Photos on my iPhone15P show illogical file numbers.

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Level 1

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Photos on my iPhone15P show illogical file numbers.

Hello!

I took thousands of photos on my recent trip to Europe but upon review, I see a very weird thing- the file numbers (ie IMG_2606.HEIC) seem to jump around and often are not chronological. For example, here's a run of files on the iPhone Photos app. Notice the numbers:

IMG_2606.HEIC

IMG_2607.HEIC

IMG_2608.MOV (occasional video taken)

IMG_6048.HEIC

IMG_6049.HEIC

(continues chronologically to:)

IMG_6056.HEIC

IMG_6057.MOV

IMG_6058.MOV

IMG_6059.HEIC

IMG_2609.PNG (frame grab of a map)

IMG_2622.PNG (why did it jump from 09 to 22?)

IMG_2623.PNG

IMG_2624.HEIC

IMG_2625.HEIC (continues as normal after this)

So the photos seem to be chronological in the 2000s except for a jump up into the 6000s and then back again. This is causing problems when I save groups of pictures to folders and backups because they are now out of order.

Is this just an unexplainable error that we have to live with or can something be done?

Thanks for any input!

Danny.

iPhone 15 Pro v 17.5.1 (as of 31.7.2024)

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 17

Posted on Jul 31, 2024 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Lawrence Finch

Community+ 2026

Level 10

238,850 points

Jul 31, 2024 2:44 PM in response to Shmanzoid

It’s not really an error; the file names for photos in any device are randomly assigned; you should be sorting on EXIF information embedded in the file, not the file name. Just about any photo management app will do that correctly.

How are you transferring these files? The only correct ways are listed in this support document→Copying personal photos and videos from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer. Any other method may yield random, unpredictable results.

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Answer 2

Shmanzoid Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2024 8:09 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hmm. Interesting. But is Mac Photos not a 'photo management app'?

I think I understand about EXIF files and metadata, but in my example of taking about 5300 images of my trip (of which about 15% were videos), the date, rather than the file numbers, keeps all the photos chronological?

You say the file numbers are 'randomly assigned'. Why is that? In my example they would jump from the IMG_2000s up to the 6000s and back again. If I export all those into a folder on another hard drive, many will be totally out of order- because in the folder, the images are arranged by file numbers (which often are out of order). I guess I can export them sequentially (1,2,3,4,), or is there a trick to sort them in order of date within a Mac folder?

I appreciate your wisdom on this.

D.

PS-

I only use the system of importing by using iCloud to auto-import from iPhone to my Mac Mini.

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Photos on my iPhone15P show illogical file numbers.

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