Image Capture not seeing all photos on iPhone

Using MacOS 13.7.6 and iOS 18.5. and Image Capture to download photos from iPhone to Mac directly, without using Mac Photos. Image Capture is not seeing recent photos on iPhone.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Aug 5, 2025 12:21 PM

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23 replies

Aug 6, 2025 02:17 AM in response to louis86

There are two kinds of photos, that cannot be downloaded manually from the iPhone:

  • Photos synced with iCloud Photos - if you are using iCloud Photos on the iPhone, you will get random results, because Image Capture can only show you the photos that have been downloaded from iCloud, but not the optimized versions. have you checked, if iCloud Photos has become enabled on the iPhone?
  • and, as Matti already has pointed out, syncing with Image Capture is i one-way only. We can sync photos to the iPhone, but cannot sync them back. we have always to keep the high resolution originals of the synced albums on our Mac, if we want to keep these photo.


There may also be photos shared with you, that are shown in Photos on the iPhone but have not yet been saved tp Photos, so Image Capture may not show them.


Sep 4, 2025 09:18 AM in response to Matti Haveri

I continue to have this problem with Image Capture.

On my iMac 2017 5K , with Mac OS Ventura 13.7.8, Image Capture 8.0 (1106), from iPhone iOS 18.6.2, the iMac does not load all photos, only a few, skipping others. There are no hidden pictures.

On another iMac 2019 4K, with Mac OS Sequoia 15.6.1, same Image Capture and iPhone, all photos are loaded.

This problem began I think on Aug 1.

Is Ventura still supported by Apple?

Sep 4, 2025 10:00 AM in response to louis86

louis86 wrote: … Image Capture is not seeing recent photos on iPhone.

That is most curious! Maybe we can narrow it down.

  • Is there a specific date that starts this?
  • Are these pictures .jpeg or .heic, or both?
  • Are you using iCloud? If so, do you use Optimize Storage?
  • Have you done a force re-start on the phone?

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

This is different from a simple Power Off. I had to continue holding the button down past the "slide to power off" message, and then I released the button only after  the Apple Logo appeared indicating a re-start. 

  • Have you tried Re-starting the Mac 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 


Image Capture has been around for decades, and I'm not sure that Apple spends much time on it. I've seem some strange things that I can't account for, but this is new.

Sep 4, 2025 02:04 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Richard, Thanks for reply,

The date seems to be after Aug 1 when only a few of the photos were recognized by Image Capture.

Photos are .jpg

Not using iCloud

Force restarted iPhone and Safe Mode started Mac, had no effect. Took some new photos after this and Image Capture does not see them.

I can get the photos by Image Capture on our other iMac to HDcard, then physically take it to this Mac. Or, I can import them via Mac Photos from iPhone to this Mac, but then this means they have to be exported to iMac.


Sep 4, 2025 09:09 PM in response to louis86

louis86 wrote:

Force restarted iPhone and Safe Mode started Mac, had no effect. Took some new photos after this and Image Capture does not see them.
I can get the photos by Image Capture on our other iMac to HDcard

Maybe Image Capture preferences are corrupted on that Mac? Try to move the following files to the Desktop (just in case before deleting them) and reboot and try again:


~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Image_Capture.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imagecapture.plist


Also do not use any 3rd part virus apps or "cleaners" because they often produce obscure errors and corruption. macOS built-in security is all you need.

Sep 5, 2025 06:02 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Mattie, thanks for reply

To look for the Image Capture preferences I went to Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences. I did not find them.

When I searched for them I found them in Macintosh HD/Users/myusername/Library(original)/Preferences.


Moving them to desktop and restarting did not solve Image Capture problem. I also found a file com.apple.ImageCaptureExtension2. Moving it and restarting didn’t fix problem either. I did not delete them, kept them on desktop. Should I delete them entirely and try again?


I’m not sure where the Library(original) file came from. I’m pretty ignorant of the intricacies of Mac operating system files. But it may have came from a crash I had a couple of years ago when I was working with Apple Support people to restore things. Should that folder have been removed?




I do have Bitfender and Malwarebytes but have them turned off. Based on advice from you and others I will probably remove them. Turning them off did not fix the Image Capture problem. 

Sep 6, 2025 07:26 AM in response to louis86

louis86 wrote: …I do have Bitfender and Malwarebytes but have them turned off. Based on advice from you and others I will probably remove them. Turning them off did not fix the Image Capture problem. 

Good idea!


You have me double checking-- but Image Capture still works for me, even with recent pictures. What's different?


What iPhone do you have? Do you have any other Image capture or processing apps? Any other apps that, like "cleaners," that access all files? 3rd party searchers? on iPhone or on Mac?

Sep 6, 2025 08:25 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

iPhone 15, iOS 18.6.2

No other image capture programs. I do use Photoshop Elements 21.

Don't have any kind of "cleaners". I looked at Activity Monitor, I'm not very familiar with what it tells me. I assume that for a process if there is a number for %CPU, that program is running. The antivirus programs which I turned off don't seem to have any thing running. Even when Elements is closed Adobe has some programs running off and on at 0.00 - 0.5%.

Sep 6, 2025 08:37 AM in response to louis86

Crazy!


The one thing that I see that's different is that you're running Ventura, an older OS and older version Image Capture trying to read from a newer iOS might be the problem, but it's not supposed to happen. That's hard to test. I have older computers, but I'm not there right now to test. I don't have anything running Ventura, though.


I'll let you know if I can reproduce this…

Sep 6, 2025 01:49 PM in response to louis86

louis86 wrote: As I said earlier, phone and Image Capture work fine on other iMac running Sequoia.

Yes, you said that earlier. What percentage of your storage is free on your devices? (I said that earlier, too.)

Is there a place to see the date the computer updated?

I don't remember ever seeing an update date. I notice that a bunch of folders in Macintosh HD/System were modified on 8/16 for me, so that might be my last update.

Sep 9, 2025 10:33 AM in response to louis86

A couple of days ago I noticed that Adobe's Creative Cloud was running in the background. I never use it. I only use Adobe's Photoshop Elements 21. It took me a couple of hours chatting with Adobe service to get Creative Cloud off my Mac. But it made no difference on the Image Capture problem. In the course of all that, and watching Activity Monitor, I noticed a couple of programs relating to photos chewing up a lot of CPU and CPU time. photolibraryd and photoanalysisd. Some googling brought up some references on these programs sometimes causing problem with Image Capture. And something about the corruption of Photos library.


My problem has been with Image Capture. I just now downloaded several photos directly from the iPhone to Mac Photos app on my Mac and they went quickly with no problem. But if I want to get them to my Mac directly have to export them from Mac Photos to a folder on the Mac. (I am NOT using iCloud Photos.)

Image Capture not seeing all photos on iPhone

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