Photos are split between multiple DCIM folders in Windows

I'm searching a solution as well - i have about 20 different folders and trying to find recent photos is a real chore. One thing that I tried and seems to help is to search the parent folder by IMG number. For example search IMG_1. Keep incrementing the number until you locate the most recents - IMG_2, IMG_3, etc.

Sparky, there isn't a solution at the moment. What you need to do is call Apple Customer Care and complain about this issue. I have reported it to Apple Customer Care (see my previous post). I was first told there was no issue. I then asked to be transferred to a supervisor, and there certainly WAS an issue, and I didn't appreciate being told there wasn't an issue. The supervisor did acknowledge this was a "known issue", and that he would forward my issues to the engineers. The more this is reported by users, the more importance will be placed on the glitch, and the faster a fix will be forthcoming. So, please report your issue, and don't take "this is not an issue" for an answer - request to be transferred to a supervisor if necessary and refer them back to their own User Forums to see the breadth of this issue for some iPhone users. Lastly, the supervisor recommended to check for iPhone firmware updates frequently, as the fix may be in the next update or the one after, so it would pay to update your phone as needed.

This caused a problem for me today too. I was using a video editing program and it is only reading photos and videos from the most recently created folder. I dont use windows to import so thats not where I discovered this glitch but not being able to see all available pictures and videos in editing programs ***** ***

I always used Windows File Explorer to back up the photos I took with my iPhone. It is getting more and more ridiculous when more and more folders show up. I now have 49 folders show up. Apple really need to treat this like a Digital Camera and only keep them in one single folder.

If Apple wants to split them into multiple folder, for the love of God, at least name them in a human readable format so that we can easily locate the recent pictures we took. When you browse the iPhone in Windows Explorer, all the folder has one single date modified, and you have no way to know which folder is recently edited. I hope they fix this problem.

Anyway, in the mean time, to find photos that I took recently, I used the Search function in Windows Explorer.

Browse to the DCIM folder, then in the top right corner of the Explorer, click it.

You should see a drop down box show up, click the Date Modified search, options are limited, but at least you get a limited choice of pictures.

You can search by Earlier this year, Earlier this month, Last Week, Earlier this week, yesterday or specific date.

After you got the pictures you want, you need to r-click on the pictures and open file location.

Hope this helps while we wait on Apple to address this.

hoosierquilt wrote:

The supervisor did acknowledge this was a "known issue", and that he would forward my issues to the engineers.

That was to get you off the phone. It's not a known issue. It's not a glitch. At best, it may be something they will change in the future, but at the moment, it's working as designed. Forwarding your issue is no different in this case than providing feedback to Apple at www.apple.com/feedback. Your input is noted, and they'll take it under consideration. But there's nothing to 'fix'.

This post may help! I know it not a great solution but works for me until its fixed

http://moblivious.com/tips-tricks/import-iphone-photos-videos-to-windows-7-pc/

Thanks. Solution 1 is the crux of our issue of course, so that's not a solution, but I will give solutions 2 and 3 a try, to see if that allows me to view the photos, and pick and choose what I want to save to my computer. Better than opening up 38 folders to find my most recent photos :-(

Well, the supervisor stated this IS a known issue, and I am going to take him at his word, since you don't work for Apple, and not sure why you we be so sure you're right. It is NOT working as designed, as this all started up with the 8.1.1 update. I never had issues prior to this. And this DOES need to be fixed. So, we'll see what Apple has to say.

The simplest "workaround" is by far just going into Windows Explorer, navigating to the DCIM folder and searching for "JPG" or "MPG", or whatever the file type is, works great.

If you are running Windows 7 or later, you can use the advanced search by clicking in the same search box and typing "kind: picture" or "kind: video" and it will bring all of that kind of file - so for picture, it would (or should, I'm not on my Win7 machine to verify this) find all JPG, PNG, etc. pictures in all the DCIM folders.

If you are not looking to delete files, install 3rd party programs, etc. and are just happy with doing the search and sorting, it is a huge relief knowing that THAT works. Having a newborn means lots of pictures/videos and frequently adding new ones. Transferring the next few days worth of pictures is not easy with Apple's stupid screw up of the folder structure. Search works wonders. Do it.

Care to explain how it is "working as designed"

If this is how it's designed Apple have lost the plot.

I'm another user with this issue since the IOS 8 update and it's a deal breaker for me, my next phone will be something other than an iphone.

HQ, it's been established and confirmed by Apple iCare there is a glitch. There is a new firmware update released today, but it did not include the fix. I have emailed the iCare supervisor and asked if he would reach out to the engineers to see if this fix is one the docket for the next release. Please be sure you call Apple iCare and report the issue. The engineers do not monitor the these boards, sadly. In the meanwhile, Firewolf has given us a work around.

I am so tired of going into my phone or my ipod or whatever apple product I am working with and have some "fix" screw me up!

That being said, suddenly this happened to me today. On another forum it said to go into DCIM and do a random search (I did *.*) and it will list your photos after the list of files. This did work and made it much easier as the folders are randomly displayed. If they were in by date or something at least I could know which ones are the most current and that would be easier. But they aren't-they have random numbers (I know-not really random but random to me and not in chronological order).

However, now not all of my photos are displaying correctly.

Fortunately, I have backed them all up on my computer so I haven't lost anything and I can still see them on my phone and send them to myself if I want.

I wonder if the engineers are laughing at all of us non technical people when they go home for dinner at night. It's a big hassle. I am thinking of going Samsung for my next phone. Am trying to figure out how to replace ipod......

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, SEGM did you call Apple Customer Support and report this? If we do not do this, then Apple will not realize the extent of this issue. The more customers affected by a glitch, the higher the priority will be attached to the issue, and the faster we will see it fixed. So, if you have not done so, please do, so we can let Apple know the extent of the issue. I double Apple engineers or customer service monitor these forums, so it's up to us individual customers to report issues.

Yep-plan to call this week. I hope it's not too much of a hassle-I'll see what the support says and then ask for supervisor.

I could be full of it, but here's my take on things. I've had iphones for a while now and the iphone 5,my current model since it came out. This only happened to me starting a couple of months ago and I believe it happened to me when I allowed my camera to use location services. It seems that my photos are loosely arranged by the geographical location I took them at. I don't know if this is going to help but here's what I've tried:

I went to Settings/Privacy/Location Services Scrolled down to Camera and changed the setting from While Using App to Never.

I restarted the phone and connected it to my workstation and the separate folders are still there. However in the past I've attempted to "move" the files from the iphone to a memory stick and even though I specified "move" it only copied. This time I was able to move files and not leave them behind on the phone. Encouraging. I'll move the files off the phone tonight. It may be that I leave them off the phone, but my hope is that after this I'll be back in business with a single file folder for all new photos.

My belief is that this is caused by location services having access to the camera.