Photos are split between multiple DCIM folders in Windows

[blizeH]

Hi all,

I'm a little confused as to why this has happened, but since resorting my phone for an iOS 5 upgrade, what used to be just a single folder of photos and videos, has split into 4 and it's made it an absolute nightmare to find anything. For example:

Computer\iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM\823WGTMA
Computer\iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM\858HDJES
Computer\iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM\860OKMZO
Computer\iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM\965YOKDJ

Is there anyway to easily merge these back into just a single folder? And how would I know which of them the iPhone will save to?

I cannot cut and paste between the folders.

Thanks

 

[PNutts]

Yes, what a pain. I'm tempted to delete all photos off the phone and see if the multiple folders are deleted, and if so, will they stay in one folder like iOS 4.x.

 

[blizeH]

Oh damn, same for you?

It's so frustrating to have to check 4 different folders for a photo, especially when it's seemingly completely random...

 

[blizeH]

(ignore, sorry)

 

[blizeH]

Bump has anyone had this happen before?

 

[trevorplease]

I made an identical thread and got zero replies

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1254026/

so much for being helpful rather than obnoxious MR!

Also, related. My Camera roll decided to rearrange itself randomly so pictures aren't in order they were taken anymore... very frustrating!!!

 

[blizeH]

Wait up, so it was intentional?!

 

[trevorplease]

Probably, I just don't see why. It messes up what we were doing with our current camera roll. Grrr.

 

[PNutts]

Oh damn, same for you?

It's so frustrating to have to check 4 different folders for a photo, especially when it's seemingly completely random...

Yes and yes. I'm tempted to try iExplorer and move all the photos in one existing folder and see what happens.

 

[blizeH]

God damn, and that is a great shout to be honest... although I'd be worried that any new photos would then be placed in a new folder anyway.

It seems so bizarre, and so fragmented - the photos I have are randomly split between 4 folders now, so I can't even just grab all of my 'Rhodes 2011' photos, or 'London 2010' or whatever - they're just randomly all over the place. FFS!

 

[Night Spring]

I'm not sure why you are stressed out about how photos are organized in the DCIM folders -- why not just copy them to your computer and manipulate them there? It's not like you can do anything with your photos while they are in DCIM -- only thing I've been able to do is copy, move or delete them.

 

[blizeH]

I like to be able to view them on my PC, whilst still leaving them on my phone though.

So for example, I'll copy over an entire set of photos (again, for example Rhodes 2011) and say I took 100 photos, I'll transfer them all onto my PC, but leave 10 of my favourites on my phone.

 

[PNutts]

why not just copy them to your computer and manipulate them there? It's not like you can do anything with your photos while they are in DCIM -- only thing I've been able to do is copy, move or delete them.

Yes, that's what I do. I copy them to my PC for backup, manipulation, etc. Before my iOS 5 upgrade I could go into the single folder in the iPhone and select all - copy - then paste to my photo folder on the PC. Now I must do that four times (once in each of the four iPhone folders).

It's a nit, but one of those things where I don't see a good reason for the change in behavior.

 

[blizeH]

Thank you, and yes, I guess that's what I'll have to do now unfortunately!

Sounds silly, but it's basically between:

a) Moving all of the photos off, and then copying select ones back across by having a folder full of duplicates on your desktop

b) Moving all of the photos off, leaivng a select few that you want to keep

Hardly the end of the world, but still quite annoying when, as PNutts said, I can't see why they even changed it.

 

[Night Spring]

In Windows, you can look at all the files within subfolders by typing * into the search field. So go to the DCIM folder, and search for *, then you can see and manipulate all the pictures in the subfolders at once.

 

[blizeH]

Mind blown. Thank you sir! That's actually a pretty perfect solution for me

 

[trevorplease]

Yes, that's what I do. I copy them to my PC for backup, manipulation, etc. Before my iOS 5 upgrade I could go into the single folder in the iPhone and select all - copy - then paste to my photo folder on the PC. Now I must do that four times (once in each of the four iPhone folders).

It's a nit, but one of those things where I don't see a good reason for the change in behavior.

this.

 

[PNutts]

In Windows, you can look at all the files within subfolders by typing * into the search field. So go to the DCIM folder, and search for *, then you can see and manipulate all the pictures in the subfolders at once.

That's great and I'll give it a try! Thank you.

 

[cwerdna]

Bump has anyone had this happen before?

Yes, happened to be me after my iPhone 4 was upgraded from iOS 4.3.5 to 5.0.

Wait up, so it was intentional?!

As I posted in another thread:
Perhaps they wanted to come up with unique mangled names due to Photostream? There could be interesting filename conflicts from multiple iDevices w/o some other unique bits tacked on.

 

[dangros]

this should explain it for u guys

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/26/delving-into-the-iphones-dcim-folder/