Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

Decided to take the time to research this issue on the "Apple" site. Thought I would just find a simple explanation and an easy fix. Didn't know I was going to need popcorn. 88,336 views, 285 replies, 20 pages of text, and all I hear is a bunch of Apple Bigots that display their complete dislike of anything not Apple. This an obvious issue to many people for which an I find no official Apple response. The responses posted here by many of the Apple loyalists it that we are just doing it wrong. Why not listen to some of these users. Why not just date the folder? Why is it difficult to delete the folders when empty? Why can't you select several or all folders and drag and drop? Why don't we get an official response? I guess we just don't live up to the superiority of the Apple way. Even a smidgen of conciliation may comfort some, but NO, we are just not doing it right. The righteousness of the Apple loyalists is really disruptive, not helpful, and rude. JMHO and you know who you are.

Looks like Apple made a change in iOS 9. Now folders under the DCIM folder are numbered 100APPLE, 101APPLE, 102APPLE, etc. Each picture is dated correctly so the earliest pictures are in the 100APPLE folder and the newest are in the last folder. Prior to this update, I had 39 folders. Now I have 22. Much easier to deal with pictures now, especially to find the newest pics to save to PC.

I'm seeing this as well. This is great news. There were some in this thread who said it could not be done on a technical level and I'm glad Apple proved them wrong. I went from 40+ folders within the DCIM down to only 4 now. I'm eager to see how it handles it as I take more photos. Hopefully it continues to run smoothly and I don't see an explosion of more folders. But even if that happens, as long as they're organized in chronological order, it shouldn't much of a problem.

Interestingly, all four of my Apple folders inside the DCIM are dated Dec. 31st, 1969. Has Apple unlocked the secrets of time travel? Or possibly, judging by this mentalflossarticle about that particular date, it could be a glitch. Or knowing Apple's eye for detail, it may very well be intentional.

So for anyone searching for a solution, I strongly suggest updating to iOS 9.

If you’ve ever had the date on a cell phone or computer mysteriously switch to December 31, 1969, you may have thought it was simply random. But the reason behind this odd glitch is a nice little tidbit of computer trivia.

Unix is a computer operating system that, in one form or another, is used on most servers, workstations, and mobile devices. It was launched in November 1971 and, after some teething problems, the “epoch date” was set to the beginning of the decade, January 1, 1970. What this means is that time began for Unix at midnight on January 1, 1970 GMT. Time measurement units are counted from the epoch so that the date and time of events can be specified without question. If a time stamp is somehow reset to 0, the clock will display January 1, 1970.

So where does December 31 fit in? It’s because you live in the Western Hemisphere. When it’s midnight in Greenwich, England, it’s still December 31st in America, where users will see December 31, 1969—the day before Unix’s epoch.

drume wrote:

Can you please stop? DenverJohn1 gave some interesting information that some of us enjoyed. Sheesh, let it go.

I asked what you were talking about, you're the one who is all wigged out about a question. Lie down for a while.

drume wrote:

Hold on. Now Apple is doing it wrong too?! But organizing it more intuitively will break it! Time for a new thread complaining that Apple is breaking esoteric DCIM standards. Scandalous! 😉

Possibly a tongue in cheek comment, but the "new" folder structure is still following the DCIM (aka DCF) "standards".

Now that Apple uses the new format, would someone be willing to run a test to see if it is possible to move a folder off of the iPhone to the PC and then later move it back to the iPhone without it causing any problems? These would be the steps to follow:

1. In Windows Explorer, open DCIM folder under Internal Storage of iPhone.

2. Move one of the Apple folders (e.g. 102APPLE) to your PC. Will it let you move it?

3. Verify that folder structure on iPhone remains intact. Did the file names remain in order without the 102APPLE?

4. Disconnect iPhone from PC and verify that Photos is working ok.

5. Reconnect iPhone to PC.

6. In Windows Explorer, open DCIM folder under Internal Storage of iPhone.

6. Verify whether 102APPLE is missing or whether the folders were renamed.

7. If 102APPLE is missing, move 102APPLE folder from PC back to DCIM foder under Internal Storage of iPhone.

8. Verify that the folder structure now shows 102APPLE folder.

9. Disconnect iPhone from PC.

10. Open iPhone and verify that the pictures that were in 102APPLE folder are on the iPhone again and that Photos is working properly.

Thanks!

Hey ARPU99,

I did the test for you, got the results I expected.

The "move" from internal storage to PC isn't really a move, it's a copy. You can delete the files from within the folders (on internal storage), but it wouldn't allow me to delete the folder myself. It does however delete the folder on internal storage on reboot if it is empty. I didn't check to see where the naming increment starts after that.

The folder is intact on the PC, but its content organization is controlled by whatever your view settings are in windows. In my test it stayed in the original sort until I changed my view. It is chronological and easy to get back to.

You cannot copy back to the iPhone so far as I've found. I have to do that with iTunes (which I don't like, but deal with)

Hope that helps.

What they do is come here to pick a fight knowing that we don't have enough points to report their posts. They instigate an argument and when we defend ourselves against the trolling, they report our posts to be deleted. Then they pretend to be the righteous ones. They didn't need to keep coming back here because they don't use the same tool. They know those of us who do were going to keep using it and keep asking for a solution, so they could've easily moved on and let us be. Now that iOS 9 has brought about these changes, they could easily go about their business and forget about this thread, but us little level 1's are easy targets, so they keep coming. Levels & points mean absolutely nothing to me. I see how the ones with higher levels & more points treat others in these forums and how they stick up for one another and boost each others' points, even when they're rude to people. They accuse us of posting "totally useless information," but what have they contributed for the last several pages of this thread that was helpful? Nothing. What really matters to me is how you carry yourself. I'll take a level 1 with no points who's helpful & courteous any day.

