MacBook Photos app not seeing all photos from iPhone

M to the K wrote:

When I try to transfer photos from my new iphone 17 (IOS 26.1) to my macbook pro (2015) (IOS 12.7.6 Monterey) the macbook automatically opens the photo app as expected but then only "sees" about 1/4 of the photos on my cellphone, nothing from the last 4 years, and therefore thinks there are only 5 "new" photos to transfer when actually there are over 200 new photos. The photos ARE on my phone, not just stored in icloud, in fact I have never used icloud storage for photos at all (on the phone, under the "Saved to icloud" settings, Photos is set to "OFF"). I can transfer the photos using airdrop etc, and I realize I could probably use Image Capture as an alternate means of transfer, but why does the Photo app on my laptop not see and want to transfer most of the photos? This worked seamlessly for years with my previous iphone.

I had this problem after updating too. This is going to sound ridiculous but the workaround I figured out was:

1. Quit Photos (⌘ + Q) on Mac
2. Reopen Photos on Mac
3. Click your phone (keep it plugged in) in the sidebar and wait for it to either show all the photos or not
4. If not, repeat these steps until it does

It sounds odd, but after 5ish restarts of Photos, it does show all the photos to be imported.

Richard.Taylor wrote:

-Bubba- wrote: … 4. If not, repeat these steps until it does

I love that!

What happens if you just wait for that time? or switch back and forth to another app? Or re-boot?

When this first happened (right after I updated to 26) I let it sit for about 15 minutes and nothing ever changed, it would show the "preparing to import from" message briefly, then a blank screen with no importable photos despite me knowing there were plenty of new ones to import. Eventually I started idly restarting the Photos app and suddenly it loaded the pictures, hehe. I did a few tests to make sure it wasn't a fluke and it seems to be the only thing to my knowledge that gets it to work. It's an issue even after restarting both devices, and switching apps doesn't seem to do much; Photos on Mac has to be fully quitted to trigger Photos to look for the pictures again.

M to the K wrote:

Hard to say if this worked or not. I tried restarting the Photos app on the laptop, restarting the photos app on the iPhone, restarting both devices, etc. Usually no improvement, Then, suddenly, briefly last evening, it was working: the Photos app on laptop was "seeing" all the photos and I managed to transfer the new ones. Since then I am back to intermittent bad behaviour: sometimes the laptop app says "Preparing to import from my iPhone" but then nothing happens; usually it manages to "see" the oldest photos only, nothing from the last 6 years; sometimes, rarely, it sees all the photos. By the way, I am using a brand new cable bought at apple store yesterday.

Interesting. I usually have to restart it five to ten times before it shows everything, but I rarely have more than twenty or thirty new pictures when I import them over. Maybe with 200+ like you have it's more finicky? I would try ten or fifteen restarts of the app with your phone still connected between restarts (in my testing, it didn't matter if any apps were open on the phone or even if it was unlocked).

Regardless, it's a feedback-worthy bug: Feedback - Photos - Apple

-Bubba- wrote: … 4. If not, repeat these steps until it does

I love that!

What happens if you just wait for that time? or switch back and forth to another app? Or re-boot?

Photos is acting very slow for me. It just occurred to me that I should try turning off WiFi…

(doesn't help)

I fear that as iCloud grows, Apple is less and less interested in supporting cable transfers. I wonder if they do as much testing with it, but, of course, I don't know anything. But if it's offered it should work! It's worthwhile to submit bug reports and make sure they know what's not working.