Import selected photos from iPhone with iCloud to Photos app?

[mrmacdi]

Hi everyone!

Is it possible to import only selected photos from iPhone (with iCloud Photos enabled) to Photos app (macOS 12)? When I connect my iPhone to my mac and open Photos with a new library, Photos app shows just a few photos (this library is not iCloud enabled), so I can't import what I want. Long time ago, before enabling iCloud Photos, I was able to import selected photos from several iPhones in Photos app, so it was very convenient to keep an offline archive. Each time I've seen new photos for import with the option to delete imported photos.
Now trying to make a separate offline Photo library, where I and my wife can import photos from our iPhones (both have iCloud photos enabled), but Photos app is not showing photos for import.
Or we have to export photos from iCloud enabled Photos Library for each iPhone and then manually import them to the separate Photos library to combine?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Boreham]

Hi everyone!

Is it possible to import only selected photos from iPhone (with iCloud Photos enabled) to Photos app (macOS 12)? When I connect my iPhone to my mac and open Photos with a new library, Photos app shows just a few photos (this library is not iCloud enabled), so I can't import what I want. Long time ago, before enabling iCloud Photos, I was able to import selected photos from several iPhones in Photos app, so it was very convenient to keep an offline archive. Each time I've seen new photos for import with the option to delete imported photos.
Now trying to make a separate offline Photo library, where I and my wife can import photos from our iPhones (both have iCloud photos enabled), but Photos app is not showing photos for import.
Or we have to export photos from iCloud enabled Photos Library for each iPhone and then manually import them to the separate Photos library to combine?

Thanks!

You can import photos from iPhone to computer with the built in Apple app Image Browser.

But you and your wife sound like prime candidates for the new Apple iCloud Shared Photos Library which I have just posted more about in this thread, but there are many articles about it.

 

[Slartibart]

You can import photos from iPhone to computer with the built in Apple app Image Browser.

just to avoid confusion: »Image Capture« is (probably) what you are referring to. 😀

 

[gilby101]

just to avoid confusion: »Image Capture« is (probably) what you are referring to.

But, does this solve your problem?

 

[Mike Boreham]

just to avoid confusion: »Image Capture« is (probably) what you are referring to. 😀

Yes, sorry about that. Thanks for correcting!

 

[mrmacdi]

You can import photos from iPhone to computer with the built in Apple app Image Browser.

Unfortunately, in my case it shows the same limited amount of photos as Photos app: approx 100-200 instead of 45k on iPhone

You can import photos from iPhone to computer with the built in Apple app Image Browser.

But you and your wife sound like prime candidates for the new Apple iCloud Shared Photos Library which I have just posted more about in this thread, but there are many articles about it.

Looks good, but we need a separate Photos Library and with iCloud Photos enabled on mac you can have only 1 System Photos Library, which syncs to iCloud. I'm surprised that Photos app lacks this functionality: import selected photos when iCloud Photos are enabled.

My steps:
1. Create new and empty Photos Library (macOS 12.6)
2. Don't enable iCloud for it
3. Connect iPhone with iCloud Photos enabled
4. Open Photos app
5. Photos app shows New Items (764 items)
6. No prior imports were made to this Photos Library and still only 764 items are visible instead of 45k on my iPhone.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Unfortunately, in my case it shows the same limited amount of photos as Photos app: approx 100-200 instead of 45k on iPhone

Looks good, but we need a separate Photos Library and with iCloud Photos enabled on mac you can have only 1 System Photos Library, which syncs to iCloud. I'm surprised that Photos app lacks this functionality: import selected photos when iCloud Photos are enabled.

My steps:
1. Create new and empty Photos Library (macOS 12.6)
2. Don't enable iCloud for it
3. Connect iPhone with iCloud Photos enabled
4. Open Photos app
5. Photos app shows New Items (764 items)
6. No prior imports were made to this Photos Library and still only 764 items are visible instead of 45k on my iPhone.

Hmmm strange that, It isn't something I have ever wanted to do but I just tried the same six steps and Photos only offered to import 722 items out of the 78k on my iPhone 13 PM. They were a strange mixture of old and new. Image Capture offers the same 722.

Perhaps you could reach an acceptable endpoint by using the Shared Photos Library as I described earlier, and exporting the ones you want to an independent non-iCloud library. This would be less work than doing it separately for each of you. I do similar each month but just exporting to a collection of folders, rather than an offline Photos lib, as an independent backup.

 

[Brian33]

My steps:
1. Create new and empty Photos Library (macOS 12.6)
2. Don't enable iCloud for it
3. Connect iPhone with iCloud Photos enabled
4. Open Photos app
5. Photos app shows New Items (764 items)
6. No prior imports were made to this Photos Library and still only 764 items are visible instead of 45k on my iPhone.

I just tried the same six steps and Photos only offered to import 722 items out of the 78k on my iPhone 13 PM. They were a strange mixture of old and new. Image Capture offers the same 722.

I suspect what is happening is that Photos and Image Capture are offering to import only the photos that are resident on the phone in full resolution. If your phone has Settings->Photos-->Optimize Storage turned on, then the vast majority of your photos exist on the phone only as low-resolution thumbnails.

If my guess is correct, and if you had enough storage on your phone (which I very much doubt), then switching to "Download and Keep Originals" on your phone would allow Photos and Image Capture to import any of the thousands of images you have in your iCloud Photo Library.

 

[mrmacdi]

I suspect what is happening is that Photos and Image Capture are offering to import only the photos that are resident on the phone in full resolution. If your phone has Settings->Photos-->Optimize Storage turned on, then the vast majority of your photos exist on the phone only as low-resolution thumbnails.

If my guess is correct, and if you had enough storage on your phone (which I very much doubt), then switching to "Download and Keep Originals" on your phone would allow Photos and Image Capture to import any of the thousands of images you have in your iCloud Photo Library.

Unfortunately, too many photos to download them all to my iPhone.