Stuck on 0 photos imported (iphone to Apple Photos)

Apple photos cannot seem to download my iPhone photos anymore. I'm running out of storage on my phone, so wanted to download them, but it's constantly stuck on 0 out of 2,000 photos. I've backed-up my phone to the same Macbook without any problems. But it refuses to import a single photo. Have restarted each device several times, used a different port, none of it works. Photo stream used to work seamlessly (while at home over wifi). Now even with a cable and two apple devices on the latest software, it fails.

Side note, this is why I use Google Photos. Most of the time I have no issues there and the storage costs are more reasonable. Forcing me to upgrade to iCloud is not the solution.