Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

Thanks Finch, however what you shared is probably best way
if one wants to copy all the pics in one go. But for copying only the selected
photos, the solution I mentioned after learning from this forum seems the
better choice. Am I right ?

No. The camera and scanner wizard does not require that all images be copied. You can also use a photo management app in windows to selectively copy, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, Google Picasa, or even Microsoft's photo manager. All of these have the advantage of preserving any edits that you made on the phone, or special settings that you chose in the camera app. If you just copy the images the customization data in the "sidecar" edit tracking files are lost.

An easy way to do this is by searching for a specific date that photo was taken. Go to the DCIM folder and type the following in the search box: "datemodified:4/20/2015" Type it together with no space and no quote. Change the date to the date that the photo was taken.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

An even easier way is to use the right tools rather than the wrong tools.

But using Windows Explorer is not the "wrong" tool. Or at least it wasn't before an update to iOS 8. Up until that point, using Windows Explorer to view and transfer photos to a PC worked perfectly. I don't know how many times this has to be said. Simply because we use a different method doesn't make it wrong. For those of us who want to continue to use Windows Explorer to manage photos, oh well, let it go. Some of us have sent feedback to Apple in hopes of getting it better organized (as it was before the change). In the meantime, we can keep people informed of a work-around. Or if anyone, such as yourself, wants to offer different methods of transferring photos (which you have), that's great, but coming back here just to tell us we're doing it wrong isn't helping anyone.

And Csound1 has already admitted to not even using a Windows PC, so he doesn't even experience this issue. Yet he keeps returning to this thread to tell everyone they're doing it wrong. That, my friend, is a textbook troll.

WIndows explorer was always the wrong tool. By coincidence it worked, because the camera app was so primitive. But the camera app has become more capable, and the old model that worked when all you needed to transfer was an image file does not support the new editing features of the camera app. You will see the same situation going forward with newer generation cameras.

I can see that other tools may work better than File Explorer in Windows for the reasons you mentioned. However, some people here are looking for a quick and easy way to access and share photos on any PC without telling your friend to install more software they may not want. Installing a quick device driver and using File Explorer may be a far less intrusive method.

Frankly, there is a much better way to share than what I previously suggested, namely Google+. It automatically uploads my iPhone's photos to my Google+ account which I can share with anyone who has a browser. Best part: it's free, unlimited storage for both photos and videos under 15 min long.

So for online access and sharing of mobile photos and video, the best solution I've seen is free, unlimited Google+.

drume wrote:

I can see that other tools may work better than File Explorer in Windows for the reasons you mentioned. However, some people here are looking for a quick and easy way to access and share photos on any PC without telling your friend to install more software they may not want. Installing a quick device driver and using File Explorer may be a far less intrusive method.

Frankly, there is a much better way to share than what I previously suggested, namely Google+. It automatically uploads my iPhone's photos to my Google+ account which I can share with anyone who has a browser. Best part: it's free, unlimited storage for both photos and videos under 15 min long.

So for online access and sharing of mobile photos and video, the best solution I've seen is free, unlimited Google+.

Yes, Google+ uses Picasa under the hood. Which is what I suggested for use on a PC, but if you have Google + that's an excellent solution. If you don't have Google+ you can use the 3rd party app MyPics, which will upload to picasaweb.google.com.

drume wrote:

I can see that other tools may work better than File Explorer in Windows for the reasons you mentioned. However, some people here are looking for a quick and easy way to access and share photos on any PC without telling your friend to install more software they may not want.

EVERY PC since Windows 2000 has had the Camera and Scanner Wizard already installed. So there is nothing else you need to install.

I'm with you.. This is a pain in the A@$.. I see no reason for the iphone to do this. It's a headace and a pain to try and find the photo you're looking for. It's like playing guess the folder... Grrr Apple you say your all about simplicity.. Have you seen how you do pictures?

I'm impressed at the amount of discussion involved in NOT finding a solution. User wants to delete folders. User should be allowed to delete folders. Why is this so hard to comprehend? I used to be able to delete them and now I can't It seems like propriety BS. It's bad enough that the new OS upgrades occasionally leave huge amount of other data. Other phone/MP3 manufacturers have management software or allow the user to clean up. I've never understood why Apple can't go the distance and add photo management and system cleanup tools to iTunes. I guess because they will make money without doing so.

That begs the question: Why is the "complex data structure" displayed when viewed from a PC? After all, we aren't shown everything on the device. We don't see other "complex data structures" underlying the IOS system. Apple specifically implemented a system to show photos in that confusing structure.

