I have an IphoneX and a mid 2009 MacbookPro with upgraded Ram. However, when I go to download photos from my iPhoneX, it always gives you the wheel of death and will not load the photos even enough to transfer them to the mac (even in small portions). I am guessing it has to do with the amount of RAM on my Mid-2009 Macbook, even upgraded is probably not sufficient, but is there a work around here that I am not aware of? I am even trying to download them directly on to an external hard drive, if that helps. I've tried using both Preview and Photos for this task, both with the same end result (wheel of death, never loading the photos on the iphoneX)