Why is Image Capture showing two copies of every photo in my iPhone camera roll?

I use Image Capture to import photos from my iPhone. I noticed recently that it shows two copies of every photo in the Image Capture window, both in list view and grid view.

There is only one copy of each photo in the iPhone camera roll, and when I drag them to a folder it only creates one copy of each. So it's not really causing a problem, but I'm curious why it is happening. I first noticed it in 10.10.1, and it continues in 10.10.2

See the screenshot below for an example. It is displaying two copies of IMG_6173.JPG and two copies of IMG_6172.JPG. There's only one copy of each in the camera roll. If I select all four and drag them to the desktop, it will create only one copy of each.

Image Capture window showing duplicate photos


I just had this issue and found a solution on another site:

First, close Image Capture. Next, dismount the iPhone from the Mac by ejecting it with iTunes and unplug the cord from the iPhone. Then, just plug it back in and open up Image Capture again.

Worked for me - only one set of images.

Of course, this was after trying a couple other things... like turning off My Photo Stream (Settings>iCloud>iCloud>My Photo Stream: OFF) and turning off the "Keep Normal Photo" option (Settings>Photos & Camera>Keep Normal Photo: OFF), but I didn't notice any change immediately after doing these things Only after unplugging and reconnecting the iPhone did the problem fix itself. GOOD LUCK!