Did Apple change the directory structure for their photos?

Since iOS 14.6 update the DCIM folder subdirectories are now YYYY_M (Year_Month)!!! (and not 101, 102, ...)

Thank you Apple for this change! I absolutely love it!

It is by far the best change (for me) in the iOS in the last 10 years!

This has nothing at all to do with Apple's folder structure (other than that the recent upgrade created substantially more folders, at least for most people who take less than 10,000 pictures per month.) It's entirely about how Windows sorts the folders (and subsequently remembers those settings, if you changed them). As I have already mentioned, I think this may be nearly impossible, especially since this is an external device.

As for "several easy ways to transfer photos from the phone to a computer", I find myself laughing hysterically. In all my years of trying to use iTunes to manage photos (or music or anything else) on any of the devices I have ever owned, I have found it to be a complete pain in the rear every darn time. Oh, but sure, I can automatically upload the first 2% of my photos to iCloud, but why on earth would I want to pay to store the next 250GB??

Far and away the best and easiest way for me to handle my photos is simply to connect to them directly, as above, and then copy them to a local backup directory.

I think you don't understand Lawrence :

• Yes we all recognize you are very good (maybe the best ?) to explain Apple policy.
• But please just admit that some users may find more practical, efficient or pleasant to do things differently.
• And they are fully entitled to request Apple to support their needs or their user experience.

The iOS 14.6 DCIM folders names were indeed for me (and other users) the BEST (and I'm really serious) improvement in iOS in the last 10 years. You may disagree, but this is my opinion, and I have the right to have this opinion.

I hope iOS 15 will have this very same wonderful improvement of my user experience that will make me keep iPhones in the future... otherwise, I will change.

Period ;-)

lancewhit wrote:

Yep, I noticed this. With iOS 14.6, Apple changed the photo folder structure to names based on the date. I liked that change since it made it easier to identify which folders contained which photos. But I understand it may have caused hiccups for some people. But then with iOS 14.7, the folder structure went back to the older name format. I don't know what Apple is doing here. I don't think they know what they're doing either.

Apple knows exactly what they are doing. You are using an unsupported way to copy photos from your iPhone to Windows. Apple stores photos in a way to optimize management of the photos database in your phone; they do not expect you to (or want you to) access your photos in this unapproved way. They experimented with a different internal structure, apparently found that it didn’t work as well as the previous structure, and went back to the previous structure.

This link covers all of the supported ways to copy photos→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Apple did not design the folder structure for your convenience, they structured it for the most efficient management of the photo database in the phone, because they don’t expect users to ever even look at it. Instead they provide several easy ways to transfer photos from the phone to a computer or other services. These ways are described here→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support.

By far the easiest way is to enable iCloud Photos: Settings/[your name]/icloud - Photos ON. This will transfer the existing photos to your iCloud account, then going forward in real time as they are taken meaning that you will never lose a photo should disaster strike. Once in iCloud you have options:

• Log in to https://icloud.com/photos, where you can view them or download them to your computer
• Enable iCloud Photos in your Mac System Preferences, and they will automatically sync to the Photos app on your Mac
• Install iCloud for Windows, where you can view your photos on your PC and optionally transfer them to local storage on your computer.

Why? Because Apple did not design the folder structure for your convenience, they structured it for the most efficient management of the photo database in the phone, because they don’t expect users to ever even look at it. Instead they provide several easy ways to transfer photos from the phone to a computer or other services. These ways are described here→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support.

By far the easiest way is to enable iCloud Photos: Settings/[your name]/icloud - Photos ON. This will transfer the existing photos to your iCloud account, then going forward in real time as they are taken meaning that you will never lose a photo should disaster strike. Once in iCloud you have options:

• Log in to https://icloud.com/photos, where you can view them or download them to your computer
• Enable iCloud Photos in your Mac System Preferences, and they will automatically sync to the Photos app on your Mac
• Install iCloud for Windows, where you can view your photos on your PC and optionally transfer them to local storage on your computer.

You should never have copied photos from the iPhone’s folder structure; you should have used the recommended way of copying photos→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support. The folder structure is an internal organizational tool, not intended to be accessed directly. In a way I’m surprised Apple let you even see it, as there isn’t much else you can see of an iPhone’s internal storage.

The canned "it's the user's fault, not Apple's" answer is this:

"Because Apple did not design the folder structure for your convenience, they structured it for the most efficient management of the photo database in the phone, because they don’t expect users to ever even look at it. Instead they provide several easy ways to transfer photos from the phone to a computer or other services. These ways are described here→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support."

If you want my personal opinion (which Apple moderators will probably censor) I think they screwed up. They released this change, it didn't work correctly, probably broke iTunes and/or numerous other things, and they had to change it back; after costing many users hours and hours of effort and confusion. But that's the user's fault because they "shouldn't be using a camera like a camera", right?

bcs1a wrote:

I don't want to sound difficult, but just who are you to make that kind of statement any way?, you might use yours one way, but, we all are not you...

I like easy questions. Here is Apple’s guidance on how to copy photos from an iOS device→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support. You will note that copying them from the file structure is not in that support article, and has never been in any support article. Thus, it is not a “supported” method in Apple’s guidance. If it works for you at the moment, that’s great, but Apple is not guaranteeing that it will work in the future or that it will work the same way from one iOS update to another (as is clear from recent experience that it doesn’t). And, in fact, it doesn’t work as well as the recommended method, which allows for file type conversions based on the capabilities of the receiving device.

I have 91 folders in my DCIM going back to 2019.

My problem is - when I open it in Windows Explorer it presents oldest to newest so I have to scroll down every time to get to the last folder to see the most recent snap.

I want it to be displayed newest to oldest and to stay like that everytime I access it from Windows.

Any one have any clues on this?

The View (tab)> Options > Change folder and search options > View (tab) > Rest Folders doesnt seem to work.

Not that I mind, since I dont want my Explorer view settings changed just to accommodate the DCIM folder.

Here is my DCIM folder after the update to 14.7.1.

So I guess we have to live with this again.

Let's make the best of it.

Any one know why I have one folder with APPLE in the folder name and the rest have CLOUD?

(It has been like this for a long time).

Does anyone know what happens if I drag the photos out of 100APPLE into 121CLOUD and delete the 100APPLE folder?

Id rather someone tells me first before I try it and screw it all up.

Thank you readers.

After upgraded to iOS 14.6, I found this changed, too.

I prefer the previous structure because I've been backing-up my photos by copying the folder. Since iPhone won't make any changes to the earlier folders, even if I download photos from internet it just save into the latest folder. I just need to copy the newer folder that I can make sure all the photos are backed-up.

Now it just a mess since the "PC's folder names" are not sync with the "iPhone's DCIM folder" anymore.

And if I save some photos which taken from early dates, I need to check every folder to make sure I can backup all the photos.

I agree this change makes it easier to find a specific photo, but in this situation it makes it harder to backup all the photo.

Hope next update can add an option to let user choose their own preference.

I agree with everyone else, this was a complete surprise and a bit of a nuisance. I have various backups on various PCs, they will all be out of date. Now, there's certainly some benefit if you're looking for a particular month; but if you're just searching for a random photo, I now have to hunt through 78 different folders instead of about 27.

If it had been this way from the start, it would have probably made my life a heckuva lot easier.

Usually Apple makes changes like these in preparation for later updates, changes and features. I understand that it’s a little „in your face“, but now we’ll probably have another 10 years of peace until they change it again.