Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

I feel exactly the same - and more frustrating. I copy them all to my c drive. Then i go back to DCIM on iPhone via Explorer to try and delete them: IT WON'T LET ME DELETE!!

There should be one folder on the iPhone which if you open should have files listed by date, that you can open in LARGE ICON VIEW or DETAILS view and be able to a) delete a whole bunch or b) drag them to your CDRIVE and c) leave a few on the iPHone.

That doesn't happen. It becomes a major time-sucking-endeavor that I have to schedule for a weekend.

This is not the Apple I know and love Guys.

patchesgsc wrote:

I feel exactly the same - and more frustrating. I copy them all to my c drive. Then i go back to DCIM on iPhone via Explorer to try and delete them: IT WON'T LET ME DELETE!!

There should be one folder on the iPhone

That kills iPhoto, Photos, Aperture, windows Camera Wizard, Image Capture, well you get it.

How selfish is it to break it for millions of people because you can't be bothered to use the correct tools.

drume wrote:

And please stop referencing a non-existent "windows Camera Wizard". It hasn't existed since Windows XP.

It's still there; it's just been improved and renamed. But it works the same way.

I posted a few pages back agreeing that this is indeed annoying. After reading the posts about using the camera wizard to import them I couldn't find a 'camera wizard' per se, however the functionality it is indeed there in Windows 7 (which I used).

When you connect your iPhone to your Windows PC, you should get the small pop-up window asking you what you would like to do (if not you need to reactivate this). Instead of clicking 'open files and folders in windows explorer', towards the bottom of the pop-up box there is an option that says 'import pictures and videos' (or something like that). Choose that option and windows will begin scanning your iPhone. You can interrupt the scanning process to choose a different save location. Then it'll scan your iPhone again and import every single last picture and video, and dump them into a single folder that is named with the date.

After using the import wizard, if you disconnect your iPhone and take some pictures, and then re-import on that same day, it'll only import the new pictures as you'll be saving into the save folder. If however you connect your phone again the next day with new pictures on it, I suspect it'll import every single picture again as the date will be different, so it'll create a new folder with the current date and since there are no existing photos in it, it should import all the photos again.

It's not as convenient as Image Capture on Mac, as you cannot choose specific images to import based upon thumbnails previews, but it sure as heck beats the alternative options on Windows.

jacteaux wrote:

My issue is that you can't sort by date. So I have to troll around to find the newest folder.

Yep, all of the folders within the DCIM have the same creation date. And in my case at least, it's not even the date of the most recent photos taken. Mine are all dated March 6th, and I don't even have any photos on my phone taken on that date (not anymore at least).

If you haven't read through this thread, use the asterisk work-around. Open up the DCIM folder in Windows Explorer to where you see all the sub-folders. In the search box in the upper right corner of the Explorer window, type an asterisk ( * ). This will display the sub-folder, but also all of the photos in your Camera Roll, which you can sort by date. If you right click on the most recent photo and click "Open file location," it'll open the folder with the most recent photos. The folders are created according to the month the photos inside were taken, they just don't date them properly.

Thanks for this. But this is still a ******** fix for something that should be so simple.

Apple seems to be more concerned with releasing new ways to make money off their music instead of just sifting through these forums to determine what really grinds peoples gears.

FIX THIS APPLE.

I'm very appreciative of feedback with all forums I use, including this one. I am not telling anyone in this forum to fix the problem (I thought that was obvious), I am merely saying that Apple SHOULD be looking at these forums, considering how much direct feedback they can easily get.

But I will take your advice and send my concerns directly to the link you've provided.

can128 wrote:

CORRECTION: The asterisk "fix" (*) does not allow me to drag my photos to a folder on my computer. So in other words, this "fix" is not much of a fix at all.

GET ON THIS APPLE.

Well, the asterisk search was more of a work-around than a fix. Just something to make using Windows Explorer a little more manageable. If you use the asterisk search, but it won't let you copy the photos from the iPhone to your PC, then you'll have to right click on the most recent photo and choose "Open file location" from the menu. That will take you to the DCIM sub-folder containing all photos taken within that month. If you're searching for photos from a previous month, you'll have to search using the asterisk and find a photo from that month, then right click and again choose Open file location. The sub-folders are divided according to the month the photos were taken. I assume this came about when Apple updated the Photos App to give us the "Moment's" view instead of the Camera Roll view.

What is odd is that two of my computers act differently. If I use my desktop (Windows 7), I search using the asterisk, but can only copy one photo at a time unless I use the Open file location option. But when I use my laptop (Windows 8), I search using the asterisk and can copy multiple photos directly from there.

