Stop iPhoto from Launching When iPhone is Connected

Surely you have noticed the default behavior for connecting any iOS device to a Mac is that either iTunes or iPhoto launches itself automatically. This happens when any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is connected to a computer, and which app opens depends on if the other one is already opened, or if one has been disabled from doing so. While the auto-launching feature is undeniably helpful to some users, it’s also quick to become a bother if you just want to connect an iOS device to your computer to just charge the battery or manually sync files to it.

If you’re annoyed with iPhoto opening itself automatically, here’s how to put an end to that the next time you connect an iOS device to your computer.

Stop iPhoto Automatically Opening Itself

This will prevent iPhoto from opening, but it can also be used to stop the Image Capture application from launching when an iPhone is connected to the Mac too.

• Connect the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to the computer with a USB cable
• Let iPhoto open then quit it
• Now open “Image Capture”, found in the /Applications/ folder
• In the lower left corner, click the little pulldown menu next to “Connecting this iPhone opens” and choose “No application”
• Quit out of Image Capture

The next time you connect the iPhone to the Mac, the iPhoto app will no longer launch itself automatically.

Why is a setting for iPhoto located in Image Capture? Who knows, and it’s fairly confusing considering that to stop iTunes from opening automatically you adjust a setting within iTunes, so most users would think to look in iPhoto to change the same type of setting. Nope, not so much.

Despite all this, both iPhoto and Image Capture are good apps for image management, though each app is quite different from the other. iPhoto is a full experience, and it has some advantages but it’s not for me. Image Capture on the other hand can take the cake for transferring pictures and deleting photos from iPhones and iOS devices in general, so if you haven’t familiarized yourself with Image Capture yet then it’s a good time to do so. It has much less window-dressing than iPhoto does, but if you’re just looking to quickly copy pictures off your iOS devices and then store them or manipulate them in another app like Pixelmator or Photoshop, there’s really no better app to use in Mac OS X.