what is the .AAE extension?

Ah. And with that, I find an error in my analysis above. I didn't get an .AAE file by checking the IPTC as XMP file, I got an .XMP file. ... Considering that you were referencing .AAE files when you stated Adobe created the format, and now refer me to a link on .XMP files - are they the same thing? Especially, does the .XMP file contain EDIT information (e.g. crop, lighting, color adjustments, etc.) or just the general metadata (camera, date, aperture, etc.)? Thanks.

Johnny Simpson wrote:

...

So, it APPEARS that these .AAE files are used to transfer non-destructive edits from one Apple device to another.

YES. Quite self-centered of Apple! (Are you surprised?) My guess is that Apple was forced to embrace the sidecar notion when iCloud Photo Library was developed, so that one could move around between different Macs and iOS devices, editing here and there, and be looking at the "same thing" on the different platforms. Unfortunately this concept takes the giant leap that everyone is going to use iCloud, everyone is logged in with an Apple ID (the same one) on all devices and computers, etc. In the real world, people have all sorts of cameras, different devices and computers with different operating systems, and multiple family members all using and perhaps sharing the same resources. There should therefore be an OPTION for those who are not using iCloud. Either the ability to just "turn off" lossless edits entirely (for those who don't care) or at least some better functionality when editing specific photos on the iPhone, e.g. a "Commit Edits" function, or "Save As" to a separate (flat) file. Currently the least painful way to get the edited photos off the phone, en mass, is to Select each manually in the Camera Roll, and AirDrop them (but this is time consuming to select them one by one, since theres no "Select All" option, and also requires that you have AppleID set up and signed in on the receiving computer to accept the AirDrop.) People have written about other time-wasting methods such as emailing photos to yourself, or iMessaging them, etc. Ludicrous that people should be forced to do that.

Johnny Simpson also wrote:

P.S. I can't find any reference online to Adobe having created this file format. Googling ".AAE" brings up a lot of message boards with people frustrated over it, but no concrete documentation. Really sad. The only connection I can find to Adobe is their "After Effects" software, which, maybe creates .AAE (Adobe After Effects) files - which have nothing to do with this. It looks like an Apple thing. It's really too bad that Apple didn't document this information (beyond "this is not an error"). This has been a lot of time away from my photo organizing project.

Your statement is spot on. Tons of people are frustrated about this, and Apple's response is one of a conceited jerk. "It works as designed".

Kudos to you for compiling all those tests and outcomes, by the way. These should prove to be very helpful to others in understanding the impact on their workflows.

B

Hi

I have imported photos from my iPhone to my windows pc with "Import Pictures and Videos" and have now the .jpg and .aae file in a windows folder. The photos were deleted during the import from my iPhone.

No I want to sync this windows folder back to my iPhone with iTunes to have the pictures available in the "Photo" app. I do get the pictures. But it looks like the AAE file does not get synched back and the changes are lost.

Is there any way to simply sync back the .jpg and .aae files to the "Photo" app on the iPhone with keeping the changes?

Wow! Seven forum pages of problems with no straight-forward solutions and many unanswered questions. I don't edit many photos on my iPhone, and I don't have a Mac. I only recently discovered the new photo editing tools in the iOS9 camera app, but they are useless now! I wonder if Apple can imagine the worldwide productivity loss for this metadata introduction and lack of workflow solutions. I believe Android uses metadata also, but actually saves an edited copy of the image. How simple!

Only 7 pages? I was just visiting a thread with 42 pages.

I suggest actually reading the 7 pages. There are simple ways to manage the INDUSTRY STANDARD sidecar files. By far the easiest is to get iCloud for Windows (it's free) and you can manage your edited and unedited images to your heart's content. If you have a Mac it's already built in. The only people who lose out are those who obstinately refuse to move from the 2nd millennium to the 3rd millennium and try to use techniques that became obsolete over a decade ago.

That is why they want everyone using the cloud photos subscription, because having that you would not come across this issue of not being able to get the edited photos out of your ios device.

I was a little dramatic, but my simple file extension query this morning got much more complicated than expected. I tried using the import wizard in Win7, but it just copied all the files as if I did it manually. I will now upload photos to iCloud and then to their final storage location (or at least pick out the edited photos from iCloud as needed). Having read more about the XMP standard, it sounds especially promising for folks using different cameras and/or markup and edit lots of photos. For me, moving into the new millennium means I just have to add a step to my simple process of moving files. Thanks, Lawrence, for offering so much helpful advice in this thread. While I understand that Apple wants to steer people to their cloud service, it would be nice to have a simple option on the iPhone to compile the metadata with each image, either individually or en mass.

gapple23 wrote:

While I understand that Apple wants to steer people to their cloud service, it would be nice to have a simple option on the iPhone to compile the metadata with each image, either individually or en mass.

I agree that Apple should provide a more seamless way of incorporating the XMP data, and maybe some day they will, but at least there are workarounds.

Did u check the ringer switch to see if it is in the wrong position?

Hi

Did u find any solution for recovering AAE files..?

Please help

Fahadazam640@gmail.com

.AEE Files are just metadata that represent adjustments to the original .JPG files. They are not image files, only adjustments data.

Sadly but a final solution to be able to get the adjusted photos out of the devices is signing on to the iCloud service and then from a desktop device exporting them as .JPG.

any solutions for PC?

sorry Lawrence, just saw your reply! this helps me a ton! I want them on my computer or google and not on the cloud!

In the .aae files, the individual steps are stored in an XML-based format. The Mime type of the .aae files is application / octet-stream. check here for the more details about .aae files