Photos won't import from iPhone to Mac after Sonoma update.

My first external photo library was created last may 2024 and it was in a SSD ExFat formatted. I tried to import some new picture and the same problem"preparing...." and nothing happened. I formatted a new USB disk to MacOS Extended Journaled, (Boot Sector option) copied my old photo library from the ExFat SSD to the new disk, opened Photo app while holding down the option key, selected the new photo library and imported all the pictures without a glitch. It seems that with the latest upgrades ExFat or other non-MacOS formats are not good. Hope it helps!

I didn't see it mentioned, but I've found that even having a drive CONNECTED that is formatted in ExFAT will not allow you to import your photos from an iPhone. I was having the same issue and my external photos library was indeed formatted in ExFAT. However even trying to import into a photo library where it normally is on the internal drive (the system photo library) I could still not import when the drive was connected. Disconnected the drive and the photos imported without issue.

I am having a similar issue and Image Capture, which is my usual default for managing images, does not work either. Image Capture also appears to let me delete images from my phone but I found after plugging the phone back in the photos were still there.

favio257 wrote: Im running photos application on my external ssd

The Photos Application should be on the Mac. The Photos Library can be moved to an external drive, but to avoid damaging the Photos Library an external drive must be formatted in either APFS format or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. How is your ssd formatted?

Additionally, the drive can not have had Time Machine on it since it was formatted. There have been so many problems with using incompatible drives that the newest macOSs won't even allow a Library on a non-Mac formatted drive to open, since there is a chance of damaging the Photos database. See this:

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

I started having this issue a while back, probably around the time of the Sonoma upgrade too, and the thing that finally worked for me was repairing the Photos library on my Mac. It sure seemed like a phone problem but this fixed it so what am I gonna do, deny it? Anyway:

• (Optional) Back up your whole mac or just the photos library just in case
• Close Photos on the Mac
• Hold Command and Option, launch Photos
• Photos will open and offer to repair the library, click "Repair Library"
• Wait a while for the process to complete
• Connect your phone
• Click "Import All New" in the phone import screen (important to get Photos to update its records of what has already been imported)
• Clean up all the imported duplicates / undesired items (hopefully not too many, I had about 600)

Anyway this fixed all my issues with flaky imports, imports not working, constant re-importing of already imported items, and so on. Hopefully it helps someone else out too.

February 18th 2025 and no solutions provided for seemingly an issue for years now. I do not want to store photos in the cloud but rather on a hard drive via iPhoto. Any solutions greatly appreciated.

What I have done so far:

1. Update OS on iPhone and Mac
2. Used Image Capture to download to computer, which worked but iPhone will not take them from my computer into the iPhoto app.

Thanks for any help.

thank your idea work. I transfer my 11k gallery in one shot 6k import and 5k is getting trouble then after deleting some WhatsApp videos its work and all 5k import in one shot......

Trying moving them with Airdrop.

favio257 wrote: Trust me i know this already, ...

I'm sorry, I don't actually know you. It looks like I will need to get my AI mind reading tools adjusted.

I'm glad you got it to work. Image Capture is an app provided by Apple to do just what you wanted to do. Handy.

NiFa18 wrote: .. I just cannot fathom why it would stop importing each time it comes across a corrupted file.

Well, yeah. When I was trying to recover files from old DVD and CD backups, this was very frustrating. I ended up using an app called Teracopy (from the app store) that didn't choke on corrupt files during a copy. I see that it gets a whopping 2 1/4 stars -- but it worked for what I needed. There may be other choices...

My first external photo library was created last may 2024 and it was in a SSD ExFat formatted. I tried to import some new picture and the same problem"preparing...." and nothing happened. I formatted a new USB disk to MacOS Extended Journaled, (Boot Sector option) copied my old photo library from the ExFat SSD to the new disk, opened Photo app while holding down the option key, selected the new photo library and imported all the pictures without a glitch. Hope it helps!

i was having this issue because my photos library was on an SSD formatted exfat. Once I reformatted to mac os journaled then put the library back on the external ssd photo import function worked fine. It appears that whatever drive you have your library on, it must be formatted mac os journaled. good luck!

I have the same issue with my Mac book pro and iPhone11. The reason is that the photo library storage in the external drive couldn't import the images from the iPhone directly. I copy the photo library back to the Mac storage and then imported the images successfully.

the W'rkncacnter wrote:

I didn't see it mentioned, but I've found that even having a drive CONNECTED that is formatted in ExFAT will not allow you to import your photos from an iPhone.

Thanks for the note. But importing from iPad works OK for me with Image Capture and Photos also while exFAT formatted external thumb drive is connected (Sequoia).

Just had the same problem, could only resolve by not using 'import new' function but instead select individual photos and use import from iPhoto. As suggested it may be an issue with the MacBook library recognising what is new.