You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Can't edit photo imported from iphone 4S

After importing my photos to my PC (Windows 7) from my iPhone, I'm unable to edit them (for example, rotate, crop). I get the following error "this photo can't be saved because of a problem with the photo's file properties"

I check the properties, but they seem fine - all the right permissions, not read-only etc.

Occasionally, I will be able to edit a photo. Say 1 out of 10 of those imported. I can see no differences between these files.

I've also tried using different photo editors/viewers with no luck.


Any ideas?


Thanks!

iPhone 4S, iOS 5

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 6:15 PM

Reply
248 replies

Dec 31, 2011 4:51 PM in response to ecbtx

This is a total pain in my butt. I am very glad you all showed me how to fix my pictures, because I was getting immensely frustrated. The Open-in-Paint, Rotate, Then-Resave thing helps. I am not tech savvy and I take a lot of pictures, so this is disappointing to say the least. But I would have been much more ****** if I had not come across your discussion in google and would have wasted even more time. I hope they fix it so I don't have to go through all those steps forever.

Jan 1, 2012 7:57 PM in response to ecbtx

I had the same issue, and confirmed that it was due to meta-data curruption. Opening in paint and saving worked, but definitely tedious. So, I used a program called "JPEG & PNG Stripper". It's free, and it worked perfectly, because you can load all the currupted files and it will strip the Meta-data automatically. THEN you can rotate and modify the files.


Try it: http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=30&cmd=download&pid=15


Hope this helps!

Jan 5, 2012 7:28 AM in response to ecbtx

Its a case where so few people actually use the advertised features on this product that there is so few complaints. Heck, I even try to edit photos fromt the iphone to simple widescreen format and then when I transfer pictures to pc or even Facebook all the changes are gone.


My only work around is opening every photo in Paint then saving it under same file name as, then like magic I can make changes to the photo.


Why does this phone not have a Widescreen photo mode anyways, how many people own a square plasma monitor to view there digital photos, lol. Why would anyone want an 8 megapixal photo taken in vertical format. Oh, to get that one great iphone screen saver photo. If the photos and video are meant to be viewed on a darn Iphone why not make them .5 of a mega pixal. And it is so darn clutsy to hold the darn phone sideways for video and photos. We have thousands of videos and photos that I consider useless because they just look awful viewed on my plasma tvs or even my computer monitors. Who ever would want a vertical photo or video ever. I get it, maybe have the ability to crop a vertical one just for the screensaver on an iphone. Please make the default video and photo recording into widescreen format.


I hate to say it, but its the Apple lovers afraid to say anything bad about Apple.


Just fix the darn camera.


Also, what is with the flash being so close to the darn lense. With almost any case on my phone it washes out all the photos with flash.



Worse pictures I have ever taken are with this darn Iphone. Ok, I Said it.

Jan 5, 2012 7:48 AM in response to ecbtx

Its a case where so few people actually use the advertised features on this product that there is so few complaints. Heck, I even try to edit photos fromt the iphone to simple widescreen format and then when I transfer pictures to pc or even Facebook all the changes are gone.


My only work around is opening every photo in Paint then saving it under same file name as, then like magic I can make changes to the photo.


Why does this phone not have a Widescreen photo mode anyways, how many people own a square plasma monitor to view there digital photos, lol. Why would anyone want an 8 megapixal photo taken in vertical format. Oh, to get that one great iphone screen saver photo. If the photos and video are meant to be viewed on a darn Iphone why not make them .5 of a mega pixal. And it is so darn clutsy to hold the darn phone sideways for video and photos. We have thousands of videos and photos that I consider useless because they just look awful viewed on my plasma tvs or even my computer monitors. Who ever would want a vertical photo or video ever. I get it, maybe have the ability to crop a vertical one just for the screensaver on an iphone. Please make the default video and photo recording into widescreen format.


I hate to say it, but its the Apple lovers afraid to say anything bad about Apple.


Just fix the darn camera.


Also, what is with the flash being so close to the darn lense. With almost any case on my phone it washes out all the photos with flash.



Worse pictures I have ever taken are with this darn Iphone. Ok, I Said it.

