Last photo dump a few weeks ago worked like a charm. Photos app sees iPhone and its photos, photos selected and hit "download". Nothing happens. Download from phone thru Image capture, drag/n/drop gives me a "unrecognizable file format" error message. Mac & phone are up to date.
A shot in the dark but maybe those images have a wrong date so they land among old images? Do they display among the Photos "Imports" tab (at least in Sequoia it is labeled as "Imports")?
FWIW Photos has an old bug where movies silently fail to import if they have a .xmp sidecar in the import folder, but that is the case here with images.
Is the Photos library stored on a APFS or MacOS Extended -formatted volume (non-Mac formats like exFAT, NAS, cloud storage, Time Machine volumes are not supported)?
Any 3rd party virus apps or "cleaners" that might intervene? An EtreCheck report would eliminate much guesswork:
Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community
Found the problem: the external drive had not been formatted APFS. Too many photos for my hard drive, and don't want Apple having access to my stuff in iCloud to train their AI, so being a grandpa and keeping them local. Thanks for the help.
Download from phone thru Image capture, drag/n/drop gives me a "unrecognizable file format" error message. Mac & phone are up to date.
What macOS and iOS version, .heic or .jpg, can Preview.app open the image?
Sonoma 14.6 mac, iPhone 18.5, Images open in Preview, Photoshop, Final Cut, etc. Only blockage is importing to Photos.
Error message when downloading photos from iPhone to iMac
