Unable to see all photo folders when I connect my iPhone to my PC

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Unable to see all photo folders when I connect my iPhone to my PC

When I connect my iPhone to my PC using a usb cable I cannot see all the folders containing photos in explorer. What is visible seems to change day by day but it is mostly older folders. I have seen them all on a couple of occasions. The ones I can see, I can open and access the files. I have an iphone 16 Pro Max with iOS 26.2. Photos are not in iCloud. This worked fine on my old iPhone with iOS 18 with same PC. Seems to have started after update to iOS 26. Does not matter if connect to Win11 or Win10, same issue so it seems to be iOS issue

I have notice if I open up some Apple copy app like FoneTool, let it connect, and then open Explorer, then I am more likely to see more folder or all, but its totally random tho.

Can see chat about this also under MS community

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5650653/unable-to-see-all-photo-folders-when-i-connect-my

Posted on Jan 24, 2026 11:40 AM

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Answer 1

dumbur Author

Level 1

13 points

Jan 25, 2026 12:40 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thats right, got the question text from him, but its trouble for few of us anyway..

But so far many are having issue loading all the folders when connected to Windows Host laptop / PC, have not tried on surface. is you phone running iOS26.x? this seems to have started after that update from 18, so no its not a windows problem, its has something to do with iOS. Its totally random how many folders you see, maybe half, maybe 1/3 maybe 2/3 of them and sometimes all... some random tricks help like open up 3rd party photo copy app for iPhone.. then they will show up in the explorer.. but anyway... something changed, and getting all the folders is not a easy thing to do .. sometimes.

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