iPhone storage not showing all photos on PC

I have always made copies of my iPhone photos by connecting my iPhone via USB cable to my laptop. Now, all of a sudden, if I go to Apple iPhone > Internal Storage, it either shows up empty or just shows some of the folders - right now, for example, it is showing from Nov 2019 (when I bought it) to May 2024. I tried importing the photos with the Microsoft Photos app, but even there, I can only see the photos I have access to directly in the folder.

I've already tried doing everything I've seen online. Uninstalled and reinstalled the driver (by the way, the Apple folder in C:\Program Files\Common Files' is empty), changed cable, changed USB port, restarted both laptop and iPhone, I even reset the iPhone's Privacy settings (it worked but only for the first time I plugged my iPhone, and it doesn't seem like the best thing to do weekly)

I have an iPhone 11 Pro, running iOS 26. I have never encountered this issue until now, and I wanted to know if anyone has dealt with it, tried everything like I did, and managed to resolve it.

iPhone 11 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Nov 16, 2025 12:06 AM

Top-ranking reply

black_rider88

Level 1

18 points

Posted on Feb 1, 2026 8:56 PM

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.

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34 replies

raptas

Level 1

14 points

Jan 31, 2026 10:10 PM in response to merym

26.2.1 did not fix mine! I have a iPhone 14. This only occurred since Ios26. Sometimes I see up to 2025_10, other times as far back as 2024_03, very frustrating.

merym

Level 1

10 points

Feb 28, 2026 9:55 AM in response to merym

with iOS 26.3 problem is back…. 😏

Really frustrating!

bertuz

Level 1

12 points

Mar 25, 2026 5:50 AM in response to APieThrower

I'm still having the same issue after updating to 26.4...

Will Apple ever fix this? Does anyone at Apple know that this bug exists?

May 23, 2026 9:11 AM in response to JPDSmith74

JPDSmith74 wrote: Not sure what you mean by "How well does your computer handle HEIC files"

Windows 10 did not natively understand HEIC, and that was a problem for lots of people.

I don't fully understand how Photos handles Windows' requests for image files. In Photos, the edited images don't exist as files until they are exported--all the editing and commenting is stored in a database and added to a file on export. So grabbing pictures from Photos requires something to generate those files-- I have guessed that is the Apple Devices app, but I don't know. The Original Unmodified files, of course, are available as files. Also Photos has lower quality compressed files for viewing on the screen. The point here is that we can't think of pictures as files waiting to be plucked from the phone's memory.

Someone must know more about this than me!

Do you use Optimized Storage on your phone? In that case, the full sized originals may not be on the phone.

Do you get an option of downloading Unmodified Originals?

iPhone storage not showing all photos on PC