As far as I can tell, mine is creating a new DCIM folder for every month. I have some folders with only a few photos in them because that just so happens to be all I took that month. This is very annoying because I like to keep some of my photos on my phone and I'm now up to 41 DCIM folders. This all started with, I believe, 8.1.2. There is no rhyme or reason as to how the folders are organized. As already been said, the names of the folders are completely random and they all show the same creation date...which is ridiculous, especially considering it's creating them by the month. The two work-arounds (searching the DCIM using an asterisk or searching for .jpg files) does work, but work-arounds are not solutions to a problem. In my experience, when I search the DCIM using the asterisk, I cannot copy multiple photos to my computer. I either have to copy them one at a time or right click the photo and choose "Open File Location."
Also, some of you are referring to the "Local Disk" files that appear in some folders that cannot be deleted in Windows Explorer. In my case, these Local Disk files are tied to photos that I have edited using the iPhone's native editor within the Photos app. I just tested this moments ago. I took a test photo, found its location using Windows Explorer on my computer, and there was no Local Disk file in that folder, only the photo itself. I then edited that photo on my iPhone (for example, I used the magic wand tool), unplugged/plugged in my phone, found the DCIM folder again, and there was a Local Disk file with it. I then went back into my iPhone, reverted that photo to its original state and repeated the process. The Local Disk file was gone. So they are in fact tied to photos that have been edited using the built-in editing tools. Reverting the photos to their original state removes the Local Disk file. I assume that file will also disappear if you remove the photo from your phone completely. I don't know, but my guess is that it's set up this way so you can always revert any edited photos back to their original state.
If Apple is going to continue to allow for the creation of new DCIM folders for every month you take photos, then they need to better organize them when viewing in Windows Explorer. At the very least, name them in sequential order and give them a proper creation date.
Csound1 wrote:
Then leave them on the phone, you can lose all of them at the same time that way.
Responses like these do nothing to help the original question/problem and after 4 pages of discussion, to reply this way anyway is just trolling. It started with TJBUSMC who continued to post the same thing again & again after several users told him it wasn't what they were looking for. To Csound, some users do in fact back their photos up to their computer, but also like to keep some on their phone as well. Some people don't do it your way nor do they want to do it your way. That doesn't make them wrong. If you're not willing to contribute to the original issue, why even bother replying?
