Image Capture not working

Hello!
Since I upgrade to MOJAVE, my image capture is not working. It opens the window, shows my digital camera, but doesn't appear any image on the SD card.

Any help?

Posted on Oct 15, 2018 4:47 AM

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Posted on Jan 8, 2019 9:52 AM

Ok this is a great thread and I think that thanks to DuKe1776 I found what the problem/bug actually is:


It has to do with the preview mode of both Image Capture or Preview.


If you open Image capture and switch the preview mode to list instead of thumbnails it works as it should i.e. you can drag, multi-select with shift, properly import etc.


The option is on the bottom left of the main screen (excluding the sidebar) - pardon my dark mode:


If you have thumbnails selected it wont work for Preview either. The difference is hat the default for Image Capture is thumbnails but for Preview the default is list.


Hope I helped and maybe someone should report this bug to Apple in order for them to have a more specific scope.

53 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 8, 2019 9:52 AM in response to paulomichels

Ok this is a great thread and I think that thanks to DuKe1776 I found what the problem/bug actually is:


It has to do with the preview mode of both Image Capture or Preview.


If you open Image capture and switch the preview mode to list instead of thumbnails it works as it should i.e. you can drag, multi-select with shift, properly import etc.


The option is on the bottom left of the main screen (excluding the sidebar) - pardon my dark mode:


If you have thumbnails selected it wont work for Preview either. The difference is hat the default for Image Capture is thumbnails but for Preview the default is list.


Hope I helped and maybe someone should report this bug to Apple in order for them to have a more specific scope.

Nov 13, 2018 1:16 PM in response to paulomichels

I was doing some research on this also. 2 hours later I found out that you can use the 'Preview' App.

Connect your iPhone* to Mac with USB cable > Launch Preview > Click File at the upper left corner of your screen > Choose Import from your iPhone > Pick up the photos you want to transfer by clicking Import or Import All > Choose destination for your iPhone photos.

*Substitute 'iPhone' for camera, SD card, etc

I hope this helps. I would have never update had I know they messed with Image Capture so much. URGH!!

Feb 17, 2019 6:53 AM in response to Hammertimede

No, they haven't!.. I just experienced it again and again! But while I was trying to trouble shoot:


I did figure out, that it's caused by the "ENORMOUS" amount of videos and pictures that are on your iPhone. Image Capture is have trouble trying to load too many images at one time. But, if you do these steps:


  1. Plug in an older iPad, or something with hardly anything on it
  2. Put Image Capture in LIST VIEW, located at bottom left corner of Image Capture screen.
  3. Unplug older device.
  4. Close and re-open Image Capture
  5. Power "OFF" your iPhone of interest.
  6. Plug it into your mac.
  7. Power the iPhone on while plugged in.
  8. BOOM!!! Like magic, everything appears!


Your best bet is to transfer and delete a little at a time. I did find also, while transferring, it's having trouble reading other edited images that are saved to your Camera Roll by other apps. It locks up the transfer.


In conclusion, we get so caught up with Image Capture that we totally forget about our other totally awesome apps, like AIRDROP! I was able to transfer and delete up to 44-48 pictures and Video at a time with Airdrop, (not more than that)... But, this allowed me to move and delete enough files so that Image Capture would start working properly on the load in.. If you do this, be sure to count the number of Airdropped files before you delete them permanently from your phone!

Apr 9, 2019 7:09 AM in response to Swaiiir

With that many photos, you should try to import them piecemeal. Do not try to import them all at once, especially since you experienced problems already.


The easiest way, in my opinion, would be to use Photos. This will allow you to easily have things organized as you go.

Yes, you can use Photos and get your photos to go to an external drive.

Photos keeps photos in a "library". Most people seem to use only one such library, which by default is inside the Pictures folder, inside the home folder. You can, however, have more than one library, and store them wherever you like.

Start Photos holding down the Option key, and it will ask you to select the library you want, or create a new one.



The actual photos are stored inside the library in their original format. The library is just a bundle (a special folder, which the Finder shows you as a single document), so you can, if desired, retrieve the jpg or heic files themselves in the Finder (or export them from the Photos application).

Mar 24, 2019 4:21 PM in response to ralphbu

This situation has been driving me crazy for months now. The device shows up, but I can't get Image Capture to even display images, nor will images appear in Photos, Aperture, or Preview. Apple Support was useless. So I searched internet on transferring photos from an iPhone to an iMac and came upon an app in the App Store called Photo Transfer. It had good reviews, and I thought, what the heck, nothing else is working so I will try it. I tried it and it worked! The crazy thing is that after it worked images are now showing up in Image Capture and Photos and Aperture as they used to. No idea if anything actually got 'fixed'. No idea as to what might have happened. What a shame that Apple Support is not on this and that I had to turn to an independent app to solve my problem. FWIW. Back about 1980 a video was made of Steve Jobs doing a presentation to a Computer Club meeting with Q&A at the end. Someone asked Steve whether he considered Apple to be a hardware company or a software company. His answer was neither -- Apple was a Customer Experience Company. RIP Steve Jobs, you are sorely missed.

Dec 16, 2018 10:09 AM in response to paulomichels

After upgrading to Mojave, here's the 'photo selection' problems that have showed up:

1- if I click on a pic at the bottom of my list, the cursor jumps up to the top of the list. I have to scroll back down to find the selected photo. Happens every time i pick a pic.

2- used to be able to select the first photo in a series, hold down the shift key, go to the last photo and click, and every pic in-between was auto selected as well. Not any more? Have to select each photo separately. And if I download these to someplace, and then want to delete the pics, I find they have deselected themselves, and I now have to manually select them all again in order to delete.

  • I talked to apple support and they had not heard of any problems, had me reload Mojave. Problem not solved! Any fix ideas?

Used to be such a handy, simple app to use

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Image Capture not working

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