How can I import photos from my iPhone to my iMac?

Question

How can I import photos from my iPhone to my iMac?

When my iPhone connects to my wireless network, my iMac shows it in a Finder window, and in Apple Music. It used to also appear in Mac Photos, which let me import my photographs. (I have decided not to use iCloud.) When it would appear, I could choose which photos to import. But it no longer shows up in Photos, and I have no idea why. I want to import my photos. This used to work. I think I changed something in the settings somewhere, but I can't find it.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: I can't import my photos on my Mac. My iPhone doesn't appear in the Photos Sidebar.

iMac 27″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 26, 2025 11:23 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

214,368 points

Jul 27, 2025 02:17 PM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Try the following in order as needed:

1 - launch photos with the Option key held down and create a new, empty library.

2 - connect the iPhone to your iMac with it's USB charging cable.

3 - check the library's sidebar to see of the iPhone is recognized.

4 - if it is close the test library, open your current library and check to see if the iPhone is recognized in the sidebar.

5 - if the above fails open your current library with the Option+Command keys held down and restore/repair the library.

6 - after the repair is complete check the sidebar to see if the iPhone is recognized.

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Answer 2

brbo

Level 8

38,155 points

Jul 27, 2025 12:03 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Apple support has a useful article online (link below) that may help:

(There are several ways to transfer the photos from iPhone to Mac)

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

or

An older (archived) article may help troubleshoot:

If you can't import photos from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to your computer – Apple Support (AU)

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Answer 3

Jul 27, 2025 12:52 AM in response to brbo

Thank you for the suggestions. However, I am trying the Import process in the first link, but it doesn't work because my iPhone doesn't show up in Photos. None of the suggestions in the second link were helpful. I'm pretty sure this is a problem in my settings somewhere.

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Answer 4

Jul 27, 2025 07:46 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Miguel_Muñoz wrote: …None of the suggestions in the second link were helpful.

It would be more useful if you told us exactly what did happen when, for instance, you used the app Image Capture from the Applications folder as mentioned in that link. Frankly, saying "None of the suggestions … were helpful" rather than telling us what did happen is itself not very helpful.

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Answer 5

Jul 27, 2025 11:39 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Good point. Here's what I'm doing:

On the first link above…

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

… I followed the instructions under Import to your Mac. I have been doing this for years, and it always worked before. I get this far:

Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac with a USB cable.
If you see a prompt to allow your accessory to connect to your computer, click Allow.
Open the Photos app on your computer.
The Photos app shows an Import screen with all the photos and videos that are on your connected device. If the Import screen doesn't automatically appear, click the device's name in the Photos sidebar.
If asked, unlock your iPhone or iPad using your passcode. If a prompt appears on your iPhone or iPad asking you to Trust This Computer, tap Trust to continue.
…

(The one difference is that I connect using wireless. But that used to work fine. My iPhone's lightning port has worn out.)

In step 4, I don't see the import screen. I still follow step 5, because a prompt appears on my phone, and I enter my passcode. But that still doesn't bring up the Import screen, and my iPhone no longer shows up in the sidebar of Photos, even though it appears in my Finder and in Apple Music. So it probably thinks I'm using iCloud, but I'm not. This is why I suspect it's something in my settings, either on my iPhone or my iMac.

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Answer 6

Jul 27, 2025 02:41 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

I see what you mean. Image Capture is the Mac app I use when I use my printer/scanner on my iMac. I've never tried this on my phone. I'm trying to import the photos on my phone to my iMac.

(When I use Image Capture on my Mac, everything works fine.)

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Answer 7

Jul 27, 2025 03:29 PM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Miguel_Muñoz wrote:

I see what you mean. Image Capture is the Mac app I use when I use my printer/scanner on my iMac. I've never tried this on my phone. I'm trying to import the photos on my phone to my iMac.

(When I use Image Capture on my Mac, everything works fine.)

Again, what happens when you use Image Capture to import pictures from your phone?

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Answer 8

Aug 16, 2025 06:52 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

That's good information about Image Capture-- it eliminates the Photos Library as the problem.

