Photos app freezes upon import / photo importing problems

Dont know why i have not done this before. Just go to explorer, apple iphone, internal storage and find the folder with the pics you want and drag them to your pics folder on pc. 

works. 

also edit. Just found that if you browse files on the iphone. Double click one to view. In the top bar click import new and bingo selector boxes appear.

Hello everyone again!

So unfortunately, the November update did not help as I’m sure most of you know. The only thing that it allowed me to do is to get one SINGLE video through every day. For some reason, if at least one video gets through, to upload another one I have to shut down my computer and try again the next day. This obviously isn’t very efficient and makes no sense!

Aside from that, I really don’t have any more updates or possible solutions. It’s only a waiting game now. 

Regardless, have a nice day everyone! (and Happy early Thanksgiving to those who celebrate)

-Gabriela

SOLUTION!

Hey everyone. I have this problem since September. I tried everything and every time my Photos App freezes while it scans for import from my iPhone. 

First of all I tried the process to a new PC with the exact same windows (and photos)  version only to find out it works normally and it is not an iOS issue.

What I did is this:

Press import as normal while you remember the number that your scan freezes and press "Cancel" once, before it reaches this number. Basically, dont let it freeze and press cancel in time. If it freezes, kill the task and launch again. Just a random number before the one it freezes works. After that, press import again and you will notice that the scan number continues from the one you pressed "cancel". But this time it will reach the max number and you will get to the "choose what to import" screen. 

I tried the process  10 times exactly and it worked all times. This looks like a good workaround until the App gets fixed (maybe in November update?). Please try this and post. 

This actually worked! Thank you so much!

I've done a lot of messing around with this problem. I'm a Windows programmer, so to see this issue persist for such a long time makes my blood boil - Microsoft will say it is a problem with the Apple driver that connects with the iPhone, and Apple will say it is a problem with the Windows software. I say it is both.

The thing is, it appears that the driver attempts to convert the images and videos on the iPhone to a form acceptable to the PC - like converting .heic photos to .jpg, or converting movies. I believe this is where the problem begins - a think particular images or movies are failing the conversion, and the driver either faults and stops in its tracks without detecting the problem gracefully, or Windows Photos does not handle the fault in a graceful manner and just blocks or crashes

I've found that...

• set the phone to download the images in original format. Windows 10 can now handle .heic images.
• movies that have been slo-moed or timelapsed may cause problems.
• images that originate from sources other than the camera can cause problems.

Going through and deleting those on the phone may work.

In the end, with 9,000+ photos and movies on my phone, I gave up. I tried iCloud photos - unbelievably slow - would have taken months to upload. In the end I just paid for Google Photos space - took a few days to upload but it worked and now I have a backup.

I reckon it is about time for a class action against Apple and Microsoft for blatantly ignoring this issue for so long, treating people with contempt by not acknowledging the value of our personal photos and movies, and providing pathetic solutions to the problem over and over again, like - have you updated iTunes and Windows - of course we have - we are not bloody stupid!

Come on Microsoft - pull your bloody fingers out of your holes and get together with the Apple engineers and solve this problem ASAP!

This happens with my Galaxy Note 8 also, so my money is on Microsoft....

I too have the issue with the photos app freezing when trying to import pics from my iphone.  The problems started when I purchased my iPhone 8 and needed to import a large number of pics.  I am always able to eventually get the photos over but it is not easy.  The pattern I notice is if there are a large number to import (hundreds-thousands) or large (a.k.a long) videos.  The only way I am able to do it is by rebooting Windows 10 PC (seems to act the same no matter what build I am on - currently on 1903) and restarting my iPhone 8.  I have to work in small batches.  If I imported 50-80 photos, sometimes I get a second shot at importing more pics before having to reboot both devices.  If I try over, 100 I always have to reboot both.  I import videos separately.  This has been a problem for me for 2 years.  Hope this helps diagnosis problem.