Apple could show to Windows a nice, pretty "Photos" folder displaying the same organization as the Photos app. They also could make it viewable through Windows without requiring an additional installation. They did neither.

drume wrote:

That begs the question: Why is the "complex data structure" displayed when viewed from a PC?

And this begs the question: Why are you using Windows Explorer to do the job of tools that are better suited for extracting photos? That's like using a screwdriver to open a can of beans -- sure you can do it with some effort, but why do that instead of using a can opener? Blaming Apple for this is like blaming Del Monte for not making their cans work with screwdrivers.

Apple specifically implemented a system to show photos in that confusing structure.

I see it differently, YOU chose to see photos in a confusing structure, instead of using the tools PC users have to view and extract photos from a digital camera.

Apple could show to Windows a nice, pretty "Photos" folder displaying the same organization as the Photos app. They also could make it viewable through Windows without requiring an additional installation. They did neither.

Why is it their job to conform to your way of doing things the brute force way? If you insist on using a screwdriver to open your canned goods, then learn how to use the screwdriver (i.e. let Explorer search for photos and sort the results how you please, thus ignoring the folder structure).

You miss the point that even Microsoft doesn't think you should use Windows Explorer to manage photos. Why did they go to the trouble of creating the Camera and Scanner Wizard if Windows Explorer would do the job?

Apple added new features to the camera function. Those features require a more complex data structure to work effectively. So the choice for Apple was to keep the brain-dead way it always worked so you had the choice of using any dumb tool you chose, or improve the way photos were managed. You can't have it both ways. You can't have advanced photo management that will work with primitive tools.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You miss the point that even Microsoft doesn't think you should use Windows Explorer to manage photos. Why did they go to the trouble of creating the Camera and Scanner Wizard if Windows Explorer would do the job?

A wizard is not a file browser or file manager. They are different tools with different capabilities and some overlap. How many people have ever used that wizard? As an IT professional, I can tell you it's a very small percentage. And by the way, the wizard is notorious for screwing things up. The File Manager has been reliable ever since Windows got rid of the stupid Libraries (thank goodness).

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Apple added new features to the camera function. Those features require a more complex data structure to work effectively. So the choice for Apple was to keep the brain-dead way it always worked so you had the choice of using any dumb tool you chose, or improve the way photos were managed. You can't have it both ways. You can't have advanced photo management that will work with primitive tools.

Yet another false dilemma. If what you were saying made any sense, we'd see the confusing folders in the iPhone's Photos app, but we don't. We see an intuitive view of all our photos in one place.

There is no reason... none... why a similar view cannot be available from the device through Apple's driver to the Windows PC. There is also no reason why the photos can't be managed from the PC. It's silly to claim that the back-end structure can't easily be given an intuitive, consistent front-end view.

Why are you using Windows Explorer to do the job of tools that are better suited for extracting photos? That's like using a screwdriver to open a can of beans -- sure you can do it with some effort, but why do that instead of using a can opener? Blaming Apple for this is like blaming Del Monte for not making their cans work with screwdrivers.

I think you've got this all wrong. Users like you, csound1, and Lawrence Finch keep scolding everyone for using the "wrong tool." And the smart alec comments, such as the ones you make about screwdrivers & can openers, helps no one. You guys jump on people in this thread for coming here for help because you say we're "doing it wrong," then you guys post crap just to see yourselves type.

The thing is, for years, Windows Explorer worked as the perfect tool to view and transfer photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC. That all changed with, I believe, iOS 8.1.2. That's why this thread was created. Because when Apple initiated the change, suddenly users were seeing multiple folders within the DCIM and no organization to them. Part of this, as far as I can tell, came about when they started organizing photos with the Years, Collections, and Moments views. Each folder within the DCIM corresponds to the months the photos are taken. With each folder having a randomly generated name, and all of them with the same creation date, it became difficult to find our newest photos. I say Windows Explorer is not the wrong tool because it worked well before Apple's reorganization of the Photos App. So now we'd just like to see some changes to give us the same functionality that we had before. Some of us have sent feedback and one of the things it'd be nice to see is the DCIM folders being organized in some sort of chronological order. If a new DCIM folder is created for every month we take photos, then maybe name them according to month/year.

With that said, it still leaves the problem of transferring photos that have been edited. Windows Explorer does not transfer the edit data, so in those cases, one of the other options that have been suggested would need to be used. And it's great to suggest those other methods, but it doesn't help anyone here if the only thing someone comes here to say is, "You're using the wrong tool."