Since upgrading to iPhone 14pro I cannot use DCIM folder for copying photos to PC

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Since upgrading to iPhone 14pro I cannot use DCIM folder for copying photos to PC

iPhone 14 pro, IOS 17.0.3, Windows 10 Home laptop, 22H2 build 19045.3448, Windows Photos App 2023.11090.120170

Trying to use folder structure under DCIM folder on iPhone to copy pictures to PC: I connect my iPhone 14Pro to my computer using USB cable... respond to any prompts about trusting the computer, etc., iPhone screen unlocked and set to never lock. I then wait until the "Internal Storage" appears in Windows Explorer, then navigate to the DCIM folder... I can copy photos from desired folders. When completed, I check to see the number of files in folder agree between source and destination. They do. I then scroll through the thumbnails of pictures now on my computer and I find some files are without thumbnails because they are zero length or otherwise unreadable by Windows. (no thumbnail is the clue, but sometimes there's a thumbnail but there's no picture, JUST a thumbnail. Pic is unreadable by legacy Windows Photo Viewer, current Windows Photo app, GIMP. If I retry the copy operation, on a single photo, I get erratic behavior that gets more erratic with time (over a few minutes). Sometimes no change, sometimes an error regarding data type (refresh the file list on the iPhone to fix), sometimes it copies just a thumbnail for the image, sometimes a thumbnail for another image, sometimes an image gets copied but it's the wrong one. This gets worse and worse as I keep retrying until Windows says device can't be reached. Sometimes it succeeds after failing a few times. This happens on several files (30 or 40) for a couple of month's pictures. If I look more closely at file sizes that look too small but not zero, I see they are actually a thumbnail belonging to yet an entirely different file. I've tried different cables and computers (also Windows 10) and get similar behavior. When I thought it was just a few files, I manually exported from iPhone Photo app to Files on iPhone, exported to Dropbox then sync'd to computer then moved to where I wanted it on the computer. So the files are not corrupted... I can find a way to move them over, but the number of files failing is more than just a few.

I tried using the Windows Photos App to import and the import step will indicate it is loading, but it stops after loading 114 images and 9 videos and then hangs--reproducibly the same number of images and videos before getting hung. I have tens of thousands of images on my phone. One time it was hanging several minutes and then the Windows Photo App crashed.

Any ideas?

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 17

Posted on Oct 18, 2023 3:33 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Beverly Eccles Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 20, 2023 12:32 PM in response to Beverly Eccles

Apple Support was unable to help me further with this problem (it's a PC, we can't help you, contact Microsoft). I tried checking for an updated driver (on the PC for Apple Mobile). I "repaired" and "reset" the Microsoft Photos app on the PC to reset the picture counters that became corrupted. I tried a fresh load and after many hours without getting to completion to load tens of thousands of photos--I gave up. I am now exploring a third party app PhotoSync. Good price, good reviews, nice features, easy to set up.

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2023 11:15 AM in response to Beverly Eccles

With the help of telephone support, using the Windows Photo App I was able to get past the stopping point of 114 pics and 9 videos by deleting a photo at the apparent stopping point. I was able load some of the photos but it failed partway through and it asked me to unplug and plug my phone. It did not recognize the phone after plugging in, so I did a reboot that happened to also include a Windows upgrade. Did that and started the load process all over again. This did a FULL scan of my photos on the phone and then the load proceeded where it left off. It almost completed and failed. Restart, fail, 10 times, eventually with the same message of a number of photos that didn't load. I inspected the photos that did load and saw many thumbnails that were corrupted, many pics that were corrupted, some pics were actually the thumbnail for another picture, some pics where partially recognizable (half gray and half picture) and the picture half actually "belonged" to a different picture altogether (different date by a couple of months).

Any ideas?

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Since upgrading to iPhone 14pro I cannot use DCIM folder for copying photos to PC

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