Let's narrow things down a bit more. Try these steps:

Restart the computer (of course)
Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Be sure to go back to normal mode after a while.

Make a new user and see if the same problem recurs with it. This is a bit harder with Photos, because a new user can't access a different user's files. Try with Image Capture first. For Photos, you would need to move your Library out of your own user's folder up to the general "Users" folder.

The idea is to find out if the problem is with your account, or with caches and login items, and stuff like that. One of these steps may fix the problem, but their failure to work also helps figure out what's happening.

Let us know what happens…

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Answer 9

Old Toad

Level 10

214,368 points

Aug 16, 2025 09:01 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Connect your iPhone to your Mac with its charging cable. Then see if Image Capture recognizes it. I don't like doing any transfer by WiFi because if there's a momentary interruption things can go south quickly.

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Answer 10

Aug 18, 2025 06:47 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

"It would be more useful if you told us exactly what did happen when, for instance, you used the app Image Capture"

Apologies for the delay in responding. Somehow the problem got worse. I could no longer see my iPhone in the Finder when I connected. That new problem went away when I upgraded both my iPhone and my iMac to their latest OS. Now I back to the original problem, which is that when I connect to the iPhone to my network, it shows up in the Finder but not in Photos or ImageCapture.

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Answer 11

léonie

Level 10

200,157 points

Aug 19, 2025 03:18 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

Image Capture has a menu item (⋅⋅⋅) in the toolbar, where you can specify which apps are showing the iPhone, when it is connected.

For example:

You need to set this menu to "Photos" instead of "No app".

This menu may not be available when you are not using wired connection. Have you tried to get the lightning adapter fixed?

If it is not possible, it might help to remove the plist of Image Capture, this should reset the menu to the default "Photos".

Quit all open apps.
Open the Library folder in your user home folder, then the subfolder "Preferences" and drag the file com.apple.imagecapture.plist to the Desktop. depending on the System version it could also be called com.apple.Image_Capture.plist . Close the Preferences folder and the Library again.
Log out of your user account, then in again, then try again, if you can see your iPhone in Photos.

If you cannot see the Library folder in your Home folder use the Finder's main menu bar to open it.

In the Finder use the menu item "Go to" and hold down the options key ⌥, then click "Library" in the Go to menu.

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Answer 12

Aug 21, 2025 02:40 AM in response to léonie

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried that. I moved both the com.apple.imagecapture.plist and the newer com.apple.Image_Capture.plist to the desktop. Then I logged out and logged back in, but nothing changed, in either Image Capture or Photos.

I will mention that my Image Capture had nothing on the tool bar. It wasn't until I right-clicked on the title bar that I found the "Customize Toolbar…" menu. I added all the icons I see in your diagram, but when I click on the (…) menu, nothing happens. The button highlights when I roll over it, and highlights brighter when I click it. But no menu pops up.

The ~/Library/Preferences folder has a new file called com.apple.Image_Capture.plist.

Here's what I see:

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 13

Aug 21, 2025 02:35 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

I was unable to start my Mac in safe mode. My Mac has another problem. My internal hard drive crashed, so I'm running from an external drive. Unfortunately, this makes restarting my Mac very hard. I need to dismount my internal drive before restarting, then it fails to start, so I go into recovery mode and dismount the internal drive again, before restarting. When I tried to go into safe mode, it just went into a loop giving me the progress bar over and over again.

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Answer 14

Aug 22, 2025 12:09 AM in response to Old Toad

Can't you go into the System ➙ Startup Disk and select your external drive as the startup drive?

I've done that. That's the only option when I go to System ➙ Startup Disk. It still doesn't start up. I think it's because it remounts the internal drive every time I start up.

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Answer 15

Old Toad

Level 10

214,368 points

Aug 22, 2025 09:02 AM in response to Miguel_Muñoz

See the following regarding booting into Safe Mode:

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

At the login window you'll see this in the upper right hand corner of the screen:

Depending on the system it will have a different background color.

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