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PeterCarpt
User level: Level 1 (16 points)

iMac mini Photos app fails to import images with format error.

Have folders of images on my imac harddrive from my phone - no issues with looking at them in preview, or putting into documents etc. Now, for the last few weeks realise that I cannot import them into Photo - always get

'This item cannot be added to your Photo library because it may be in an unrecognisable file format or the file may not contain valid data.' with name of file and 'unknown error' next to it.

Using Imac mini with Apple M2 Pro and Tahoe 26.7.2.


I have been running a parallel backup on Googledrive.

Posted on Oct 29, 2026 12:28 PM

4 replies

Richard.Taylor
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)

Oct 30, 2026 8:27 AM in response to PeterCarpt

Try these things:

  • Restart the computer (of course)
  • Re-start in Safe Mode. This bypasses certain potentially disruptive processes, and it often helps. Safe Mode is different for different computers, so see this: 

         Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support 

  • Rebuild your Photos Library--close Photos and re-launch by option-command-clicking the app icon. If you use iCloud Photos, it’s possible that this will cause a re-sync that lasts long enough to make you nervous. I usually turn off wifi when I do this.


Let us know how this goes. What is your storage on this Mac? At System Settings>General> Storage, my Mac says 745 GB of 1TBB used. What does yours say?


You didn't say what format these pictures are in, and that's probably not the problem. But since you can open them in Preview, you should try using File>Export and choose "Show Options" to get a choice of format. You can select multiple pictures and save them as HEIC or ping, and see if those will low into Photos. Preview may clear up whatever's wrong in the export.


You can also right-click a bunch of selected images in Finder, and choose Quick Actions>Convert Image



Matti Haveri
User level: Level 7 (22,314 points)

Oct 31, 2026 4:09 AM in response to PeterCarpt

Put a zipped sample image on some cloud service so we can take a look and better evaluate whether the cause is the image (for example, Google Photos can re-encode movies to incompatible VP9 codec with its Storage saver setting) or maybe the macOS setup.

PeterCarpt Author
User level: Level 1 (16 points)

Oct 30, 2026 8:39 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks - have 1.4Tb used of 2Tb drive. Plenty of space.

Thumbnails all ok and could open any image currently in library.

Safe reboot did not solve - currently repairing/restoring library - looks like it will take 3 days. Library is 256Gb.

photos that will not import are Heic, png and jpgs off iphone and mov.

Interestingly the update of Tahoe may have solved the refusal to open a new album, but it took several attempts before it would add photos from library into new albums.

PeterCarpt Author
User level: Level 1 (16 points)

Oct 31, 2026 4:03 AM in response to PeterCarpt

repairing/ restoring Libray has not changed initial problem - photos and images that can be used on all my other apps cannot be imported to Photos

Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256385483