DCIM folder has fewer photos than the IPAD contains

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DCIM folder has fewer photos than the IPAD contains

Gentlefolk;

My wife got me a new iPad Air 2, <yipee!!!> so I am in the process of transitioning from my iPad Gen1 (the version that featured tubes) to the iPad Air 2.

The "Restore from Previous iPad" I performed on startup for the new iPad more or less worked, I am still waiting for the apps to reload from the App store (I thought these would copy over from the iPad backup, but I guess Steve Jobs had another vision.)

More to the point, my iPad Gen 1 DCIM folder lists 440 photos and it was this number that copied over to my Aire2. BUT, in the Gen1, if I look at General/About, the iPad displays 2585 photos, a more realistic number.

As these photos are not in the DCIM folder, I can't find them on the iPad to copy them over to the Air 2.

What am I missing?

Thx!

Posted on Sep 15, 2015 7:10 AM

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Answer 1

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,330 points

Sep 15, 2015 7:18 AM in response to Fabrique

How did the photos get onto the old iPad, and they show in the Photos app on that iPad ? If they were synced from a computer then they won't be included in the backup, and won't show in the DCIM folder.

If they were synced from a compute, then (and assuming that they are still on the computer) you should be able to sync them to the new iPad.

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Answer 2

Fabrique Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2015 7:43 AM in response to King_Penguin

Hi King,

Sadly, you have identified the core issue here..I am not at all sure HOW they got on the iPad to begin with.... I THINK they orginated from the MacBook. They appear in Photos as Albums, which is fine, but I gather they pix must also exist on the iPad SOMEWHERE.

In truth, I never have sorted out how the Apple system handles photos.... sometimes things appear everywhere, sometimes they appear nowhere, the Apple logic has always baffled me.

The obivous plan is once I get everything xferred to the new Air2, then I nuke the old iPad and use it as a guest tablet or something.

Thinking as typing then...I guess the first thing to do is see if these "albums" exist on the Macbook. If they do, then I won't worry.

On a related topic,and maybe you can answer this while I have you, is that the Air 2 is connected to the Macbook which is connected to iTunes to backup my old iPad data. I did an iTunes backup of the old iPad before I started playing with the Air 2. That went well enough.

But I found the apps on the iPad did not copy over to the Air 2, so I had to go to the App store and haul down all my puchased apps. This seems 1) counter-intuitive - a backup should back up and a restore should restore and 2) horribly time consuming. This has been going on overnight, and it is not clear if the system is still churning away, or if something has gotten hung. The Air 2 "I am busy" swirling icon has been busily swirling, but with no stats, unlike with Windows, I have no idea if anything is happening or not.

Have things gotten hopelessy munged,and it is time to nuke the Air2 and start the whole process over??

Thanks for any thoughts. I appreciate your time on this question.

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Answer 3

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,330 points

Sep 15, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Fabrique

A backup doesn't contain any of your store downloads (apps, music, films etc), nor any of your own music or videos in the Music and Videos apps (nor photos in the Photos app that were synced from a computer) - a restore looks to pick them up from the relevant part of that computer's iTunes library (that way space is potentially saved on the computer as the same items don't have to be stored in the backup and in the iTunes library).

As well as backing up the old iPad did you do File > Devices > Transfer Purchases so that all its apps etc were in that computer's iTunes library ?

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Answer 4

Fabrique Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2015 10:57 AM in response to King_Penguin

File > Devices > Transfer Purchases???

Uh.... no....

I was unaware of such an option.

Proving I am totally dense about this part of the process, File > Devices > Transfer Purchases is done within the computer's iTunes application? I don't see it on the iPad.

What is your suggestion for my next step? Do another backup of the iPad to the Mac,then in iTunes do the File > Devices > Transfer Purchases, then restore to the Air2?

Thank you for your time on these feeble questions.

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Answer 5

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,330 points

Sep 15, 2015 11:56 AM in response to Fabrique

Yes, on iTunes on the computer e.g.

You could connect the old iPad and do that and then try restoring the new iPad to the backup again (you shouldn't need to take a new backup of the old iPad, unless things have changed on it that you want, but there is no harm in doing so).

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Answer 6

Fabrique Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 15, 2015 1:09 PM in response to King_Penguin

Ahhh..... SOOOOooo helpful!

I have not used iTunes enough to really understand how that beast works. This may simplify a lot of my confusion with bringing the new Air2 on line for me.

OK, so you have answered my application question. NOW - why can't I find the photos in the Albums on the iPad? I realize now that these photos in the Albums are there by virtue of the content being on the Mac - though I am a bit sketchy about how the content ended up on the iPad. It wasn't taking up a lost of storage on the iPad so I left it, thinking if I deleted it from the iPad I would in some way end up deleting the content from the Mac during a synchronization process.

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Answer 7

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,330 points

Sep 15, 2015 11:50 PM in response to Fabrique

They should show in one of the albums on your iPad - you are saying that the number in Settings > General > About > Photos indicates that there are more photos on the iPad than show in the actual Photos app ?

They would have got on the iPad by being selected on the iPad's Photos tab when connected to your computer's iTunes e.g.

That controls which photos from the computer are copied to the iPad's Photos app. That screen is also used to remove those synced photos from Photos from the iPad - as synced photos can't be deleted directly in Photos they are removed by not including them in the next photo sync e.g. by de-selecting their folder on that screen (or to remove all synced photos by selecting and syncing just an empty folder).

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