iPhone storage not showing all photos on PC

Hi there, I had the same issue from this thread and was able to eventually resolve it. I was just on a big trip and went to copy the photos from my iPhone (13 Pro) to my PC (I typically use Windows Explorer and copy directly from iPhone internal storage as that seems to be the least problematic). I noticed that although the folders from November and December 2025 were there, the folders for January 2026 were not. I stumbled upon this thread and started to try some things.

I did ensure that Windows 11 and iOS were updated to the latest (iOS 26.2.1) which did not help.

Someone on this thread did recommend to try using the "Apple Devices" app, but that did not help as this app seems to manage "PC to iPhone" but not "iPhone to PC". I had noticed that since installing it... the "internal storage" folder in Windows Explorer no longer showed any folders and the iPhone was not showing up in iTunes (even though the Windows sound played whenever I plugged in or unplugged my iPhone). So it would seem that this had interrupted something (I typically run only iTunes and not the Apple Devices/Apple Music/Apply TV etc. ecosystem.

I also noticed that the iPhone prompt to enter my passcode as well as the "trust this device" dialog had not appeared in awhile... so I figured I might have to sign out and re-authorize so I could enable trust again as part of this process.

I wanted to revert back to what I had previously (which was only the itunes app), so I uninstalled "Apple Devices", restarted the computer, loaded up iTunes, signed out of iTunes, re-signed into iTunes, re-authorized my computer, then plugged in my iPhone again, this time the prompt for my passcode appeared on my iPhone as well as the prompt to "trust this device".

After doing that, I re-opened Windows Explorer and opened "iPhone > Internal storage" and this time I saw all of the folders including two for January 2026.

So it might have been that signing out and in, re-authorizing on the PC and re-adding trust sorted things out. At least they did for me.

I tried everything on this thread and still couldn't see all my folders...extremely frustrating.

I finally got it working and wanted to share what I learned. Below are all the steps I did. It's possible 1-2 were unnecessary, but after hours of fiddling these are the exact steps I took to finally get things working and I'm sharing them verbatim:

Super short version:

1. Update driver from Device Manager (activating Windows Update for that device, from Device Manager) while iPhone is plugged in.
2. Then take 1-2 minutes between clicking steps to open the iPhone folder, to give Windows a chance to cache/load the folder metadata before opening the photo/video folder.

Full step-by-step details below:

1. I plugged in my iPhone to my computer, and on the iPhone selected Trust + entered PIN.
2. I opened Windows Device Manager (Windows key+device manager and it should show in search), expanded the category "Universal Serial Bus devices", and right clicked on "Apple Mobile Device USB Composite Device", left clicked on "Update Driver"
3. Selected "Search automatically for drivers" and then "search updated drivers on Windows update"
4. This then took me to Windows Update, where it found an updated driver for the iPhone that it downloaded and installed...note that this only worked for me if the iPhone was plugged in and authenticated prior to/during this step
5. I then disconnected my iPhone, waited a few seconds, reconnected, clicked Trust+entered PIN once again.
6. I then opened Windows Explorer (Windows Key+E), clicked on Apple iPhone under "This PC"...waited 1 minute, then clicked on the iPhone folder, waited another 1 minute (if I skipped this step then it seemed not to load all the folders), THEN clicked "Internal Storage" after waiting that 1 minute.

It's possible that one of those two 1 minute delays weren't needed, but at least one of them definitely was...If I skipped it, it still only loaded 1/2 the folders (but I tried that before the driver update, and that alone didn't fix things).

Note also that I bought/tried a high-end 60Gbps USB-C cable, but in the end the much slower cable from Apple worked more reliably, despite taking forever to do the transfers (and needing me to batch the transfers to a couple months at a time).

Note also that (prior to doing the steps above) I already had the latest iOS version and I tried installing Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store. That seemed to give me a better driver that showed me a few more folders sometimes (even though the app itself didn't work for me since it wanted to backup a lot of things beyond photos, and I had to turn off my iCloud backups to enable that), but not quite the latest. I assume Windows Update had the very latest driver while Apple Devices had the "last known good" driver at the time of updating that software, but not actually the very latest driver.

I hope this helps others.

