Prevent Photos app from opening when connecting any iOS-device on OS X El Capitan

Question

On OS X Yosemite little utility called 'Cameras' used to help me with that – I could disable opening 'Image Capture', 'iPhoto' or 'Photos' apps. On Mavericks 'RCDefaultApp' also helped me with that. Now on El Capitan 'Cameras' doesn't work. I can't get rid of opening 'Photos' app every time I connect any iPad/iPhone/iPhone. I know I can disable opening 'Photos' when connecting my device, but I work with different devices and everyday I connect new iOS devices to my mac – so it is very annoying when 'Photos' reacts on them. I tried this terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool YES

no luck. :( obviously it is about 'Image Capture', not about 'Photos'.

Does anyone knows how to disable opening 'Photos' app when connect ANY iOS device or SD/CF-card?

Answer 1

I'm not certain which one finally nailed it, but a combination of

• Prevent sync in iTunes

• RCDefaultApp set to ignore everything on the Media tab

& specific devices set to 'No Application' in Image Capture

Has kept me auto-launch-free for a long time, including in El Capitan - whether iOS device, SD Card or USB stick.

Update - doesn't work for iDevices, sorry, only SD Cards/USB sticks. Just tested on a 'foreign' iPad, which launched Photos :(

Image Capture was always in charge of the process, not iPhoto or Photos, so your defaults write makes sense. I'm guessing that it is simply no longer acted upon in Yosemite - one of many no longer customisable options.

Answer 2

As of Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, you need to specify the host when entering the above command:

defaults -currentHost write com.apple.ImageCapture disableHotPlug -bool YES