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

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-11T09:44:22+00:00

    With a bit of help from a tech savvy member of another forum I finally managed to get file explorer to access the photos on my camera and copy the new ones to my laptop. It's tedious and time consuming compared to getting the Photo app to import them, but at least it works.

    I had to set the 'usb connection' setting on my camera to storage, then connected it and clicked on it in file explorer and down a couple of levels until it finally found and listed the photos (which took ages as there are over 8000). Sorting by date and highlighting the new ones then allowed me to copy them to the laptop.

    I don't know if this will be any help to anyone else, but I thought it was worth posting just in case.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-01-10T10:56:12+00:00

    No problem - I’m glad it worked for you too! :)

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-09T07:49:29+00:00

    "I really hope that Apple figures out a way to fix this so we can back up our pics and videos without any issues."

    Apple have to do nothing, because the problem affects all phones and cameras not just iPhones so is clearly a Microsoft problem. They broke their photos app in their Windows 10 September update and still haven't fixed it.

    I'm glad iPhone users have managed to find workarounds which at least alleviate the problem, but they don't help anyone else. The fact that I still haven't been able to upload the holiday photos I took on my Olympus camera in November remains Microsoft's problem to fix, not Apple's.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-01-08T15:44:32+00:00

    Hi -

    I have posted a couple of times including recently where I was able to import 100+ photos from my iPhone 8 without it freezing after the December update to Windows 10 Version 1903.  (note: I was having trouble whether I was running ios 12.4.1 or 13.3).  I now seem to have a lot less problems since the 2019-12 update to Windows.  One difference than what others have stated is how I manage my camera/photos on my iphone.  I have camera/formats set to High Efficiency (HEIF/HEIC) but I have photos set to Automatic instead of Keep Originals.  

    With these setttings I am able to import Live photos (it imports a still and video).  I think it still has problems with slo-mo and time-elapse (which I do not use other than by accident).  The reason I set it this way originally was compatibility with Photoshop.  I think the newer versions of Photoshop can use HEIC - I will try in future.

    What I cannot say if I had 1000+ photos whether it still would be as smooth.  I was eventually able to move 1000's by working in small batches (100-200) and rebooting the PC and phone after each time.  It was a pain but I was successful in getting everything over.   I tested opening Windows Explorer and copy/pasting from my iphone and that worked as well and worked fine in Photoshop.  The copy/paste is how I moved the 100's of videos I had.

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