Photos does not see new images on my iPhone

[Jhieminga]

I have had a look at older threads, but could not find one discussing this same problem. Recently I have encountered a problem I have had before: when I connect my iPhone (13 Pro, iOS 26.3) to my MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, Tahoe 26.3) somehow the Photos app refuses to show all the new photos on it.

I have my iPhone set up to use iCloud photos but I do not use this on my Mac. The thinking is that my Mac is an offline backup while iCloud functions as an online one. I regularly connect the two using an old-fashioned bit of cable and import new photos into the Photos app. All went well on 19th Feb, but when I reconnected the two last week (27th Feb) I was unable to see any of the photos I had taken in the meantime. It only shows a subset of photos as 'already imported' and none of the new ones. This morning I was able to see four photos I had taken earlier today, but all the intervening ones refuse to show up. I have followed some tips from this thread and have reconnected a number of times, no change, I have restarted my iPhone, no change.

I have had this issue before, several years ago, but as far as I can remember, it went away by itself and I figured all would be well from here on. I can of course AirDrop several photos to my Mac, shift them into Photos and just ignore the rest, but ideally, I would prefer the two devices to resume normal relations. Any tips are welcome!

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Expected if the phone is set to "Optimize" photos. Only those photos not "optimized" will be available via USB.

 

[kitKAC]

Try Image Capture instead?

 

[Jhieminga]

Thanks both. I have had a go at using Image Capture, but it shows the same behaviour, only the most recent (last three days) photos are shown and loads of photos are missing.

The 'Optimize photos' option could be at the root of this, I will look into it. It does appear strange that it culls photos this quickly. I guess I just have to be quicker in syncing my devices.

Addition: I have had a look and it is the 'Optimize' issue that is causing me grief. When I select a bunch of photos and start the process of Airdropping them they will download to my phone and all of a sudden, I can see them from the 'device - iPhone' tab of Photos. I can then either download them from there or allow the Airdrop process to complete and drag them into Photos to import. Bit of a hassle, but I have everything synced up again now. Will keep an eye on things in the future.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

FWIW, and YMMV...

I do have one Mac set up to sync with iCloud, but "Keep Originals." It downloads everything from iCloud.

That Mac is then backed up to 2 separate backups (local + cloud)

So - that Mac does provide "offline backup" via the actual backups. The only real "risk" is if I delete a photo from iCloud before the Mac has a chance to back it up (because deleting from iCloud WILL also delete it from the Mac.) But it's a minor risk, and it eliminates the hassle you're experiencing.

My needs are not your needs, so you do what's best for you. But this is working for me.