Don't forget, copying photos to your PC through Windows Explorer will not copy any photos that have been edited using the Photos App. It will only copy the original unedited photo. You'll have to use the Windows import tool or a third part tool in order to successfully copy edited photos over.

And by the way, I like the feedback you sent them. I don't think we'll every get back the full functionality of using Windows Explorer that we once had, but I'd settle for some better organization to locate photos within the DCIM by date.

can128 wrote:

CORRECTION: The asterisk "fix" (*) does not allow me to drag my photos to a folder on my computer. So in other words, this "fix" is not much of a fix at all.

GET ON THIS APPLE.

I DONT WANT IT "FIXED' TRY TELLING APPLE.

I'm going to tell a story from the 1960's. At first glance it has nothing to do with the subject of this thread. But a little thought will reveal the connection.

Henry Barnes was traffic commissioner in New York City from 1962 until his death on the job in 1968. He did many things to revolutionize traffic flow in the city, and really made a difference. He installed the first automated traffic light system that adjusted for traffic flow based on time of day and traffic density, the idea being to make the lights turn green most of the time for vehicles traveling in the direction of heaviest traffic. Overall it was a success. But one day he received a call from a friend, who complained that the new system almost doubled his commute. So Barnes asked him his route, and sure enough, it was clear that the new system was causing his friend's problems. So Barnes presented the problem to his traffic engineers, who came up with a different route for the friend that would not only restore the time of the previous route, but would actually get the friend where he was going faster than he ever had. Barnes presented the route to his friend, who said; "but that's not what I want. I want MY route to work; I don't want to have to go some other way."

- taken from a radio interview in the mid-1960's

punimitsu wrote:

hmmmmmmmmmmmm TJBUSMC1973 don't like your tone, or your unhelpful comments

So?

What is your tech support question, or are you just wasting our time by ranting on about other posters?

Thanks Lawrence!

Great to see someone actually being *helpful* in this so-called community 😉

I didn't manage to read the 15 pages of comments, so this is a really useful summary...

I got to page 2, and was rather shocked by the nasty, unhelpful comments from TKBUSMC1973, Csound1 et al...

not sure why these people even bother engaging in a Support community!!!

Anyway - I use iCloud folder on my home PC - and backup via iTunes once in a while.... no problems with all that.

It's more about when I've just taken a few pics and want to get *just those* onto a laptop (e.g. work laptop, or a friend's) quickly and easily.

I think a few people were saying similar things...

AirDrop does the trick beautifully for Macs, but there's a bit of a gap for PCs...

Yes, great summary Lawrence!

Now, if no-one else posts another word then Lawrence's post will be right there for everyone to easily see! (Ahem, this post will self-destruct and be deleted in a short period of time! We can delete posts, right?)

(Just to add, you can also "search" the folders (for example, *.jpg) - in Windows Explorer - to get an ordered, flat list of files. - This has also been mentioned previously.)

punimitsu wrote:

Thanks Lawrence!

Great to see someone actually being *helpful* in this so-called community 😉

I didn't manage to read the 15 pages of comments, so this is a really useful summary...

I got to page 2, and was rather shocked by the nasty, unhelpful comments from TKBUSMC1973, Csound1 et al...

not sure why these people even bother engaging in a Support community!!!

Since you only made it to page 2, you're unaware of who has actually caused more trouble in this thread. The one you're thanking is the same one who basically said, and I'm paraphrasing, he's glad the fools stick to this thread so we don't ruin the rest of the community forums. He and another user you mentioned keep returning here to insult everyone, then report our comments for deletion when we defend ourselves. I just had a second comment deleted that in no way contained "inappropriate statements or comments," as the deletion notice claimed. The things these forum trolls have said have been much worse. We simply do not have enough points to report them.

I've commended the one you're thanking on multiple occasions for offering alternate methods to transfer photos, but usually his "help" is in addition to insulting everyone who uses Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer is still a good tool to view photos on our phones and, to a certain extent, transfer them. While it's good to learn of new ways to view/transfer photos to a computer, I think it's important to address the Windows Explorer issue because, for one, it worked flawlessly for years. And because MANY iPhone owners will continue to use it. That may be because it's what they are used to or because they're not very tech savvy, etc. Whatever the reason, we're not fools for using it, as some here imply. We'd just like to see it regain the usefulness it had before.

There will; always be people, like the users you quoted, who can't stand anything bad being said about Apple, no matter how true - strange, it's almost like they were employed by Apple. Classic example just above my post 😉

I appreciate the nice summary from Lawrence, but it still worked better previously 🙂