I have a 13-inch MacBook Air from early 2014 running macOS Big Sur 11.7.11. I recently AirDropped more than 400 photos and videos from my iPhone XR, including JPEG, MOV, MP4, and HEIC files. The transfers appeared to create files on my Mac, but none of them will open. When I select them and view their information, they all show a size of 0 bytes. Their icons look faded or transparent, and macOS says they are in use when I try to move them. Entering my password does not make them usable, although I can move them to the Trash. I have already deleted many of the originals from my iPhone to free up space, so I am worried about losing them permanently. Is there any way to recover or preview these files, or do I need to transfer them again? Please explain the steps simply, since I am not very experienced with computers.
1 Answer
A file showing 0 bytes does not contain any photo or video data, so it cannot be opened, previewed, repaired, or uploaded to a recovery website. The AirDrop process likely created placeholder entries but never successfully transferred the actual files. The faded icons and “in use” message are probably Finder or a stalled transfer holding those entries, not evidence that the missing data is hidden inside them. You can restart the Mac and then remove the zero-byte placeholders, but deleting them will not delete the original files from the iPhone if those originals still exist. If the originals were deleted from the phone, check the Photos app’s Recently Deleted album and any iCloud or other backup before trying another transfer.
So there is no way to get even a tiny preview from these files? I was hoping macOS might still have a thumbnail saved somewhere.