Photos not importing photos from DSLR memory card on MacBook Pro

Question

Photos not importing photos from DSLR memory card on MacBook Pro

Photos is not importing

I am trying to import photos from the memory card from my DSLR. Import of neither a single photo nor the whole card is successful. When I hit the import button, the progress bar runs, but nothing happens. What gives?

MacBook Pro M4, OS 15.6.1, Photos 10.0

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Photos not importing

Posted on Nov 12, 2025 3:00 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 13, 2025 9:37 AM in response to Yer_Man

Yer_Man and Richard,

First, before I answer your questions, I fixed the problem by shutting down and restarting my Mac. Duh--I should have thought of that first.

Now for the details you asked about:

By "Import", I meant either of the following:
- Opening the card in Photos and clicking any of the "Import" buttons, to import either selected photos or all the photos. The import progress bar/wheel would run, but nothing would import.
- Dragging and dropping image files in the finder from the card to Photos.
- I forgot about File>Import, so I didn't try that.
This was a problem with multiple SD cards.
I could open the files on the SD cards with Preview without issue.
It didn't matter whether I used the Mac's reader or an external reader.
My local Photo library is on an external drive. (It's huge.)

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Answer 2

Nov 13, 2025 6:55 AM in response to Carlisle Landel

What do you mean by "Import?" Are you using "File>Import" from the menu, or something else.

It would be helpful to have more information:

As Yer_Man asked, what is the nature of the drive that has your Library, and how is it formatted?
When you mount the SD Card drive, can you see the picture files in the DCIM folder in the drive?
How is the SD drive formatted. What do you see when you look at the Info Window for the drive?
Have you tried another SD card?
Are you using the SD card reader on the Mac? Have you tried a different SD card reader?
Can you drag files you see in the SD drive to a folder in Finder?
Have you tried using the Image Capture app that's in your Applications folder?
I don't understand what you mean by "Import … the whole card." SD cards have more on them than pictures, and many files would not be compatible with the Photos app.

Let us know…

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,828 points

Nov 12, 2025 11:28 PM in response to Carlisle Landel

Usual question: Where is the library stored? If it's on an external is the formatted Mac OS X Extended, Journaled or apfs?

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Answer 4

Nov 13, 2025 10:22 AM in response to Carlisle Landel

Great!

I'm hoping the Library is on an APFS formatted drive.

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