Thank you to the person that suggested changing the 'Transfer to Mac or PC' setting from 'Automatic' to 'Keep Originals'. Go to Settings, Apps, then Photos on the iPhone. This worked for me and was so simple. iOS 26.4.2 and Windows 11 Pro. After changing that setting, I unplugged the USB C cable from my phone, plugged it back in, Allowed, and reopened File Explorer and I could see the folders taking a few seconds to appear and now I see all folders and pictures.

I just installed something called "Apple Devices" from the Microsoft Store - it asked me to unplug the devices as it was going to uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support - I am assuming it has a new version of this, as I can now see all folders including the recent 2601 & 2602. The Apple Devices itself it pretty useless for me though!

Having the sameproblem, now on iOS 26.3, and still not working. Wanted to share what I learned in another post, that was very easy and it worked for me. On your phone go to to Apps > Photos > Change the setting Transfer to Mac or PC from Automatic to Keep originals. After this, all the folders were visible.

Notice that the images you have exported from a PC/Mac to the iPhone via Apple Devices (PC) or Finder (Mac), are then "owned" by the PC/Mac. So File Explorer or Windows Photos (PC) or Image Capture.app or Apple Photos (Mac) does not display such images in the import dialog -- only images shot with the iPhone are displayed in the import dialog.

If you want to retrieve such images, you have to save them in the iPhone to a) Files > USB drive (formatted as APFS, exFAT or FAT) or b) Files > iCloud Drive or c) via iCloud Photos.

And if you want to delete such images from the iPhone, you can a) export an empty folder to the iPhone or b) sync an empty iCloud Photos library to it.

I had the same issue, photos stopped showing after June 2025. I downloaded Apple Devices from windows store, and unplugged/plugged in phone, and was able to see the files in file explorer.

thanks.

I have Installed ios 26.2.1 and now we can see all folders...

Thanks apple for fixing it....

Finally got it working.

1. Reinstalled Apple Devices App.
2. Tried one of the same USB-C cables that previous failed in to another port.
3. All the folders appeared.

It still happens intermittently and yes the number of folders changes but never more recent than 2510. If I reboot the PC and then plug in the iPhone I then do get the full list.

APieThrower wrote:

I'm trying to copy photos and videos taken with my iPhone from my iPhone to my laptop, not the other way around. I've always been able to do that and now all of a sudden I can't anymore

A workaround is to save images to Files > USB drive (see above) and then import from that to PC.

Or try to fix it by resetting iPhone via General > Reset > Reset all settings (do NOT reset to factory settings at least yet). Make an iCloud backup or a local backup of the iPhone before doing that, just in case. You then have to set some settings when the iPhone or the PC prompts you to do so. Make sure to "trust" the PC when you connect the awake iPhone to it.

I see the same issue after updating my iPhone 13 to iOS 26 (currently at 26.4); the most recent photos folders are not showing up in file manager when the phone is attached to my PC (mine is a desktop running Debian 12 linux) via USB. Disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable changes the number of photo folders that appear but I can never see any photo folders more recent than mid-2025 (I have some folders going back to 2012). For me I'm currently able to work around the issue by using a sluggish Windows 10 VM (probably timing related) or using Google Photos.

I'm not much help with Windows, but are you using the Apple Devices app that Apple recommends?

This is what Apple says:

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

Here's what Microsoft says (I can't believe I'm referring to a Microsoft link!):

Microsoft import-photos-and-video s-from-an-iphone-to-pc

Microsoft is a bit slow keeping up with Apple's OSs, so I'd go with the Apple Devices app.

I got it working yesterday by installing something called "Apple Devices" from the Microsoft Store - it asked me to unplug the devices as it was going to uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support, after that I could see the recent folders under DCIM. Update today back to seeing only some, iTunes does not recognise the iPhone, I rebooted and the folders came back again but then when I opened ITunes again explorer restrated the iPhone folder and it was back to only seeing from 202310! Very frustrating. I did delete some photos yesterday so maybe it was a combination of this? I give up!!

SteveSmallTown wrote: … changing the 'Transfer to Mac or PC' setting from 'Automatic' to 'Keep Originals'. … This worked for me and was so simple. iOS 26.4.2 and Windows 11 Pro.

Wow-- that's good! I don't use Windows, so I can't test any of this. Can you say, in Settings>Camera>Formats, do you have High Efficiency or Most Compatible selected? It may be a combination of these settings that's important…

High Efficiency would be HEIC, and Most Compatible is jpg.