Some users report an issue in which Photos (or iPhoto on older OS) no longer recognizes the iPhone as a camera. Consequently, you are unable to import images from the device to your Windows or Mac computer.
We see this problem most often after an iOS, macOS or OS X software update, or following a firmware update. And of course, sometimes it’s just totally random.
Contents
Fixes for Photos or iPhoto Won’t Recognize iPhone
Make Sure Your Computer is Trusted
When you connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer for the first time or after a reinstall, you might see an alert that asks whether you trust the computer. 
Confirm on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod that it trusts your Mac.
Close Other Apps 
If you have other programs open that connect to your device (especially apps that use your photos), quit those apps first and then launch the Photos App on your Mac.
Close Final Cut or iMovie
In some cases, Final Cut or iMovie interferes with Photos’ ability to recognize the iPhone.
Try quitting both of these applications then disconnect and reconnect your iPhone.
Quit Photos and iTunes
Try quitting both iTunes AND Photos. Then unplug your iDevice and plug it back in.
Once both iTunes and Photos launch, see if your device is recognized.
If so, quit iTunes and use Photos normally.
Manually Select Your Device
If Photos does not automatically recognizes and open your device, try instead to select your device from the View Menu or Sidebar manually.
Go to the top menu or the left sidebar in Photos, and choose Devices then choose your device. Wait for your photos to populate.
Don’t see the Photos app sidebar?
For macOS versions, try viewing the Photos app in Full-Screen Mode by selecting View > Enter Full Screen or using the keyboard shortcut of Command + Control+ F.
Also, make sure that Always Show Toolbar and Sidebar in Full Screen is enabled for your View settings.
For older OS X, to display the sidebar in Photos, choose View > Show Sidebar, or press Command-Option-S.
On MacBooks, try hovering your mouse over the left edge of the Photos app window until you see a crosshair. Then, drag that crosshair to the right to reveal the Photo app sidebar.
Change Photo Settings
If using iOS 11 and above, it’s possible that your Mac doesn’t recognize the new HEIC format for images.
So turning off the new HEIC image file format often does the trick.
On your iPhone, go to Settings > Camera > Formats > and select Most Compatible.
Help Photos Locate Your Device
Open Photos then click the device under Devices in the sidebar.
Also, try using the Import option under Photo’s File Menu. Then unlock the iPhone or iDevice and see if the app recognizes your device. 
Another option is to click on View in the Photos main menu, then select Devices, and finally locate and choose your Apple iDevice.
Plug Directly into a USB port on Mac
If you use a Hub or plug into your keyboard’s USB ports or via another device, try plugging directly into a USB port on your Mac–this often solves the problem!
If you’re already plugged directly into one of your Mac’s USB ports, try a different port. 
Check Your Cables!
Make sure that you use the original cable that came with your iPhone. If that’s not available, check that your cable is Apple Certified Made For iPhone (MFI.)
Many cables purchased via third-parties no longer work with Apple Products. 
A few readers tell us that simply switching the lightning plug ends around worked–so remove the cable from both the Mac and the iPhone, then swap sides.
So plug the end that was going into the Mac into the iPhone and vice-versa.
Disconnect From iTunes
Eject your iPhone from iTunes, then see if your iPhone shows up in the Photos App on your Mac.
Other readers report that turning their iPhone off while Photos is open and then turning it back on works.
Reset Location and Privacy Info
On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Location & Privacy. Performing this action resets all connections between your iPhone and your Mac. 
Restart!
Sometimes it’s as simple as restarting your iPhone and/or your Mac. This action refreshes the connection between the devices and forces iTunes to scan for all connected devices.
If a restart didn’t do the trick, try a forced reboot on the iPhone while it’s connected to iTunes.
Perform a Forced Restart
- On an iPhone 6S or below plus iPads with Home buttons & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone X Series, iPads without a Home button, or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and promptly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
Delete photos
It appears that the presence of some imported images or strangely enough screenshots taken on the iPhone can cause this problem.
Try deleting all pictures on your iPhone except for those that were made with the device’s camera, then disconnect and reconnect your iPhone.
Quit iTunes
Close and quit from iTunes, then unplug your iPhone from the cable, reopen iTunes, and after it’s fully open reconnect your iPhone to your computer.
Turns out that for many readers, just quitting iTunes and restarting it solved the problem.
Turn your iPhone off then back on when still connected
Failing the above, try opening Photos App/iPhoto and connecting your iPhone, then turn the iPhone off. Wait a few seconds then turn it back on.
Contact Apple Support
Sadly, this is a common complaint we hear about the Photos App!
Consider reporting your problem to Apple via this link.