Jan 5, 2012 8:15 AM in response to ecbtx

This is a problem for me, too.


Imported photos are imported with a great deal of orientation problems. Some are fine, others are rotated from how they were taken.


That's one thing, and OK on it's own, but I cannot rotate the photos- I also get the message:


"You cannot rotate this image. The file might be in use or open in another program, or the file or folder might be read-only."


The files, folders, etc. associated with the photos are not read-only, and I have full root admin rights to them on the PC. It doesn't matter what PC I import to, the same problem exists, and only with photos imported from my iPhone 4S. Other cameras import without the meta-data problems that I get with the 4S.


Opening the photos in Paint (ugh) on a one-by-one basis is very inconvenient when dealing with hundreds of photos. So is stripping the meta-data. I shouldn't have to take extra steps just do do simple edits to my iPhone photos.


My iOS 4.x 3G iPhone imported photos into my Windows 7 machine without problem, so I doubt this is a Windows issue. The problems started when I started using my iPhone 4S.


I don't know if this is a problem with the 4S hardware/firmware, or with iOS 5, but it is something that should be fixed. I am rather shocked that Apple is allowing such a glaring flaw to go on this long.

Jan 5, 2012 8:12 PM in response to ecbtx

Why lose metadata by using paint?


I just found a program called JPEG lossless rotator and that works great. Don't have to do each file one at a time.


BTW, nice one Apple. I have to deal with MS crap products on OSX..Outlook I'm looking at you...and now I have the latest and greatest phone/camera and I need a third party app to rotate the **** photos without losing data taken, gps, etc data...

Jan 8, 2012 1:01 PM in response to Crumimur

it is easier to just open in Paint and hit save as a jpeg file, it asks if you want to replace the file and just say yes. you can do this quickly to a bunch of photos then open the folder in Windows Photo and edit away. It is actually a bit better this way because it saves the original version also so incase you ever want the uncropped version you can access it. Paint changes it for good.


Wow, unbelievable that Apple made some sort of unique JPEG file. I could almost understand if it were some sort of Quicktime file. Simply they need to call it IJPEG. LOL

Jan 10, 2012 5:40 AM in response to bobwild

They most certainly did make a different version of a JPEG file. One that is less compatible with Windows.


They will for sure make a fix for this during some fancy roll out of the next operating system update and probably will never even mention it.


I fully understand that most users do not ever make any changes to photos from there PC, so therefore not alot of complainers yet. It may be years down the road before people get to editing nows photos. That is sort of the way it works. Most users just transfer to storage device and move on.


I like to put my photos in a dated folder that is done automatically through windows, then I like to put tags on most photos right after upload. Then I like to crop them into widescreen for digital viewing on my home entertainment system and xboxes. This procedure has worked for years until the Iphone 4s photos.


A photo library that is not organized with tags and such is such a waste of time. Its like that old photo box that is full of printed photos that nobody will ever get to the bottom of and they are always kept to one day put in to that album. My digital collection is from 1998 and I can look up most photos by any tag word and yes they are all cropped into a widescreen format to view on my widescreens. Windows actually keeps the back up versions incase I ever want to print a full size photo.


I have advised all my younger family members that if they dont start organizing digital photos that they will never have enough time to to back and organize them. Simply there will be too many of them and not enough time. Back in 1998 I look back and notice maybe 100 photos during a month, heck the camera only held about 12 back then, now each month can easily have 1500. If tagged right and cropped right these photos are very awesome entertainment. type in maybe tball and get all those or a persons name and get those, then hit slide show and watch away on a widescreen. I had some time recovering so for about a month had to work about 16 hours a day organizing my collection so I can get use out of it. My whole family loves it, they can type in any key word and get the photos instantly. The collection I had prior to this was a big junk drawer.


So the advice is, everyone with digital photos should try cropping them and tagging them each upload into Windows and if it does not work please voice a concern on some sort of Forum. If these files are not compatible with Windows please say something. Yes Apple did create a different JPEG file. How scary is that. Makes me not want to even trust my archive of precious memories.

Can't edit photo imported from iphone 4S

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.