Stop Photos popping up every time you charge your iPhone

Plugging your iPhone into the Mac for a quick top-up shouldn't launch a photo import — but over a USB cable the Mac always sees the phone as a camera, so Photos opens. You can't split "charge" from "data" on the cable, but you can stop the app: untick Open Photos for this device in Photos, or disable the hot-plug launch entirely in Image Capture or Terminal.

Why charging opens Photos at all

A Lightning or USB-C cable carries power and data on the same connection. There's no "charge only" mode you can pick in software — whenever the iPhone is drawing power from the Mac, the Mac can also see it as a camera, and by default that connection tells Photos to open and offer an import. So the goal isn't to stop the data link; it's to tell macOS not to launch anything when that link appears. Do that and the phone charges in silence.

Stop the launch in Photos or Image Capture

The fastest per-device fix lives in Photos:

1. Connect the iPhone, open Photos, and select it under Import in the sidebar.
2. Untick Open Photos for this device.

Prefer the master control, or want it to cover other apps too? Use Image Capture:

1. Open Image Capture, select the iPhone in the Devices list.
2. Click the toggle arrow at the bottom-left and set Connecting this iPhone opens to No application.

Either way the phone still charges exactly as before — you've only removed the pop-up.

One command to silence it

To stop the launch for every device you ever plug in, disable hot-plug globally. The -currentHost flag is required; the setting is stored per-Mac and the command does nothing without it:

# Charge without Photos (or any app) opening
defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool true

# Undo
defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool false

Reconnect the iPhone once so the change registers. No restart or logout is needed.

If you only ever charge, not import

Some people plug into the Mac purely for power and never import over the cable at all. If that's you, the global Terminal switch is the tidiest choice — it makes every device you connect behave like a charger by default, and you can still open Photos or Image Capture by hand on the rare occasion you do want to pull images off. A wall adapter or a hub sidesteps the whole thing, but when the Mac is the only outlet nearby, silencing the launch is the next best move.

Charging speed isn't affected

Silencing the Photos pop-up has nothing to do with how fast the iPhone charges — that's governed by the port and the power your Mac can deliver, not by whether an app opens. A MacBook's ports keep topping the phone up at the same rate they always did. The only behaviour you removed is the software launch; power delivery, iCloud sync, and everything else carry on untouched. So you get the practical win — use the Mac as a convenient charger — without giving anything up in return.

Control what accessories can do

Want the Mac to ask before it even talks to something you plug in? That's a separate privacy layer worth knowing about — see how USB accessory security works on Mac.