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harleymhs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
782
173
Hi Everyone.

I'm trying to copy some photos from my Iphone 15 Pro Max to an external SSD. It works fine when I "save to files" But when they copy over to the SSD it also adds other files (See Photo) .. Anyone know why and are these other files needed on the SSD folder? The file with the '_ is named a JPG but no image.. TIA
 

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harleymhs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
782
173
The SSD was formatted for fat 32 so it showed the hidden files that were not shown on the iPhone. Still not sure what those hidden files do..
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
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Used to be resource forks, but with APFS, which iOS uses, those no longer exist. Believe these days they are extended attributes of the file (xattr) which is basically new/improved resource forks. Various bits of metadata that are stored outside of the file itself.

 
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harleymhs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
782
173
Used to be resource forks, but with APFS, which iOS uses, those no longer exist. Believe these days they are extended attributes of the file (xattr) which is basically new/improved resource forks. Various bits of metadata that are stored outside of the file itself.

Thank you ! I thought that was what were on those files. So if I put one of those files saved on the SSD back on the iphone without the hidden file Ill assume the Geotag on that photo wont exist if restored back on the iphone with out the hidden file?
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
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Not sure, I never re-sync anything back to phone from an external Windows formatted drive. You will need to test it out.

Guess, geotags will probably get synced back. When exporting photos from Mac's Photos, the location coordinates are embedded in the image file, no extra file needed for that info.

What might be in the attributes file might be things like information about the thumbnail for the image, possibly album information, faces. Or, most likely, filesystem information about the file. Possibly tags.

Most likely what is referenced in the second link: https://eclecticlight.co/2017/12/11/an-introduction-to-extended-attributes-xattrs/
 
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harleymhs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
782
173
Not sure, I never re-sync anything back to phone from an external Windows formatted driver. You will need to test it out.

Guess, geotags will probably get synced back. When exporting photos from Mac's Photos, the location coordinates are embedded in the image file, no extra file needed for that info.

What might be in the attributes file might be things like information about the thumbnail for the image, possibly album information, faces. Or, most likely, filesystem information about the file. Possibly tags.

Most likely what is referenced in the second link: https://eclecticlight.co/2017/12/11/an-introduction-to-extended-attributes-xattrs/
Thanks ! I’ll copy one delete the extra file and then put it back on the iPhone see if the geotag info is on the restored photo . I’ll report back here thanks again
 

winxmac

macrumors 65816
Sep 1, 2021
1,071
1,285
If you are transferring files, photos, videos from iPhone to a Windows computer, you can use Send Anywhere

You just need to install the app on the Windows computer and on your iPhone... You need to make sure that both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network unlike AirDrop that you just need to have both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on but not necessarily connected to a network...

Transferring it this way only transfers the photo and video without the hidden file... However, if the hidden file is important to you, you can continue how you do it or transfer using data cable from the iPhone to the Windows computer...

For photos and videos already on your Windows computer that you want to save to your iPhone, you can either [1] upload it to OneDrive [assuming you have an account and a decent amount of storage] on your Windows computer then use the OneDrive app on the iPhone and download it through the app or [2] use Send Anywhere for the file transfer...
 

harleymhs

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2009
782
173
Not sure, I never re-sync anything back to phone from an external Windows formatted drive. You will need to test it out.

Guess, geotags will probably get synced back. When exporting photos from Mac's Photos, the location coordinates are embedded in the image file, no extra file needed for that info.

What might be in the attributes file might be things like information about the thumbnail for the image, possibly album information, faces. Or, most likely, filesystem information about the file. Possibly tags.

Most likely what is referenced in the second link: https://eclecticlight.co/2017/12/11/an-introduction-to-extended-attributes-xattrs/
I just copied a file onto the ssd then took it off the ssd on windows computer and deleted the hidden file . I copied it back to ssd then back onto iPhone the geotag info was still on the photo . That’s good to know I use that info a lot to get my sod back to the photo location ! Now I can clear up space on phone and if need be copy back from the ssd and I know my geotag info will still be on the photos. Thanks for your reply
 
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