Reader Tips
- Plug in your device to your Mac and then do a soft reset (forced restart.) See if your device now shows up in Photos
- Hover over the Photos App sidebar where it says Import. Your iPhone or iPad may only be hidden. When you hover, if it says show, click on that. If you still don’t see it, try going to the View menu and choose Import
- Whenever I start Photos, it doesn’t start automatically. I select View in the top menu in Photos, then select Devices. There, I find my iPhone, and when I choose it everything worked as expected
- I actually did two things, and it worked: 1) I clicked to eject my phone from iTunes and closed the iTunes app 2) My iPhone didn’t show up in Photos after that, BUT I clicked on View in the Photos toolbar, and then clicked Devices, and then Apple iPhone. It’s like Photos defaulted to hide my iPhone from automatically showing up in Photos, every time I plug it in!
- Open iTunes and wait for the phone to come up. Then eject the phone. I had Photos running in the background, and as soon as I ejected it from iTunes it showed up in Photos
- Select the View menu in Photos then choose Devices. Look for your iPhone there and select it
- Check if there is a pop-up on your device to “trust this computer.” Select “Yes” for your device to connect via the Lightning connector cable to your Mac
- On Import options, uncheck Enable camera uploads for and under Sync options, deselect Photos from iPhoto (untick the checkbox)
- My workaround is to use Image Capture instead of the Photos App. Image Capture, for whatever reason, sees my iPhone and then I just copy all photos from my iPhone over to my Mac
- Check that there are no other users logged into your Mac. If so, log out of those users and then try again. You may need to restart your Mac with just that single user account active
- Close both iTunes and Photos apps on your Mac, and then reopen just the Photos app
- It might sound stupid, but make sure your Mac has enough free space to import any photos!
- Check your iCloud settings on the phone and Mac computer, if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled try toggling it off (even if temporarily)
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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Thank you! This did the trick after I’d tried suggestions from other sites that didn’t work.
The hard reboot for the iPhone 7+ worked! Thank you.
Thank you . very comprehensive . Solved problem. i phone 7 linked to macbook after turning off, reopening itunes and photos, plugging in phone and trying again.
Simple and effective. Clear instructions.
I have an iPhone 6 and am trying to transfer photos from my iPhone to our Mac computer using MacOS Mojave 10.14.6
When I go to Photos, my iPhone appears under Devices but when I select “Import New Photos”, I get “the file is unrecognizable in this format”
My husband and I share this Mac desktop computer.
Why is this so complicated? We purchase apple products thinking all would be seamless. This is very problematic.
I can “Airdrop” a few photos at a time but this is takes too much of my time.
Please help.
Thank you.
Karen
HI Karen,
Please check this setting: Settings > Photos > scroll down to Transfer to Mac or PC–select Automatic rather than Keep Originals.
If that’s not the issue, have you tried using the Image Capture app instead? It’s located in your Application folder and comes standard with macOS.
Liz
I have tried all of the suggestions to get my iPhone photos to my iMac: iCloud on/off, restarting, updating all the apps/software, reconnecting, resetting location, trusting the computer, deleting my screenshots, ejecting and reconnecting, exiting iTunes, etc.
When I connect my phone (using an Apple USB cord) only 3 of my 2,000 photos/videos show up.
I do not want to manually airdrop or download since this will take forever.
Any other suggestions?
I couldn’t see “Devices” shown in the View menu but, using the view menu, I opened the sidebar and my iPhone was listed there under “Import”
View > Open Sidebar > [find My iPhone in the sidebar menu]
When I had used the Import menu, from the top bar, my iphone hadn’t been shown in the device list.
Hey my post is 1.26.19 (in case you’re looking for a more recent comment)
This was probably the best article of ideas to help with this problem! Thanks!
I actually did 2 things and it worked.
1) I clicked to eject my phone from iTunes and closed the iTunes app.
2) My iPhone didn’t show up in Photos after that, BUT I clicked on View in the Photos toolbar, and then clicked Devices, and then Apple iPhone. (It’s like Photos is defaulted to hide my phone from automatically showing up in Photos when I plug it in???)
SO, I am wondering if I actually changed the settings at some point (and I think I did) so Photos wouldn’t open automatically every time I plugged my iPhone into my Mac?
And possibly this has caused my Photos app to not “open” or “show” my iPhone when I open Photos?
Just a thought.
I’ll try to see if I can change the settings… because it’s likely something I changed and not a hiccup in my system
Love my Mac! Good luck!
Hope this helps someone. -B
Hi Brandi,
Thanks for sharing what works for you!
If you want Photos to open automatically when you connect your iPhone, click the name of the device under Devices in the sidebar, and then tick the Open Photos checkbox.
Thank you! Quitting and restarting iTunes and Photos, then connecting the phone, did the trick for me.
I had this problem.
