Until recently after my iPhone 15 Pro Max & Mac Mini M2 were updated to iOS & OS 26, I would see the iPhone when I plugged in a USB cable, and was able to import whatever photos I wanted. But now, Photos is not recognizing, seeing the iPhone when I plug it in! In Settings, and the sidebar, I am not seeing an option to Open Photos when connected. Even Image Capture does not see my iPhone! So, for now, there is no way to Import photos! Is there an iPhone setting I missed, or somehow changed?
I don’t see any options in the iPhone Settings that apply… Weird! It was working…
Well, so much for that, as usual it took less time that the above prediction… Still not recognizing my iPhone in either Photos or a Finder sidebar, which also means it hasn’t been doing it’s Sync & backup for a while, I guess…Rebooted the iPhone again too, no change… So a hard fault somewhere, both Mac & iPhones are the latest updates…
I’ll get back onto Support when I have more time…
Great news, I just tried a 3rd USB-A to USB-c cable, different from the prior 2 cables and it connects, allows my downloading into Photos, Syncing as well… So all is resolved. Sadly a broken cable after it had been reliable for a long time…
I tried this 3rd cable while on hold to the Support line, a pleasant surprise!
Sometimes the first thing is the real problem! Why the 2nd cable also failed, is yet another mystery, must also have a problem.. Chopping both up!
Looking deeper, I found my USB tester… The white cable (top) doesn’t work, the red one (lower) does, only difference is the bad (top pic) cable has an extra led lit, maybe a short…
usb-c is a mess. The shape of the plug is great but mysteries abound.
Plugging in a USB-C cable can raise all sorts of questions. Will you get the maximum speed between two devices? Will you get the wattage you need to power a computer or recharge a USB battery? Will nothing happen at all, with no clue as to why? There’s often no way to know
Well, it led me down the wrong path, for sure, as well as the support folks, that upper pic was the bad one, so I chopped the ends off, tossed it in the recycle bin… It was a USB-c to USB-c… A lot of old cables should be tossed here, but that one was fairly new, braided white, but… Gone!
I hadn’t used that tester in a long time, but its CR 2032 3v battery was still good, took a bit to find the testers on/off switch, but then comparing to the good one showed the fault.
