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Mac Photos keeps import the same photos

I have annoying problem, whenever I connect my iPhone 11 Pro Max to my MacBook Pro 2017 in order to transfer new photos into my Mac Photos library, it showed about 500+ New Photos to be imported while actually I got only about 50 new photos. If I continue import these "new photos" then I have to manually delete them which I found duplicate.


The 500+ photos were selected as new photos although most of them already imported into my library.


Please help!


Thank you

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.5

Posted on Nov 8, 2021 2:19 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 8, 2021 2:41 AM

There are two common possible reasons for this:

  • iCloud: If iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone or My Photo stream, you may continually be seeing local copies of the cloud photos downloaded from iCloud as "new" photos. Using iCloud Photos or My Photo Stream will make the duplicate detection difficult, as the downloads are new files.
  • Format conversion to JPEG: if you are taking the photos as HEIC files on the iPhone, but are converting them automatically to a more compatible format, when you import them to the computer, the original HEIC files on the iPhone will always appear as new photos, because you are not importing them, only converted versions. Avoid a format conversion when importing from the iPhone.

Some users reported, that whatsup photos also appeared as duplicates. I cannot test this, as I am not using WhatsApp.


To avoid duplicates on import, delete the photos from the iPhone, that you already saved on the computer. Or, if you are using iCloud on the iPhone, use it also on the computer and avoid the manual download from the iPhone.



4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 8, 2021 2:41 AM in response to bari72

There are two common possible reasons for this:

  • iCloud: If iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone or My Photo stream, you may continually be seeing local copies of the cloud photos downloaded from iCloud as "new" photos. Using iCloud Photos or My Photo Stream will make the duplicate detection difficult, as the downloads are new files.
  • Format conversion to JPEG: if you are taking the photos as HEIC files on the iPhone, but are converting them automatically to a more compatible format, when you import them to the computer, the original HEIC files on the iPhone will always appear as new photos, because you are not importing them, only converted versions. Avoid a format conversion when importing from the iPhone.

Some users reported, that whatsup photos also appeared as duplicates. I cannot test this, as I am not using WhatsApp.


To avoid duplicates on import, delete the photos from the iPhone, that you already saved on the computer. Or, if you are using iCloud on the iPhone, use it also on the computer and avoid the manual download from the iPhone.



Nov 8, 2021 10:09 AM in response to bari72

Since a couple of months I have the same problem when importing photos from my iPhone SE 2nd generation (iOS 14.8) to Photos 6.0 (361.0.100) on my MacOS Big Sur 11.6.1.


I have tried turning on/off automatic conversion when transferring pictures in my iPhone settings, but doesn't make any difference. I am not using iCloud photos or offloading photos to iCloud.


It just seem that photos or videos that I have saved or created in Instagram et. al. always get duplicated. In the past, a few years ago, I had a similar problem with all content saved from Snapchat but now with Instagram et. al. that I use more frequently it is becoming really annoying.


Deleting the original from my iPhone or using Duplicate remove programs are not an option. There is some kind of bug and I hope that Apple pick this up and investigate the cause of it.

Nov 8, 2021 10:35 AM in response to henrik3rd

The duplicate detection in Photos for Mac can only detect exactly identical files. If some syncing service, like Instagram, keeps downloading similar photos of the same file, they will appear over and over again as new files. In that case you have to select the really new files manually on import and not trust the automatically shown new photos.


Mac Photos keeps import the same photos

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