Level 1

21 points

Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

I have an ipone 4s. I have had an iPhone for over 5 years now. Before the DCIM folder would hold 1000 pictures. As soon as I would take another picture (ei 1001) then it would start another folder for those thousand pictures. So by time I got into the 5000+ I had over 5 folders. They are random (ei 851PKYZB, 851XTGOR, 914ELZYG, etc.) Last month or so when I plugged my phone into the computer to copy my photos onto my desktop I had ONE folder. It was glorious not to have to open every folder to figure out where the newest pictures were.

Then today I plug my phone into my computer to copy pictures over and I now have a folder for every 100 pictures. YES TONS and TONS of folders (55 folders to be exact) and no rhythm or reason to the numbering system. Some with only 1 picture in them, as I delete a lot of pictures after transferring to my computer. So when I wanted to find todays pictures I had to open over half of them to find my pictures.

HOW do I get it back to ONE folder? I understand the reason there is a DCIM folder to begin with, but I really think I should be able to have 1 folder or at least have them numbered 100APPLE, 101APPLE, or something that is numeric and I know that the very last folder are the new pictures. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (I have the newest iOS 8.1.2) Thanks in advance.

iOS 7.1

Posted on Dec 13, 2014 6:24 AM

Top-ranking reply

drume

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Apr 24, 2015 10:15 AM

I have a great workaround using a saved search instead of iTunes.

Requirements

Apple mobile device (duh)
PC with Windows 8.1 (though these instructions can be tweaked for earlier versions)
iTunes installed, OR install device support without iTunes by downloading the official iTunes installer, extracting it with 7zip or WinRAR, and then installing AppleApplicationSupport64.msi followed by AppleMobileDeviceSupport6464.msi (assuming a 64-bit version of Windows).

Instructions to create the saved search

Connect your Apple device to your PC (wired connection).
Open File Explorer.
Double-click your Apple device, then "Internal Storage", then "DCIM".
In the upper-right Search window, type * (just the asterisk) and hit enter.
In the top menu, select View > Details (in the Layout section).
Click the arrow next to the "Type" column header. Check all types except "File Folder" and "Local Disk".
In the top menu, select View > Large Icons (in the Layout section).
In the top menu, select View > Sort By > Date modified.
In the top menu, select View > Sort By > Descending. (for most recent first)
In the top menu, select Search > Save Search. In File name, type a saved search name. Since you may have more than one Apple device, I strongly suggest using the device name, such as "Bob's iPhone 6 Search". You will have to repeat this process to make an individual saved search for each Apple device.

From now on, when you open File Explorer, the Navigation Pane on the left will list your saved search under both "Favorites" and "This PC". Just select it whenever you want to see your Apple devices contents. Woo hoo!

Note to Apple and everyone who says "just use iTunes"

Pull your head out. Most people use PCs, and not everyone with Apple devices uses iTunes. Stop acting like we should drink your kool-aid. iTunes is far too controlling of my content that I didn't even get from Apple. For example, before being able to do simple drag-and-drop copying, iTunes insists on deleting my Apple device's content if it came from a different iTunes library, even if it's non-DRM, non-Apple, and sometimes the same content in a new installation of iTunes. Control, control, control. No thank you. I don't even use my iPhone's Music app. Anyone can upload 50,000 of their own songs free to Google Play Music, manage their library in the cloud, and stream or download them with the Google Play Music app.

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366 replies

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Sep 18, 2015 6:33 AM in response to ARPU99

Do you not have a Windows machine?

ARPU99

Level 1

44 points

Sep 18, 2015 6:34 AM in response to Csound1

I do, but I don't want to cause any problems. I figured someone on this thread might be willing to test it.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Sep 18, 2015 6:38 AM in response to ARPU99

That's very nice of you, let someone else do the test for you when you could just do it yourself.

Sep 18, 2015 3:46 PM in response to ARPU99

To the best of my knowledge the photos are imported by date. But I'm not absolutely sure....

Sorry 😟

tab1075

Level 1

54 points

Nov 20, 2015 1:29 PM in response to jteixeirabsb

That's strange. I currently have folders 100APPLE-103APPLE and it saves my most recent photos to the last folder. Including new ones I've taken since the update.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Mar 11, 2016 5:04 AM in response to HobbitLovr

You are welcome to hold a different opinion, many people are wrong, you have joined them. It's a free world.

Who is "us"

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Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!