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iPhone isn't transferring photos taken with built-in filters

When taking photos with my iPhone5, regular or square, any photo filter I choose (Noir, for example) will show in my phone's photo album. However, when transferring pics to iPhoto, the filter is removed and it is a regular non-filtered photograph. I have tried this with several filters, as well as with HDR on and off, saving normal picture on and off, you name it. Every photo taken with one of the built-in photo filters loses the effect when transferring to iPhoto.

iPhone 5, iOS 7

Posted on Sep 25, 2013 11:51 AM

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86 replies

May 16, 2017 8:23 PM in response to AychAychAych

I have called Apple Support numerous times on a similar issue. A really nice guy from the US is trying to help at the moment. Basically I have always used the USB cord to import photos and videos from my iPhone to the PC. I use a Surface Pro (full version, not RT) and in the past ALL of my photos have appeared as they were taken with the filters.


I'm not even sure when it started but now when I import my photos and videos any photos I have taken using a filter this happens; they show up as a JPG file named for example 'image_123' and then next to this file is another file called 'image_123.aae' which in file explorer appears blank. The JPEG file is an unfiltered photo. The filter effect is lost! I am desperate to get this sorted as I can see photos on my phone which are filtered but they simply won't import as they appear on the phone. To make matters worse, for some reason iCloud is showing 1700 photos when on my phone I have over 7000. Tech guy is baffled too. If I could at least get them to sync into iCloud I could grab them there (in iCloud my photos DO show with the filters). I must say, even if I could get this to work, the idea of rifling through thousands of photos of tiny thumbnails on iCloud to pick which ones to download, makes my brain hurt.


All of these work arounds, to me, seem completely insane. My suspicion is that the 'optimise photos' function on the iphone (which gets the iphone to store a smaller version of your picture to save space but downloads the full version onto iCloud) is the cause of the problem but I'm not sure.


If I get a solution I will be sure to share it!

May 16, 2017 8:27 PM in response to iam.msa

This looks promising. Sorry, I'm not too familiar with Xender. Could you explain further? When you say "I opened Xender and transferred all the pics to my wife's Galaxy S4" what do you mean? On what device did you open xender? Can you log into it on a web browser? And am I correct in understanding that you uploaded all of the photos which had imported to your PC with the .aae files to Xender?

Look forward to your response! 🙂

Sep 25, 2013 11:55 AM in response to AychAychAych

The way to save the filter is to think of it as a "setting." The setting isn't attached until the picture is exported. It works the same way as iPhoto for Mac. To truly preserve the filter, send to yourself it via email. Open the email, then add the picture to the camera roll. There may be a shorter way (I haven't tried this one), if you save it to the camera roll directly from the share/export feature.

Sep 25, 2013 12:34 PM in response to Dirty Vegas

I'm using the default camera. Nothing special. Your idea worked. I successfully emailed myself a photo taken using one of the built-in filters and it's now on my laptop. So sure, I could do that. But if I take lots of photos using those filters, I'll have to weed out and tag them all on the phone so I can e-mail them, then go download each of them individually, then transfer them into iPhoto so everything's together. Just seems like it should be easier.


Thanks, Dirty Vegas 🙂

Sep 29, 2013 5:51 PM in response to oceansoul77z

You don't have the same problem. This is your problem.



oceansoul77z wrote:


I can't email the pics to myself as I'm also having problems with setting up a personal email.

Create your own thread and ask for help setting up email. Some may say that you should read the instructions at Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or iCloud.com. Some may even read the instructions for you, then re-write them so you can read them here.

Sep 29, 2013 11:31 PM in response to Dirty Vegas

Setting up the email is another issue entirely... I DO have the same problem with taking pictures using the built in app and the pictures not being transferred to iphoto, with the filter I used!

I do not wish to have to email myself each picture and then transfer them... I don't have that much time to waste.


Next time read my post properly before making condenscending remarks.

Nov 3, 2013 5:54 AM in response to AychAychAych

I'm on iPhone 5S iOs 7.0.3

iPhone 11 (9.5) in Mavericks


When using Image Capture, I prefer to manage my photos myself before adding to iPhoto, the images do not import with a filter.


However, when using iPhoto, prior to import, the images appear with no filter, the square photos are square. Once the import is complete the filters get applied to the images.


I do love the Noir filter and use it alot, I guess I'll change my workflow to use iPhoto for the time being.


Before

User uploaded file

After

User uploaded file

Nov 12, 2013 5:14 PM in response to AychAychAych

I also find it super annoying, since I use a built-in filter for practically every photo I take as soon as I discovered them in iOS 7!


If you want the filters to remain once you upload to your computer via iPhoto/Aperture, there is actually a workaround, which I found on another post, and it works!


You create a "Shared Album" on your phone (I named mine Filtered Photos), add photos to that Shared Album from your camera roll to which you have applied a filter, and then you pull that Photostream up in iPhoto via iCloud. (In iPhoto, in left navigation pane, under Shared, select iCloud.)


Another workaround for seeing the filtered photo in third party apps on your device: after sharing to a Stream, save it from the Stream to your Camera Roll. The filtered photo is then available to other apps such as Diptic and Diptic PDQ (my new fave).


Voila! 😉

Nov 14, 2013 7:21 PM in response to AychAychAych

Hmmm, just had my comment censored:


'Apple removed your post titled, "Re: iPhone isn't transferring photos taken with built-in filters" because it contained non-constructive rants or complaints.'


What I was trying to say is that emailing pictures from an iPhone is a clumsy workaround (or a "kludge" as we say here) to bridge a lacuna in the iOS / OS interaction - it is not an elegant solution.


It's certainly not the Apple way, as we have come to expect it.


I also described this situation with iOS 7 as a "dog's dinner" - meaning an ill-conceived mess, which is how I am experiencing it. However, my intention was not to "rant non-constructively" but to illustrate my frustration with the status quo and lack of an elegant, Apple-sanctioned, non-third party solution (so far as I am aware).


Put simply, I cannot access photostreams on iCloud from my Mac, I do not have iLife 11 in order to benefit from akajules' brilliant tip and I find emailing pictures an absurd workaround (grateful as I am for Dirty Vegas' for this small grain of hope). My Mac is barely three years old and all software is up to date (although I have not moved from Snow Leopard for operational reasons).


So I must query again, is there *really* no method provided by Apple to get photos straight off my iPhone and onto my Mac with filters intact (using iOS 7 and OSX 10.6.8 / iLife 9)?


Such a glaring omission would seem to be bordering on incompetence, and I like to think more highly of Apple than that - even if it is just a case of waiting for this mistake to be fixed in the next update of iOS 7.


Any ideas, anyone?

Jan 6, 2014 8:19 PM in response to luisbedin

luisbedin wrote:


Try to import with the latest version of iOS and iPhoto, the filter will not be shown at the time of import, but will be applied at the photo after that.


No. Not in iPhoto 9...


And to upgrade to iPhoto 11 (shudder, I've still not got over the imposed horror of iTunes 11), I'd need to be running Mavericks now. I'm not and I won't be.


But I did find a solution that allows me to import everything via iPhoto 9, with filters and all...


I simply ditched the default camera App for iOS 7 and spent £1.49 on a far superior camera app from the App Store (Pro Camera, I think it's called) that allows far more control and saves edited pictures as separate files.


Bingo. 🙂

iPhone isn't transferring photos taken with built-in filters

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