Tried all these options but not resolved yet.
iPhoto does see the photos though- eventually- although, as others say here, only once I have ejected the iPhone from iTunes – but it still won’t import.
Error message on trying import says ‘unrecognized format’.
I have no screenshots on the phone.
I do have some short videos but also can’t seem to get those into imovie either, and there’s one particularly that I don’t want to lose.
My iPhone doesn’t give a ‘formats’ option under settings> camera and doesn’t give a slide on /off button for HDR either.
But below HDR it gives an on/off slider for ‘keep normal photo’, which I have on, but I don’t think this is instead of HDR, as underneath this it says “HDR blends the best parts of three separate exposures into a single photo.
Save the normally exposed photo in addition to the HDR version.”
I don’t want to lose these photos as they are from a particular event.
Hi Benji’s Mom,
On your computer, close all open apps and also log out of all users but one. Restart both your phone and your computer. Then, try using a different cable and a different USB port on your computer.
If that doesn’t help, plug your iPhone into your computer and perform a force restart while it’s plugged in–see if your computer and the Photos App now recognizes your iPhone.
Perform a Forced Restart
On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
On an iPhone X Series or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
Can you provide us with these details:
1) iOS version your iPhone runs (go to Settings > General > About)
2) macOS or Mac OS X version your Mac runs or if a Windows PC, what windows version
Sam
Have the same problem.
No idea what caused this, but all of a sudden my iPhone 5S is no longer recognized by photos, iTunes and also not visible in image capture.
Do not see the pop-up “do you trust this computer” anymore, but in System information/USB the iPhone is shown.
Have tried different USB ports, different cable, restarting the software, restart mac and phone, etc.
Still no solution.
A problem that occurred simultaneously was that after the latest Safari and Itunes update, Safari was not able to open anymore.
This was fixed by renaming a file mobile devices….
Please help, am lost
Hi Yvette.
Are you using Mac OS X Yosemite?
There is a problem with the recent update that causes both Safari and iPhoto to not open. iPhoto in Yosemite is apparently not launching after iTunes upgrade to 12.8.1
Check if you still have this file: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice
If so, isolate it in a folder on your desktop and then restart your Mac. See if Safari and iPhoto work.
If you back up your system, locate a backup from before the update to iTunes 12.8.1 and copy the folder for this location /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework and replace the newer version that’s there.
Alternatively, people found that updating to Mac OS X El Capitan or macOS Sierra solved all these problems. You could also try reinstalling Mac OS X Yosemite using recovery mode.
Hi SK,
Yes, am still using Yosemite. Have renamed the mobile device file and safari came back. Photo’s and Itunes didn’t Already tried reinstalling Yosemite but with no success either. Will try to locate the backup and otherwise upgrade.
Thanks for the response!
Yvette
Fixed all problems after upgrading to Mojave. Even have more disc space left now 😉
Yvette
I tried the reset location settings and then click the “enter fullscreen” and suddenly the sidebar is there.
But if I went back to the normal sized (which before, showed the sidebar) the sidebar wont show up anymore…..
So, it sorta work I guess?
It really is absurd that Apple has these problems. This is WHY we buy Apple products, so we don’t have to deal with stuff like this. The ecosystem is failing and they need to lift their game big time.
I agree 100%. Apple’s new motto should be “it just doesn’t work”. I used to be so excited about getting a new Apple product. Now I dread every update.
thank you so much!
I had tried everything until finally, turning the iphone off while iphoto was running and leaving it connected worked.
cheers,
Thanks! This (along with Keith’s method) worked!
Thank you so much; I have wasted all morning trying to put my photos on my computer, and it turned out that I had two screen shots on my phone. As soon as I deleted them, the photos started appearing in iPhoto, and I never would have come up with that on my own.
Hi I’m having the same issue!!! Have tried calling apple for support but they don’t even know whys wrong. It was working perfectly fine now iPhoto won’t open automatically when I connect my iphone. It doesn’t charge and iTunes won’t recognise it too! Please help somebody!!
Hi I’m having the same issue!!! Have tried calling apple for support but they don’t even know whys wrong. It was working perfectly fine now iPhoto won’t open automatically when I connect my phone. It doesn’t charge and iTunes won’t recognise it too! Please help somebody!!
I just had this happen and fixed it like this. I must’ve disconnected the phone while iTunes was open.
Open iTunes and wait for the phone to come up. Eject the phone. I had iPhoto running in the background and as soon as I ejected it from iTunes it showed up in iPhoto.
Thank you, You fixed my problem with this fix!
Thank you!!! This is the only thing that worked. Thanks for sharing
If you have more than 500 photos on your iPhone, it might take a minute or 2 before iPhoto recognizes the iPhone as a connected device.