Disable auto launching of Photos application on Mac OSX Yosemite & El Capitan

Steps to disable automatic launch of the new Photos app on OS X Yosemite (10.10) or El Capitan (10.11):

  1. Connect your camera or iDevice (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.)
  2. Open the Image Capture app
  3. Click on your camera or iDevice under "DEVICES" in the upper left corner
  4. Find "Connecting this (device) opens:" in the lower left corner
  5. Click on the dropdown list and select "No application"

Screenshot of Image Capture showing dropdown list, with "No application" selected


This worked for me in Yosemite.

# -currentHost is not technically required
defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool YES

It came from answer to a similar question on AskDifferent:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/188212/prevent-photos-app-on-osx-yosemite-from-starting-when-plugging-in-device

Interestingly the UI setting in Image Capture doesn't do anything but this does.


Rather than fumble around trying to find potential strings, I'd just use Image Capture or RCDefaultApp to switch off the 'insert media' issue

Set these all to 'Ignore'
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& Secrets pref pane for the 'undiscovered' ones.

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