There are a number of ways to bring photos and videos into your computer from your iPhone or iPad.
I like to manually import them and place them in a folder on the hard drive of my MacBook Pro or on an external hard drive.
This is how I do it...
[1] Plug an external hard drive into a USB port on your desktop or laptop computer. From here on I will just call it your Laptop.
[2] Double click on the icon for your external hard drive and create a new folder on this external hard drive which can be named anything you like such as: "iPhone photos Dump July-2-2016"
[3] Plug your iPhone into another USB port on your Laptop.
[4] As soon as you plug your iPhone in, the built in "Photos" app on your Laptop may start up. If it does, wait for it to finish loading then go up to File and select Quit to close it down. We are not going to use the Photos app on your Laptop for this photo backup process.
[5] Next, launch the Image Capture app. This app lives in your Applications folder and comes with your Laptop. You don't need to get it separately.
[6] After the Image Capture app has been launched, on the left side at the top you will see a small icon that represents your iPhone. Click on that iPhone icon.
[7] After clicking on the iPhone icon you will see all the the photos and videos that are in the Camera Roll of your iPhone in the large right window area. From now on I will just say photos but that includes videos as well.
[8] At the bottom center of the Image Capture window you will see the number of items that currently live in the iPhone Camera Roll. Make a note of that number for use later.
We will later confirm that all the photos that were on the iPhone Camera Roll were in fact imported into the external hard drive.
[9] At the bottom you will also see a little menu that displays where you would like to place the imported photos. Select "Other" and then select your external hard drive and then select the folder in your external hard drive that you recently created.
[10] Next you can choose to import all of the photos that currently live in your Camera Roll on your iPhone, or just select a few specific ones.
[11] If you want to select all of them, chose the "Import All" button.
[12] If you want to select specific photos for import, click on a photo then hold down the Command key and keep selecting other photos that you would also like to import.
[13] Next press the "Import" button - and DON'T do any other task on the Laptop, such as checking email etc. Let this process run completely on its own.
[14] All the photos that you have selected will start to import into the the folder that you created on your external hard drive.
[15] A progress bar will display in the center of the screen showing the photos being imported.
[16] When the progress bar has reached the right hand side and all the photos have been imported reduce the Image Capture app into the Dock so that you can see your Desktop with the external hard drive sitting on it.
[17] Next we want to confirm that all the photos that we wanted to transfer have been transferred. Double click on the external hard drive and then just single click/select the folder that you created. After that folder is selected press Command I and this will pull up a "Get Info" window.
In that window it will display the number of items in that folder. You would like to see the same number of items in that folder as were originally on the iPhone Camera Roll.
Sometimes the number is off by one item or so, but if you see that the number is almost exactly the same it will mean those photos have now been transferred to the external hard drive.
[18] Next, if you would like to see these photos, double click on that folder that you created and you will see them all inside.
[19] If you are happy that all the photos that you chose to import have arrived you can close that folder.
[20] Next bring the Image Capture app back up from the Dock and once again you will see all the photos in the Camera Roll on your iPhone in the large area on the right.
[21] Now you have the option of deleting photos on your iPhone. You can delete all of the photos or select specific photos for deletion.
[22] The photos may still be selected from your earlier step. If you would like to delete all of the photos click on the big window that shows the photos and then press Command A. This will select all the photos in the Camera Roll of your iPhone.
[23] Next press the small round delete icon at the bottom and all those photos will then start to be deleted on your iPhone.
[24] If you would just like to delete specific photos, click on a photo then hold down the Command key and keep selecting other photos that you would also like to delete.
[25] Next press the small round delete icon at the bottom and all those photos will then start to be deleted on your iPhone.
[26] As the photos are being deleted they will disappear from the large window in Image Capture until finally the large window will be blank.
[27] You can now close Image capture.
[28] You can also unplug your iPhone from the USB Port.
[29] You can also un-mount / eject the external hard drive and then unplug it from the other USB Port.
[30] If you now open the Photos app on your iPhone the Camera Roll will say (0).
[31] All of your photos have been deleted from your iPhone and they are all living in the folder that you created on your external Hard Drive.
