Image Capture deletes MOV component of Live Photos but leaves HEIC files on iPhone
Description:
I am experiencing a reproducible issue when importing Live Photos from my iPhone using Apple Image Capture on macOS.
My device:
MacOS 27.0.1
and
- iPhone 16 Pro
- iOS 27.0.1
- 256 GB
- Live Photos are currently disabled in the Camera app
- The affected images are older Live Photos that already exist on the iPhone
A Live Photo consists of a corresponding .HEIC still image and .MOV video component.
When I connect my iPhone to my Mac and use Image Capture to import the photos, both components are imported correctly.
I then delete the imported items from the iPhone using Image Capture / the delete-after-import functionality.
The problem is that Image Capture does not completely remove these Live Photos from the iPhone:
- the corresponding .MOV files are successfully deleted;
- the .HEIC files appear to have been deleted in Image Capture;
- after disconnecting and reconnecting the iPhone, the same .HEIC files reappear in Image Capture;
- the associated .MOV files do not reappear;
- therefore the Live Photo has effectively been only partially deleted.
For example, before deletion:
IMG_1234.HEIC
IMG_1234.MOV
After importing and deleting through Image Capture, reconnecting the iPhone shows:
IMG_1234.HEIC
The corresponding IMG_1234.MOV has been removed successfully.
The remaining HEIC file can be permanently removed by deleting the photo directly in the Photos app on the iPhone, so the photo itself is not undeletable.
Steps to reproduce
- Connect an iPhone containing existing Live Photos to a Mac.
- Open Image Capture.
- Import Live Photos consisting of matching HEIC + MOV files.
- Delete the imported items from the iPhone using Image Capture.
- Disconnect the iPhone.
- Reconnect the iPhone and reopen Image Capture.
- Observe that some/all corresponding .HEIC files are present again, while the .MOV components have been successfully removed.
Expected result
When Image Capture deletes an imported Live Photo from the iPhone, the entire Photos asset should be removed, including both the HEIC and MOV components.
Actual result
Image Capture removes the MOV component but leaves the HEIC component behind. Image Capture initially appears to have deleted the HEIC as well, but it becomes visible again after reconnecting the iPhone.
This results in orphaned HEIC files and requires manually deleting the affected photos in the iPhone Photos app after every import.
This behaviour makes Delete after Import unreliable for Live Photos and creates a significant amount of manual cleanup when importing large numbers of photos.
