Understanding how iOS saves my iPhone photos

[Ambrosia7177]

I am confused about how iOS saves photos that I take on my iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Currently I have my iPhone 11 Pro max set to 16:9.

When I take a picture, I get a IMG_3738.JPG, IMG_3738.AAE, and file with _E in it like IMG_E3738.JPG.

Is iOS saving my 16:9 photo as IMG_3738.JPG?

Or is IMG_3738.JPG the original photo?

I ask this because I have been using ImageCapture.app to download photos onto my MacBook Pro ever since I had an iPhone, and Image Capture is super unreliable and consistently drops LOTS of photos in the downloading process.

So today I have been experimenting with iMazing.

I downloaded some photos that I took of receipts into a folder called IMAGE_CAPTURE and then did the same thing downloading using iMazing into a folder called IMAZING.

The problem is that when I run DeltaWalker on the IMAGE_CAPTURE and IMAZING folders i get all of these confusing results.

It seems that iOS is is saving IMG_3738.JPG as the original uncropped photos - which is super scary because if that is true, then all these years when I take phots and zoom in or use the 16:9 aspect ration, then apparently iOS isn't saving those settings in my photo.

Can someone help me understand all of this?

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Obviously I don't want iOS not saving the photos that i think I am taking, but my immediate goal is to run DeltaWalker on these two directories, and prove to myself that iMazing is downloading everything off my iPhone and thus each download matches.

The problem is that the same named files don't match because Image Capture seems to be downloading the original photos (e.g. no zoom or 16:9), but iMazing is downing WYSIWYG and so I can't easily do a file comparison to see which software is more reliable to download photos off my iPhone.

Hope all of that makes sense!

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Anyone...

 

[Altis]

I think the original photo depends on whether you have it set to high efficiency (.HEIF) or most compatible (.JPG).

Since editing the photos on iOS is non-destructive, you get that .AAE file that saves the edit instructions (small file), then another photo that has the edits burned in (that one has the 'E' in it before the number).

So,

"IMG_5678.JPG" -> original, unedited photo
"IMG_5678.AAE" -> edit instructions
"IMG_E5678.JPG" -> edited photo

At least that's my understanding of it. It's a bit annoying actually because the edited photo is alphabetically after all of the numbered ones. Typical Apple.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

I think the original photo depends on whether you have it set to high efficiency (.HEIF) or most compatible (.JPG).

Since editing the photos on iOS is non-destructive, you get that .AAE file that saves the edit instructions (small file), then another photo that has the edits burned in (that one has the 'E' in it before the number).

So,

"IMG_5678.JPG" -> original, unedited photo
"IMG_5678.AAE" -> edit instructions
"IMG_E5678.JPG" -> edited photo

At least that's my understanding of it. It's a bit annoying actually because the edited photo is alphabetically after all of the numbered ones. Typical Apple.

Finally, now it makes sense what the _E_ stands for.

I have my iPhone 11 Pro Max set on "Most Compatable", so what are you saying that does?

When I spot check some of my photos, I do see what you are saying, i.e. the whole/raw picture have the regular filename, and the _E_ one might be zoomed or cropped, however, when I originally posted here, I seem to recall the regular named file being zoomed/ropped in the past.

To many days have past since my OP for me to remember specifics, but in the past I recall a file like "IMG_5678.JPG" being a WYSIWYG photos (e.g. 16:9 aspect ration, zoomed, etc.), but when I was trying to compare things against the iMazing download, the file "IMG_568.JPG" was the raw/unedited version, and so it did not match up with what iMazing was downloading. Ths no easy way to compare if iMazing was downloading everything.

Again, my memory is foggy about all of this now, but iMazing does offer an option to download the "original" photo, but it adds in _original to the file name further complicating things.

I think what I did was rename all the files from the iMazing "original" download as _o and then I renamed all of the files from Image Capture and renamed them as _o and then did a file comparison and things matched.

But back to my original question...

Are you saying that a file like "IMG_5678.JPG" will always be the raw / unediited phot?

And that only _E_ has the edited in it like aspect ratio change or zoom?

Because that is not what I recall seeing.

All of this is so confusing!