Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

Memargolis, have you updated to iOS 9 yet? Our discussion has been knocked back a few pages, people might have missed it. iOS 9 has most definitely improved the issue. Within the main DCIM folder, the sub-folders are now divided into fewer folders that no longer have randomized names. They start with "100APPLE, 101APPLE, 102APPLE..." and so on. And the photos are now ordered chronologically, so your most recent photos will be in the last folder.

I was very happy when I see that the folders were now with a new organization.

Now I notice that the new photos weren't been added to the last folder. In my experience, new photos were included at the folder 101APPLE and I have folders until 105APPLE. So, the chronological organization worked only for the photos that were at the Iphone when it made the migration.

So, we have less and more organized folders, but we don't have the new photos organized to make easier to do new back-up!

I have switched from an iPhone 6 to a 6s with iOS 9.1. And now I have the same problem. 228 DCIM folders.. I have reported this via a feedback to Apple. So my guess is, that this bug is still present, since I have the latest iOS version. I there any known setting or any workaround that can help with this? In most of my folders, there is only 1 photo! Huge issue, and definitely not a feature 😟

It's strange that you're still seeing this old problem even with the most recent version of iOS. When iOS 9 was released, it completely reorganized the way we viewed DCIM folders using Windows Explorer. It took care of just about every issue brought up in this thread. That's why hardly anyone has posted in so long.

The old workaround might still help you. Open your iPhone in Windows Explorer until you reach all of the folders containing your photos. In the upper right corner of the Explorer window, in the Search bar, type an asterisk ( * ). This should give you a view with all your folders on top and the photos inside them below.

By using Windows Explorer to transfer photos from the iPhone to your computer, just be aware that if you have used the built in photo editor on your iPhone, Windows Explorer will not transfer the edited copy of the photo, only the original. This is because Explorer doesn't transfer the edit data that goes along with each photo you've edited. To transfer these photos, you'll need to use the photo import tool, as described in the last post. Or a third party photo transfer tool.

You're seeing only one photo in some of those folders because, with the way it handled it before iOS 9, it organized photos according to the month they were taken. If you only take one photo in a particular month, it created a folder for that month.

Windows Explorer is not the "wrong tool," as a few have come to this thread to state over & over again. Apple proved that by completely revamping the way Windows Explorer handles photos on our iPhones. I'm just not sure why yours hasn't updated with iOS 9 like the rest of ours has.

This has been an interesting journey through the minds of some helpful and some troubled individuals. The latest post says this issue has been resolved with the latest IOS update. I must beg to differ, at least in my case. I did have my number of "apple" folders decrease, however I still have 282 folders. As has been beaten to a dead horse, some with only one image. I found the "work around" of *.* helpful, however I now want to pull my 1100 images off of my phone and reinstall them into one folder. Is this possible?

Maybe. I wouldn't however. iOS has it's own filesystem and uses a database to manage where all the photos are.

Although it seems illogical, there is a system in use. The iOS files are not meant to be accessed directly. If you mess with them , this may cause your Photos database to be come unstable.

Thank you. I was afraid of that. If I didn't need the pictures on the phone for my business, I would delete and start over.

Thank you for the polite reply, it seems so many people in here want to get into heated name calling debates.... we are getting enough of that in the political arena.

It is amazing to me that after 22 pages no one has seemed to be able to answer the question posed in the original post.

I have two iOS devices one running 8.1 and the other 8.3. Both devices have 3000+ photos on them. on the iOS 8.1 device, when I plug it into my PC and navigate down into the DCIM folder, there is only one folder there and all 3000+ photos are in there.

As the original poster mentioned it is just a pain in the butt to find a particular photo you are looking for in Windows. Yes the * search recommendation workaround is helpful but should not be needed. I don't need to do that on my iOS 8.1 device. I just navigate to the DCIM folder and I only have to search in one folder, by date to find any photo I want.

On the iOS 8.3 device, I navigate to the same location with the DCIM folder in Wiindows 7 and I see 54 folders. At one point in time, there was only 1 folder. I believe someone made the comment that some app caused the iOS device to partition the photos into multiple folders but no one has said which app is the culprit. I also beleive that to be the reason why my DCIM folders have different file structures on both devices.

On the iOS 8.1 device, the only photo/camera app is the default ones. On the iOS8.3 device there are multiple camera-style apps. If I could figure out which app caused the multiple folders to occur, I would gladly delete it in the hopes that the single photo folder would return.

The fact that for many of us there are multiple photo folders in DCIM in Windows is not a foregone conclusion, because I have that situation on my iOS 8.1 device, and it WAS that way on my iOS 8.3 device until something changed. I just don't know what it was.

