interoperability issues that you are experiencing with Photos v4.0 are resolved.

I never expect everything to work perfectly in a first major release.

Sure sounded like an excuse, but whatever, you're totally right about .0 releases. There's at least one workaround, and I do expect it to get fixed, so let's just wait this one out.

That said, while the problem shows up with Mojave, it's still possible that Android is broken - I just didn't want to let Apple off the hook so fast, because they need to be involved in the resolution. If you have a standard (i.e., an accepted protocol), and "partner A" has implemented something that violates the standard, but is inadvertently tolerated by "partner B" until "partner B" implements the standard more rigorously, it's "partner A's" bug. But they can't fix it without "partner B's" help (Apple, in this case). Apple has to identify what's failing in "partner A's" behavior (they don't have to fix the bug, just isolate it - i.e., prove that it's "partner A's" bug). I've personally been involved (as an engineer) in precisely such "disputes" and unless both sides work on it in good faith, customers suffer. Standards are tough work. Apple has tons of them, and almost everything "just works". It's impressive, to say the least.

Google and Apple. Two ships passing in the night. Both continuously changing product and frameworks. Neither product team collaborating with another for end user interoperability.

I spent 30 years in the computer industry where there were supposed to be international standards in play, and saw first hand when customers were caught between the wagging fingers of two or more vendors.

I spent a similar amount of time in the computer biz as a software architect at a couple of Fortune 100 companies, and was directly involved in the specification and implementation of more than one standard. Meetings and interoperability testing with teams at other Fortune 100 companies were common during the early phases. So it does happen that product teams communicate and test each other's implementations.

But I believe that you're probably correct in saying that the Apple and Google teams in this specific circumstance haven't worked together (at least not very much lately). I could be wrong, of course, and certainly hope that they do what it takes to iron this out, because, as you say, customers are caught in the crossfire. Consider yourself very lucky if you have been inconvenienced by an incompatibility of two products that supposedly implemented to the same standard.

BTW, the reason that Apple has to deal with this is that it was their change that surfaced the problem (since it worked on High Sierra and earlier). The bug may be in Android, but Apple has to prove that (and software, unlike law, is pretty "cut and dried" - it's your bug or it's not).

I also have one computer on mojave and one on sierra. I can no longer download now that I switched to mojave. I have to download on the other one in order to get them. To me this is an Apple thing.

It's sort of working for me, but different from before. You need to select "Transfer files", not "Transfer photos". This should open what looks like a Finder window on the root storage level of the phone. Of course it's not actually a Finder window (and it's not at the true root level of the phone, but that doesn't matter). In that window, you have to navigate to /DCIM/Camera, copy the image files in that "folder" to some folder on your Mac, and then import those files into the Photos app.

Before 10.14.2, setting USB to "Transfer photos" took you directly to the correct folder on your phone (at least I think it did - it's been a while since I used it).

So still possible, even more inconvenient than before. No idea how Apple engineers who might just happen to have an Android phone haven't noticed (are they not allowed to have anything but an iPhone on penalty of getting fired?).

Thanks, I didn't try that. I'm able to get what I need without installing new apps on my phone or Mac (and I don't have a Samsung phone, not that that would matter), so I probably won't bother unless this would solve the Photos import problem. Do you know if it does that? I.e., will the Mac Photos app see the images on the phone so that they can be directly imported the way things used to work with Photos?

Ok, thanks. I'm able to access the photos on my phone with the less-functional Android File Transfer, and I saw some comments that non-Samsung phones didn't always work with Smart-Switch, so I'll just stick with my current inconvenient workflow.

Apple has algorithms for prioritizing user problem reports and while I don't know the details, anything that involves something other than an Apple product (and maybe especially a Google product) is treated differently from Apple products. If this was broken for iOS devices, it would receive more attention.

At this point, I suspect that there's some standards-based issue, where Apple considers that Android is not in strict compliance with some standard that Mojave now enforces. If it still works when you plug in an actual camera, for example, Apple is going to be less inclined to do anything, even though the problem only surfaced with Mojave.

So, long story short, this may not get fixed soon, if ever. Are there any other photo management apps that work with an Android phone on Mojave? That might be the best long-term solution. I'm not addicted to Apple's Photos app.

USB C direct photo transfer does not work - Photos App doesn't detect Pixel photos.

I've posted a fix for this here..

https://macintoshhowto.com/phone/how-to-import-photos-from-a-pixel-phone-with-os-x-mojave.html