AAE metadata files from iPhone, how to handle them?

[iRock1]

'sup

I've learned the hard way that starting from iOS 8, when you edit a picture on your iPhone it doesn't create a copy with those changes nor it will overwrite the original photo. Instead, when exporting the photos to your Mac, it'll transfer the original files only and a side-file with .aae extension.

The huge problem is that no software can recognize those .aae files, so I haven't found any way of seeing those edited photos on my Mac yet. (Wtf was Apple thinking? Is this supposed to by simple and intuitive?)

At this point, when it comes to iPhoneography, I've dropped the USB cable and Lightroom in favor of a 3rd party app that will copy the images from my iPhone to my Mac via WiFi (in this case the photos will contain any changes made on the phone). However, I have an old bunch of photos that are sitting in some folder there with those stupid and inaccessible .aae files.

Bottom line, how can I recover on my Mac those edits that I made on my phone?

 

[akash.nu]

When I transfer anything to my Mac they seem to just be one file and all the data seems to be there. What are you using to edit and how are you exporting?

 

[robgendreau]

That aae is an xml-based sidecar. I don't have one, but I would think you could use "open..." in a text editor and look at it. It would include adjustments, etc that some app didn't want to write into the jpeg or other image file itself.

I dunno what software can use the aae edit info, as I'd maybe guess it's Photos edits or something, so you'd need the proprietary Apple application to apply those same edits to the original jpeg. You've got a similar situation with non-destructive edits in Lightroom, Capture One, etc etc.

If you want those edits baked into the JPEG, don't export or copy the original, export a new JPEG with the changes.

If you've got Lr, then just take the photos using Lr's camera, and then transfer/sync those to Lr via Lr CC. I shoot RAW, and the DNGs from the iPhone come over just fine. No sidecars.

For the stuff you've got with those pesky images, I'd suggest opening them in Photos then exporting with the changes made.