In the end, the ones who kept coming back here to tell us we're using the wrong tool, we're doing it wrong, and that Apple couldn't do what we were asking them to do...well, they were wrong. This thread and the feedback that many of us sent to Apple paid off. I'm happy to see they were listening and did something for us "lowly" Windows Explorer users.

At first I thought the 1969 date was just an oversight on Apple's part, but then I Googled it because it made me curious that they used such a precise date. My first guess was that it was related to Steve Jobs somehow. I think that would've been a nice nod if they had done something like that. The mentalfloss article I ended up linking to in my last post talks all about the Unix epoch date.

I have no problem keeping an eye on this thread until the OP marks it as solved just in case others come here looking for help and don't read past posts.

I wonder what determines how many DCIM folders we end up with after updating to iOS 9, because ARPU99 said they went from 39 folders to 22. Even 22 seems high because I went from over 40 down to 4. And I see where you went from 77 to 4 as well. I wonder why ARPU99 ended up with a different result?

mdrolle
wrote:

Hey ARPU99,

I did the test for you, got the results I expected.

Thanks for running the test for ARPU99. It's understandable why he/she didn't want to try it. Some people aren't comfortable with doing something like that and don't want to make things worse. There's nothing wrong with asking if anyone else wants to give it a go. Your results are what I expected too. I didn't expect the behavior of the transfer to change. It's just nice to see better organization.

tab1075 wrote:

I wonder what determines how many DCIM folders we end up with after updating to iOS 9, because ARPU99 said they went from 39 folders to 22. Even 22 seems high because I went from over 40 down to 4. And I see where you went from 77 to 4 as well. I wonder why ARPU99 ended up with a different result?

Thanks tab1075. I wondered the same thing. My first guess would be that it only consolidates when it knows it won't be conflating folders with the same (or crossing) image numbers. Can someone verify their image number ranges in the old and new folders?

P.S.- I absolutely agree with you on the bullying culture that seems all too prevalent on multiple threads. In fairness, I think it's a very small percentage of the higher level contributors, but the good ones rarely seem willing to stand up to the bad ones. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

mdrolle,

Thanks for taking the time to do the test. I'm glad you brought this up....

Re: You cannot copy back to the iPhone so far as I've found. I have to do that with iTunes (which I don't like, but deal with)

Here's the major problem I am trying to solve. I have pictures on my iPhone that I want to keep there. I also have some pictures that I have already moved off of my iPhone and store on my PC. Now I want to move those pictures back to the iPhone. Is it possible to move them back to the iPhone without first moving all of the new pictures to the same folder on the PC? Everything I have read and when I talked to Apple Support, they have said by doing a Sync, I would lose all of the pictures on the iPhone because they would be replaced by the pictures that are in the folder that I Sync.

How do you do it?

Thanks!

tab1075,

Well said. Thank you for understanding. You nailed it on why I didn't want to do the test myself. If I had an extra iPhone lying around, I would have done the test. My bet is that some on this thread have extras and even use them for testing. I only started reading this thread a few days ago. When I noticed the DCIM change, I posted the info about the change in folder names because I knew it would be of great interest. I will take a look at my 22 folders to try to figure out why some only have a couple of pictures and others have hundreds. Thanks again.

gail from maine,

Thanks for the response. I was afraid that was the only way to do it. When the photos sync back to the iPhone, are they kept in the original order by date taken in the Photos App on the iPhone?

You're most welcome!

Pretty easy thing for me to do because I seldom leave things on the iPhone that I have to manage there. I usually move them to the PC for editing, saving, and such. Actually doubly easy because I have several iPhone 5's I stocked up on cheaply since I'm not into the new form factor.

I'm not positive that I understand your question, but here is my experience.

I move pics off the phone, leaving some that I haven't decided what to do with yet (or for whatever reason), which leaves the DCIM folder, and so far, leaves the "100Apple" folder below that with its pictures. I assume this will increment to 101Apple at some point.

Then say I have pics that I want to move from the pc to the phone for one reason or another. I add them to my pics sync folder (which for me is in a completely different location that iTunes likes it to be in so I won't add paths here), and sync the phone. Have to mention, I do not leave pics in that sync folder that I don't want on the phone, so it is "active management" on my part.

When I go to view the pics on the phone I now see 4 folders, Selfies, Videos, Screenshots, Recently Deleted, and Pics (which is the name of the sync folder in windows). In this last folder (Pics) are all the images I have synced from the pc. I can't edit them or delete them from the phone. The only way I am able to manage these images is via windows and the sync folder. Also need to add that my sync folder is essentially a "throw away" folder used only as a workaround for the inability to bi-directionally manage things. Actually, I never leave anything to apple/iPhone. Even my music is in a redundant/throw away folder. This is in order to be CERTAIN I ALWAYS have my files and that no other software is in a management position for them.

Hope this helps in some way.

Mike

Awesome. Thank you. EVERYONE, USE THIS METHOD BY MONTYPYTHON911, WITH THE ADDITIONAL INFO BY ME BELOW (INSTRUCTION 5-8):

In Windows Explorer:

1) Open up the DCIM folder, so that all the subfolders with the funny names are showing.

2) In the search box in the top right of the screen, type in * and hit enter.

3) All the pictures on the phone will be listed below the folders. '

4) Search for the pics you want to copy (sort by date).

5) On one of the pictures you want to copy, right click, and click on properties.

6) The properties line will show you which subfolder the most recent photos are in.

7) Then open the subfolder, and copy from that subfolder.

NOTE, YOU CAN'T COPY AFTER INSTRUCTION 3 ABOVE. YOU NEED TO OPEN THE ACTUAL SUBFOLDER TO COPY THE PICS.