Q: what is the .AAE extension?

I recently got an iPhone 6, and so I'm running iOS 8.  I just got back from vacation where I sync'd my photos with Aperture.  During the sync, I got an error saying Aperture didn't support a file.  I was offered the option to download that file onto the Mac.  The resulting file matched the filename of a jpeg that was also copied into Aperture at the same time, except this unsupported file's extension was ".aae".  A quick search brought this to light:

http://fileformats.archiveteam.org/wiki/AAE_sidecar_format

So it looks like this is a new fuel to support photo edits in the iOS8/Yosemite ecosystem.  Since Aperture hasn't been updated, at least so far it appears that on-phone photo edits are gonna get lost at least until Yosemite drops...and maybe not at all for Aperture.

I uploaded the photos from my iPhone to dropbox and synced my PC to it.

Hopefully the next IOS update will make the jpeg-files visible again when viewing the files via the Windows Explorer.

hi,

the AEE files are XML files related to the edits you did to your photos while they were in the iphone. This is what you see inside the AEE file if you open it with a text editor.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

  <key>adjustmentBaseVersion</key>

  <integer>0</integer>

  <key>adjustmentData</key>

  <data>

  YnBsaXN0MDDRAQJac2xvd01vdGlvbtIDBAUWV3JlZ2lvbnNUcmF0ZaEG0QcIWXRpbWVS

  YW5nZdIJCgsUVXN0YXJ0WGR1cmF0aW9u1AwNDg8QERITVWZsYWdzVXZhbHVlWXRpbWVz

  Y2FsZVVlcG9jaBABEkNSzWASO5rKABAA1AwNDg8QFRITEwAAAAE6LRPAIj4AAAAICxYb

  IygqLTc8QktUWmBqcHJ3fH6HkAAAAAAAAAEBAAAAAAAAABcAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACV

  </data>

  <key>adjustmentEditorBundleID</key>

  <string></string>

  <key>adjustmentFormatIdentifier</key>

  <string>com.apple.video.slomo</string>

  <key>adjustmentFormatVersion</key>

  <string>1.1</string>

</dict>

</plist>

Unfortunately ( in my case ??) Aperture in Yosemite can not read these files and all edits are gone when importing your photos. Did you notice your iphone edits are gone in all synced photos?  When you import and sync photo folders or events via itunes you won't see anymore any changes you did to your photos in your iphone.

An annoying little thing that Apple added without explicitly tell us upfront... I use lightroom on a daily base and suddenly got all those messages that AAE files were not imported from iphone. If they told us I for certain did not hear it...

Lucky enough I had the bright idea to go look on google for AAE and found this thread...

So I know now that the AAE files are not of life importance as they are just side files containing edits made on phone. I can do the edits again if I need them.

Explanation is that it would make the workflow easier... It doesn't... It brings more work. You have to re-edit if you want the exact file as on phone.

These are all minor peeves, my main peeve is that you first have to panic and run into troubles and question marks, without a word upfront from apple... If I did not see it I bet there are many more people out there who did not see it neither...

A work around is to import them in Image Capture, software included in every mac, but that one is adding several steps to a normal workflow. You have to import and then import again from desktop (or wherever you put the folder with the imports via Image Capture) into Lightroom...

A bit of a nuisance. Anyway, I am glad I found this thread and now know what to do...

I have done NO edits on my iPhone but did on my iPad.  Are you thinking that is the same difference?

If all my Camera related apps are on my iPad and I edit there is no way I can keep my edited versions?

I read the thread but am unclear as to the solution.

I would think that ipad and iphone have the same difference indeed. If you look at Adobe's workflow where the edits from RAW files are stored in a separate file,  -as long as you put the original file and the sidecar as it is called - in the same folder, you would not have to re-edit. As I understand it Lightroom and Aperture and who knows what other apps do not possibly keep the sidecar with the original, so that would mean that you have to re-edit...

I am not a hundred percent sure of all this though as I am not a very good explainer...

I think we might need someone who knows more then we do and can explain it better then I can... For now, I will continue to import phone and ipad to computer via Lightroom and start from the thinking path that I can not do edited photographs that way. If I really need an edited version really bad I will send it to myself in an email... I don't usually need the edited version of phone pics that bad...

I wonder if Lightroom mobile might not be a better solution for me personally as I use that already to sync pics between ipad and computer...

The hardest thing seems to be to keep an established workflow going and having that workflow for all the pics on iphones and ipads no matter what application they come from and/or were taken with... I do find it all very confusing as well.

I also discovered accidentally that there is a new photo application in my applications folder in operating system Yosemite, Prophoto or something, and I don't know if this is the new version of iPhoto and Aperture mixed in one. I am wary of using iphoto because it does not work well with Lightroom workflow wise. You are much better to stick to one workflow and one application. Mixing iphoto and lightroom to send pics to and from phones and pads is not a good idea because you end up with endless doubles and it's very hard to figure out which are the originals that you need to keep and which ones are just doubles...

I experienced the same thing and discovered that I had inadvertently changed the camera format setting from "PHOTO" to "SQUARE" and upon returning it to the "PHOTO" setting, I got .jpg's again. Sad that I lost some important photos in the interim, but glad that it was an easy fix (for me anyway).

I found that not only does my camera need to be on the "PHOTO" setting, the filter (three circles on the lower left) needs to be set on NONE.

I just noticed something.  I was transferring all of my pictures from iPhone to computer.  As I was finishing up I had several of the .aae files left that would not transfer.  So, I deleted everything from my phone except those files.  It turned out that those were pictures and/or videos that were in my recently deleted folder of my iphone.  I recovered them all, unplugged and then re-plugged my phone into my computer and every one of them were back to their original formats and then I was able to transfer them.  Hope this helps someone!!

Sorry I posted twice!

Forget about the AAE files for now.

When importing photos from iOS 8 to your Mac:

– Importing them with 'Image Capture' will give you the original photos

– Importing them with 'AirDrop' will give you the edited photos.

So you can have both versions on the Mac should you so desire.

Don't know if anyone else is doing this, but, I was advised from support that the squeakier the wheel, the better the the chance for an oiling. If this is a big deal, like it is for me, please send in feedback via: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I would like to at least have the choice as to which format to store photos and videos in.

Thanks in advance.

I guess you didn't read the thread before posting. The images are still JPG files. The AAE files store editing information about the image. For each JPG there is a matching AAE. If you import the images using the camera and scanner wizard in Windows or iPhoto or image capture on a Mac you will get both.

So glad I looked up what this wacky extension is and found out using the camera wizard with Windows is quicker than figuring out if I did something to the pictures myself or if this was another goofy Apple "hey look what we slipped in that we won't tell you about until lots of people start noticing it" type of things.