Why SO many random DCIM Folders? I want ONE!

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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

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Answer 1

Best reply

lisalisabol Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 13, 2014 7:03 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

It does matter, as when I got to upload new photos I have over 50 folders to look in, to find the newest pictures. I was ok with 5 or 6 folders but 55 is a bit much and I take lots of photos and then delete them, so I will end up with many many more folders. If the folders were in order and the first folders the oldest pictures and the bottom folders the newest pictures, I wouldn't care how many folders I have, but they are RANDOM....

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Answer 2

Knyght

Level 1

9 points

Dec 17, 2014 10:02 AM in response to lisalisabol

Lisa you issue is valid. I have the same one. TJBUSMC1973 has no reason to be a jerk. Great yeah we can copy all the folders to our computer and organize from there. It used to not be that much of a hassle. I just tried to find a picture I took today and it was in its own folder by itself. The folder creation really has no rhyme or reason to it. Last time I plugged in my phone to download a picture I had one folder. What changed and why?

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Answer 3

lisalisabol Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 13, 2014 7:41 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

But I still want some on my phone...I don't want to delete them. I just want to know why there are now a gazillion folders then there used to be a few and then ONE and now tons. If you don't know then answer it is ok, someone else may know. I just don't want to search 50+ folders every time I hook my phone up to my computer. Thanks.

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Answer 4

lisalisabol Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 17, 2014 9:55 PM in response to Knyght

Ok here is what I do know:

* Pictures are numbered as you take them. If I take a picture and it is number 1234 and I delete it right away, the next picture I take will be picture 1235. So each picture has its own number and no other picture will have that number.

* Pictures used to be 1000 pictures (or picture numbers assigned to one folder) so if I have deleted 999 of my pictures from 1-1000, I will only have 1 picture in the folder for pictures 1-1000.

* The first 5 years I had an iPhone this was the case. Every time I hit a new thousands digit in picture numbers a new folder popped up

* Folders have never been numerically number and have always been random numbers and letters thrown together

* Last month when I got on I had only 1 ONE folder, it was awesome, previously I had 8 folders as I have taken a ton of pictures in my iPhone days

*Last week I had 55 FIFTY-FIVE folders, it took a long time to figure out where my new pictures were.

SO all that being said I just want to go back to a folder for every 1000 pictures. I am ok having 10 folders but 55 is a bit much. It appears that I have only about 100 (picture numbers per folder, so 1-100, 101-200, etc.)

I just want to get rid of the many folders without having to wipe my phone clean and try to put the pictures I want back on my phone.

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Answer 5

Dec 13, 2014 7:24 AM in response to lisalisabol

Import them, then delete the DCIM folders.

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Answer 6

Dec 13, 2014 8:30 AM in response to lisalisabol

I'm well aware of what you put in your post. Did you see that I also stated that "There are many reasons why the iPhone will create additional DCIM folders", and that one other example is a third-party app?

I've given you a reasonable procedure to attempt that will not cause you to lose any data. If you don't want to try it, fine.

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Answer 7

Aug 18, 2017 5:42 AM in response to lisalisabol

Supposedly it's for better security. See here:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8611

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Answer 8

Dec 13, 2014 6:38 AM in response to lisalisabol

Why does it matter? Just import the photos to your computer, and you can designate that they all go into one folder if you want.

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Answer 9

lisalisabol Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 13, 2014 7:26 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

Will that delete the pictures off my phone? I don't want to end up accidently deleting all of them? thanks

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Answer 10

Dec 13, 2014 7:33 AM in response to lisalisabol

That's why I said to import them first so you don't lose them.

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Answer 11

Dec 13, 2014 7:44 AM in response to lisalisabol

There are many reasons why the iPhone will create additional DCIM folders. After a certain number of photos, it may create a new folder. Or if a different app is used to take the photos, it may create a new DCIM folder.

Also, you can sync photos from your computer to your iPhone using iTunes. So after you've cleared up the folders, you can sync selected ones back using iTunes.

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Answer 12

lisalisabol Author

Level 1

21 points

Dec 13, 2014 7:50 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

I know that it creates new folders, it used to be every 1000 pictures, so imagies 1-1000 went into one (even if I only have 2 photos left from 1-1000 they are in their own folder), photos 1001-2000 went into one. But now I have a folder for every set of 100 pictures. It is getting ugly. It wouldn't be bad if they were numbered numerically but they are scattered all over the board and no way to tell which folder is newest vs oldest...I put all this in my original post.

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Answer 13

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Dec 17, 2014 10:04 AM in response to TJBUSMC1973

Photostream is limited to 1000 photographs, I would imagine that is why there is a similar limit on the folders that contain them

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Answer 14

Knyght

Level 1

9 points

Dec 17, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Csound1

I have 673 photos saved on my phone and 29 DCIM folders. Each folder has any where from 1 to 90 some files.

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Answer 15

drew234

Level 1

0 points

Dec 18, 2014 10:44 AM in response to lisalisabol

hi i also have the same problems here. i have iPhone 4s 8gb, that means i have to empty photos to my computer PC when i have so many now on my iPhone. Problem is when i checked yesterday on my lap top to transfer some photo i could not believe how many folders i had to look into to get the latest photo to my PC. i have 44 folders with photos which is too many to scan for one photo or any latest ones. I tried to to copy the whole DCIM to my pc but it only gave me 12 folders of 44. This is really a problem, not practical and annoying. Apple should reconsider that decision.

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