[Solved] Photos not Importing from iPhone to Mac? Fixes Here!

In most of the time, it is easy to import iPhone photos to Mac. Just plug your iPhone into the Mac with a USB cable, photos will be transferred to Mac in a short time. However, sometimes you just find photos not importing from iPhone to Mac. What’s going on with your iPhone and Mac? Keep reading this guide to find solutions.

Why photos won’t import from iPhone to Mac

It is necessary to figure out why photos not transferring from iPhone to Mac. Here are three main reasons to this issue.

• Connection problem. Your Mac and iPhone connection may be not steady enough so that Mac cannot recognize your iPhone, let alone to transfer photos. Furthermore, a damaged cable or a system malfunction might be the reason of the connection issue.
• Wrong setting of iCloud Photo Library. A wrong setting of iCloud Photo Library will lead to some photos not transferring to Macbook.
• Add too many photos to Mac at a time. Importing a large number of photographs from your iPhone to your Mac at once may cause the Photos programme to become stuck.

5 fixes to photos not importing from iPhone to Mac

This part provides you with 5 quick and effective fixes to photos not importing from iPhone to Mac. You can try them one after another until your problem gets fixed.

Quick fixes to fix photos won’t import from iPhone to Mac

It may not be a serious issue, and the quick solutions provided here may assist you to troubleshoot in a short time.

• Keep your iPhone unlocked when connected to Mac.
• When a window prompts on your iPhone, tap Trust to let your iPhone readable.
• When connecting your iPhone to Mac, turn off iTunes. You might also try restarting both your iPhone and Mac.
• Third-party file storage services, such as Dropbox, should be disabled since they may conflict with Photos, iTunes, and iCloud.

Reset Location & Privacy settings

During the photo transfer process, your iPhone mat fail to be identified due to kinds of unknown connection errors that result from location and privacy settings. You can try to resolve iPhone won’t transfer photos to Mac issue by resetting your iPhone’s Location & Privacy settings.

Go to Settings > Choose General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Tap Reset Location & Privacy.

After that, connect your iPhone to MacBook and try to import photos again.

Check for update on your iPhone and Mac

The operating system or software on your Mac or iPhone may be too outdated to support picture transfer, stopping you from transferring photos from iPhone to Mac. At this point, you must update the system and any associated software.

• Update photo-management App (iPhoto, Photos, Image Capture) to its latest version.

• Update iOS operating system on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > Software Update. If there is an update available, tap Download and Install.

• Update your Mac operating system by going to Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update > click Update Now or Upgrade Now.

Turn off/on iCloud Photo Library

If you enabled iCloud Photo Library and Optimize iPhone Storage option on iPhone, the photos will not actually be stored in your iPhone storage. Therefore, if you find not all photos importing from iPhone to Mac, there may be something to do with your iCloud Photo Library settings on your iPhone and Mac. To fix the issue, you can try these two ways.

Way 1. Disable iCloud Photo Library on iPhone
Go to the Settings app on your iPhone > Tap [your name] > Choose iCloud > Photos > Toggle off the switch beside iCloud Photos.

When a window prompts choose Download Photos & Videos, and all photos on iCloud will be saved to your iPhone.

Way 2. Enable iCloud Photo Library on Mac
You can also turn on iCloud Photo Library on Mac to let the photos in iCloud be synced to Mac via iCloud, and you don’t need to manually upload the iPhone photos.

On your Mac, click the Apple icon > Go to System Preferences > Choose iCloud > Options next to Photos > Toggle on iCloud Photo Library.

Repair Library

It's a little tricky, but it's useful to fix the photos library on your Mac if you find that photos won’t import from iPhone to Mac. To give it a go, follow the instructions below.

Step 1. Quit Photos on Mac > Launch Photos again and immediately press the Command + Option keys.

Step 2. When the Repair Library window prompt, choose Repair to launch the process.

Bonus: Transfer iPhone photos to Windows PC

If you also own a Windows PC, actually, you can use a simple way to move iPhone photos to your computer. AOMEI FoneBackup is popular and professional iOS data transfer and backup tool. It can successfully help you import photos, videos, messages, contacts from iPhone to Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 computer.

It helps transfer 100 photos from iPhone to computer in 3 seconds. Besides, the backup functions enable you to prevent your important iPhone data from losing.

Step 1. Download AOMEI FoneBackup on your computer > connect the iPhone to the Windows PC > tap Trust on your iPhone.

Step 2. Open this tool > select Phone Transfer > iPhone to PC and click Get Started.

Step 3. Click the plus icon to add photos from iPhone > preview and select the photos you want to import > tap OK.

Step 4. Click the Start Transfer button to import photos from iPhone.

Summary

That’s all for the solutions to the issue - photos not importing from iPhone to Mac. Hope they can help you out of the problem. If this guide helps you, please share it with others.