Photos App: iPhone Photos not showing up when attempting to import

When I plugged in my iPhone this morning, it asked me if I wanted to share my photos with this device (meaning my computer). I clicked on "Yes", and the problem was solved.

I thought the problem may be one where my iPhone didn't trust my computer to share the photos, but I couldn't find anything on the iPhone or my Mac. I checked iTunes too, but didn't see anything.

Once I gave my Mac permission to see my photos and everything is now fine.

I discovered this problem after upgrading to High Sierra. My iPhone was containing 94 photos. I don't use Dropbox nor iCloud, just the original USB cable (in a perfect state).

I plugged my iPhone on my MacBook Pro and I opened Photos. My iPhone is fully recognized: I gave it a name so as to avoid to confuse between all my family's iPhones. When I selected my iPhone below the Devices menu, the window of Photos stayed empty.

There wasn't any error message within /var/log/system.log.

Here is a receipe which worked in my case:

1. Quit Photos
2. Open iTunes
3. Select the iPhone
4. Eject it
5. Unplug the iPhone (its USB cable)
6. Quit iTunes
7. Plug the iPhone back (its USB cable)
8. Open Photos

Then I saw all my iPhone 94 photos within Photos.

I suspect this little bug is caused by the asynchronous nature of the synchronisation mechanisms between iPhone and Mac and the lack of eject button within Photos.

Many users might be unplugging their iPhone just when one of the synchronisation agent is running, thus letting the iPhone as still connected. A sort of ghost iPhone from the MacOS point of vue. The trick with iTunes is a way to unplug it cleanly from the MacOS point of vue.