Photos app freezes upon import / photo importing problems

Anonymous
2019-09-12T23:08:28+00:00

Hello, I was trying to import photos from my iPhone via charging cable and upon import the photo app freezes. I reset my phone and tried again and it worked for the first import but another problem is that I can only upload 3-4 videos at a time before the photos app says something went wrong and I have to start the whole process all over again. Because of this, when I go to import again it just freezes once it hits my total photo and video count. This problem has been persistent ever since I started uploading photos and videos this past year or two and it really hinders my progress. Thanks for any help.

-Gabriela

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Connect Phone and PC

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

481 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-12-06T02:35:55+00:00

    Okay, my photos have started to import like NORMAL.  The only thing I know that I did was delete 2 apps that were associated with 365 Office "Team" something. One was the app & the other was a installer. Don't know why that would have anything to do with it, but ya'll may want to try.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-12-06T12:51:17+00:00

    It's now a month since I returned from holiday and I still haven't been able to import my photos from my Olympus camera. Why is there no update on this thread from Microsoft saying when they expect to fix this bug?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-12-08T13:30:33+00:00

    Hi all,

    Just to let you know that I've had the same issue for several months, including Windows Photos...

    simply saying it can't find any photos on my device;

    finds something but then stays a 0 for an eternity and never moves on;

    finds all the photos but then freezes at that point and doesn't allow me to select the photos to download;

    lets me downloads the photos (once in a blue moon) but then crashes midway through.

    I've tried two different laptops and two different iPhones - same issues.

    I've followed all of the solutions I've seen on this thread (well not all, I've not read all 11 pages) and none have worked for me.

    While I don't have a solution to fix this issue, I have overcome it by downloading FastStone Image Viewer which is free for personal use. It only appears to download images in the device's native format (HEIC for an iPhone) but it downloads the photos the way I downloaded them in Windows 10 (organising photos in folders by date YYYY-MM-DD) and that's all I actually wanted. I never knew about HEIC and stuff like this until the problem and I must say I prefer it - saves so much on file size!

    If you do download this software and want to convert the images to JPG, the software has an inbuilt batch converter but it doesn't seem to work. I've tried multiple times but it keeps failing.  However, as I'm happy to keep them as HEIC, no biggie.

    One final issue - if you have the most recent update of Windows 10 (anything after October 2018, apparently) Windows Photos is supposed to have an HEIC extension installed. Even though I have this, the photos were not viewable.   A quick Google told me to install the extension from the Microsoft App store...

    HEIF Image Extensions

    HEVC Video Extensions from the Device Manufacturer

    Note: When I tried to install the 'HEIF Image Extensions', it did say it was already installed.

    Install both and you'll be able to see you images and videos.

    Hope this helps until Windows Photo is fixed

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-12-08T13:59:43+00:00

    I am experiencing the same problem.  To get past it, I did the following:

    1. Change your iPhone to download the files in their raw format (under Settings / Photo / Transfer to Mac or PC).
    2. Copy the HEIC files to your PC.
    3. Purchase an HEIC to JPG converter.  I bought HEIC Image Convert Tool from the Microsoft Store.
    4. Use the HEIC to JPG converter tool to convert all of your HEIC images to JPG.

    To permanently fix this issue moving forward, I'm doing the following:

    1. Change your iPhone to take JPEG images instead of HEIC (under Settings / Camera / Formats switch from High Efficiency to Most Compatible).   I also turned off the HDR setting so save space.

    After Microsoft fixes this problem, I'll switch back to HEIC format.

    Hope this helps!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2019-12-09T00:45:59+00:00

    I have the same exact problem.  Why has Microsoft not fixed this issue already?????

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments