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The good new is that after second attempt to connect iphone and macbook via Image capture , it finally worked ! Great. Thank you for the tip :)
 
Actually - not so easy. I stopped it before and wanted to start again now. And again - 10 times connecting and "could not connect to the module" etc. I almost resigned and during the final repeated attempt it suddenly starting importing. I wonder - what is the problem ?
 
OP, a few things:

1. I am assuming you are not using iCloud Photo Library
2. You accumulated 200GB photos, and only now you want to transfer them to another storage, like your laptop? please do improve your backup strategy, your phone may go bust any time, and you will lose your 200GB photos!
3. Why not copy your photos regularly at small portions? Now you have to obviously scroll through them and select a range to copy over, then the next range...
4. This is not a common use case, so why blame Apple? It is your device and photos, take care of them on a regular basis.
5. Yea, it will take a long time to achieve what you want, be patient and diligent, and you shall succeed!
 
Can you view your iphone on your mac as a storage device? If so, you can go and find the photo folders--on my phone they are numbered from 101 onwards. I just copy the contents of each folder into a folder on my computer. Goes pretty fast. After I have ensured all of the photos have been copied, I just unplug the phone and delete all of the photos of the phone. Very inelegant, but quick.
 
It's working but the drag journey if you have 5000 photos may last forever (with finger there and the content slowly coming up or down). Select all - is a kind elementary function everywhere else ?
Start select-scroll with one thumb, move it all the way to the top. Use another thumb underneath the first thumb to speed up scroll. Easy
 
OP, a few things:

1. I am assuming you are not using iCloud Photo Library
2. You accumulated 200GB photos, and only now you want to transfer them to another storage, like your laptop? please do improve your backup strategy, your phone may go bust any time, and you will lose your 200GB photos!
3. Why not copy your photos regularly at small portions? Now you have to obviously scroll through them and select a range to copy over, then the next range...
4. This is not a common use case, so why blame Apple? It is your device and photos, take care of them on a regular basis.
5. Yea, it will take a long time to achieve what you want, be patient and diligent, and you shall succeed!
Well, there is already iPhone with 1 TB storage, right ? So if used, it should normally work even in this case ? Even computers and discs with many TB storage can transfer the content straight, quickly and easily, without very special care, patience and diligency, so is there any reason why iPhone should be an exception ? ;)
 
I don't see why you cannot just use Image Capture. Just do it in batches. Copy some, delete them, rinse and repeat. Since iPhones are still on USB2, copying the whole 200GB might take a while, so better do it in batches.

Or even better, you can actually delete anything that you con't need first. iOS Photos app can classify images if it's a selfie, screenshot, videos, etc. That's a quick way to see if there are unneeded stuff.

And I'm not sure why people would somehow "blame" Apple on this. One can simply watch Steve Jobs' own keynote when he announced iCloud. Even back then, Apple already consider the main digital hub of digital life to be the cloud, with every device connected to it, no longer the computer/Mac as the digital hub. I mean it's not that "simple" either on modern Android phone, unless you still have a phone with an SD card and copy the DCIM folder manually.
 
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I don't see why you cannot just use Image Capture. Just do it in batches. Copy some, delete them, rinse and repeat. Since iPhones are still on USB2, copying the whole 200GB might take a while, so better do it in batches.

Or even better, you can actually delete anything that you con't need first. iOS Photos app can classify images if it's a selfie, screenshot, videos, etc. That's a quick way to see if there are unneeded stuff.
iPhones are still on USB2 ? Really ? Hmm, sounds like quite advanced development state :)
 
Yes. Apple put the R&D on Airdrop and iCloud. Your usage scenario is not common.
Well, if someone will use 1TB storage iPhone and wants to transfer the content, both iCloud and Airdrop may be of little use and some nice holidays may be needed to use USB2 for it :) ... (in a complicated way). I don't like Android but still - you connect the phone, see the folders and content and move wherever you like. Just normal, simple and natural. Pity such an easy way is not used here as well.
 
Well, if someone will use 1TB storage iPhone and wants to transfer the content, both iCloud and Airdrop may be of little use and some nice holidays may be needed to use USB2 for it :) ... (in a complicated way). I don't like Android but still - you connect the phone, see the folders and content and move wherever you like. Just normal, simple and natural. Pity such an easy way is not used here as well.
I'd suggest a Galaxy S21/S22 or Pixel 6 for your future phone. They have USB3 connectivity.
 
Well, if someone will use 1TB storage iPhone and wants to transfer the content, both iCloud and Airdrop may be of little use and some nice holidays may be needed to use USB2 for it :) ... (in a complicated way). I don't like Android but still - you connect the phone, see the folders and content and move wherever you like. Just normal, simple and natural. Pity such an easy way is not used here as well.
Be mindful it’s only normal, simple and natural because you have grown accustomed that way. My dad has absolutely no idea or concept of files and folders and moving content around on his PC. My dad emails every photo he wants to store on his PC.
 
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One other thing, after transfer check your photos to make sure that they’ve transferred to your computer in the correct format.

I noticed recently that mine don’t since a few months back (from phone Photos to laptop Photos). They’re no longer Live Photos. I need to set aside some time to sort this…

In the meantime I’ve stopped importing my photos into the laptop so have quite a backlog and I know from past experience that Photos doesn’t like importing a large number of photos in one go!

Will take a look at the Image Capture alternative mentioned above if I can’t get the Photos import function to work properly.
 
Start select-scroll with one thumb, move it all the way to the top. Use another thumb underneath the first thumb to speed up scroll. Easy
I'm not sure how many people understood what you meant but it's gold.

Just select a few photos and while holding one finger down on the screen, just swipe up with the other finger to move down the page. Saves tons of time for multi selections.
 
Yeah, importing to Photos library from iPhone is a nightmare if you have more than 1,000 photos.
It’s a total disaster.
I hope some day they will have enough money to fix it.
I have over 30,000 photos and they import just fine. Sounds like a bug.
 
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