FinalCut Pro - iPhone imports not staying imported

Question

Level 1

17 points

FinalCut Pro - iPhone imports not staying imported

Greetings.

First time this is happening, but upon importing multiple clips, some are 'staying' in the phone camera (for lack of a better explanation). I get an error stating that the media must first be imported...bla bla bla,.... it is imported.

I noted the camera icon on the clip.... attached.

I instead imported the clip to PHOTOS... then imported from photos rather than direct from camera...that appeared to work, until I started to edit that clip.

Never fails, in the middle of a project... Any feedback is appreciated.

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac Studio

Posted on Jul 20, 2025 5:00 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

19,486 points

Jul 21, 2025 11:13 PM in response to Chizzer

Chizzer wrote:

Drag from photos to desktop, import from there.

It is not recommended to drag images/movies from Photos library because depending on the macOS version you might only get a thumbnail.

The recommended way is to use Photos > File > Export (original or modified).

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Answer 2

BenB

Level 6

13,142 points

Jul 23, 2025 9:42 AM in response to Chizzer

I always use Image Capture to move video files from my iPhones to my Mac for editing. You may want to give that a shot. I used to use AirDrop all the time, but the last couple of macOS updates seem to have made that more unstable.

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Answer 3

Chizzer Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 21, 2025 5:09 PM in response to Chizzer

Chat, 3 seconds.

Drag from photos to desktop, import from there.

Done.

Cheers.

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Answer 4

Chizzer Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 22, 2025 12:49 PM in response to BenB

I watch that little circle thingy at the top.

The file / phone must be corrupt, as the other imports all were fine.

And tried multiple times with that one file

I have made a note about exporting from photos...but that drag and dropped worked with OS 15.5

Thanks!

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Answer 5

RPM46

Level 1

56 points

Jul 24, 2025 5:14 PM in response to Chizzer

You should not use the desktop to store data, but dragging files to the desktop does exactly that. The Desktop storage space is on the system drive, and you should not store data on that drive.

Other posters here have described better ways to do this.

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Answer 6

BenB

Level 6

13,142 points

Jul 22, 2025 5:39 AM in response to Chizzer

How do you verify the transfer from your iPhone to FCP or Photos is complete?

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Answer 7

Chizzer Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 24, 2025 6:22 PM in response to RPM46

It is a bad habit, for sure, but my system drive is my only internal drive - everything goes on it. Why would Apple have a documents folder on this drive?

Thanks for making note of it.

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