David

No problem. There is always a group who dislike Apple for the level of "control" they exert over things like this.

Sadly some want the openness of a Linux-y OS with the look and feel of Apple. Pick a battle I say. If Apple wants to store my photos in 1000 different folders, go ahead. As long as I can simply access them, I could care less. That I don't need to futz around in a file manager is OK by me.

Simply put... if you are looking "there" for your photos, you are working outside of the desired design by Apple.

The advocated method for importing photos to an OSX computer, is to use a photo app that sees the device as a single source of photo files, not a series of folders. It is not advised to root around (pardon the pun) in the device's filesystem looking for stuff.

Yes, I know it works and yes, I know some folks are very comfortable doing this, and yes, I know it is your right as is defined in the constitution, but it's not how it was designed to work.

That Apple has changed the number of folders used, how they are named and so on, should be invisible to the end user. And if you import photos using iPhoto or now Photos, it is.

IMO, I let the database designer/engineer win this type of argument.

The upgrade I did recently helped somewhat, but this came well after I had to DELETE EVERY SINGLE PHOTO FROM MY PHONE, and actually place them in a new folder on my PC. Then, with Itunes I had to add that folder back into my list of Synced folders I wanted to add back to my phone.! Why did I have to go through this convoluted process? Because we are not ALLOWED to be PC users, I suppose? Gotta join the MAC club! Nah, not yet!

On a Mac I use the import tool that Apple provides. On Windows you won't have any problems if you use the import tool that Microsoft provides. You chose not to. If I had chosen not to on my Mac I would have had the same issues you do.

Of course Apple wants users to use photos THEIR special way instead of the way most of the world accesses photos from most any other device in the world: by plugging in the USB cable, opening the folder, and getting the files you want. Apple needs to realize that this is reality. They may WANT users to do it the Apple way, but in reality users will go for convenience and logic. Apple would be wise to pay attention, because the last time I checked, it's the customer who buy the phones and keeps them in business, not the Apple employees.

Sure there are work-arounds. Sure there are ways to find your photos quickly amidst the many randomly named folders that are undeletable and annoying to the users. But none of these ideas fix the real problem. It's a poor design on Apple's part, and if Steve Jobs were alive I wonder if he would be displeased or just as arrogantly stubborn as Apple is being right now, by completely ignoring their huge number of customers who are saying "this is very annoying!" Anyway, Jobs is gone.

Even though I have been a long-time mostly-happy iPhone user, as an IT Director with responsibility to my organization, I have decided when our contract ends I am considering switching our phones to Android. Why? For the reasons reflected in this thread. And because my organization, like so many others, operates primarily in a Windows environment, and we need quick simple universally sensible access to our photos. We need a device that works easily for our intelligent, modern employees who have current day intuitive transferrable skills using today's technology. This folders issue is one problem. IMHO Apple should also wise up and get rid of iTunes. Everyone I know hates it and as one person mentioned in this threat, many computers require admin rights to install software, and to expect users to install iTunes in order to perform simple tasks that would be easily done without special software on other devices is unrealistic. (oh wait, that's right, Apple doesn't read the user threads. Funny, if I were running a company the user forums would be the first place I'd go to see how my product was doing. I would be paying very close attention to what users say to each other. Well, Apple has had some good ideas. And this won't be the first time they blew it. But photos are very important to business customers as well as consumers. We want and require easy, intuitive access to photos by connecting the device to a computer and browsing for the photos in a logical way, using standard methods common to many devices and companies around the world. Maybe Apple will figure this out, or maybe not. Maybe by then I and all my users will be happy Android users)

Elaine

Ok... if you're an IT Director, you likely manage some databases.

Do your staff go looking around in the tables for their data? Probably not. Can they? Of course they can.

Do you want them to? I would think not. Intuitive or not, there is a UI for a reason.

If you feel that you can get your job(s) done by accessing the filesystem, go ahead. Nobody has placed a barrier to that in front of you.

"had some good ideas"

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

These are the types of remarks that reduce one's credibility IMO. Their ideas must have been a bit better than good, as most of their competitors are also using them.

Before the fanboy and koolaid cracks fly... I own Windows and Mac PCs, use Android tablets and iPads and use an Android phone only.

iOS is what it is. It isn't for everyone. It's not like you have no other options.

Yeah, I probably should have kept my opinions to myself, though I didn't mean to offend anyone in expressing my views about what I think our users want in an interface. Your response felt a bit cold and well, unnecessarily mean toward me. Oh well. Moving on.

Elaine