Q: When I try to use Windows Explorer to transfer photos from my iPhone 11 Pro Max to my desktop computer, I see a lot of folders and have no idea what photos they contain. In the past, I used to see the individual photos in Windows Explorer and it made the transfer decision much easier and faster. Now I have to open each folder to decide what to do with the photos. It’s a pain and it takes a long time. Is there a way to see all the photos at once? Thanks.
– Edward R., Fort Walton Beach, Florida
A: Well, Edward, I think you’ll see as we get into this discussion that you are at least partially responsible for this. The problem (which isn’t really a problem) starts with how your iPhone handles photos, but you never see it until you start accessing it through something other than the Photos app on your iPhone. But I’m moving forward.
First, starting with iOS 8, Apple changed the way photos are stored on iPhones. They chose to delete this single, monolithic folder containing all the photos and instead started storing them in a database consisting of many folders. Folder names are often quite obscure, but if you look at the screenshot you sent me, it looks like those folder names are based on the dates the photos were taken. There are other things that go into the decision to start a new case, most of which are not common knowledge. However, it is safe to assume that another main factor is where the photo or group of photos was taken.
No more columns It’s Geek to me
Many people don’t realize that every image processed on a typical smartphone (including iPhones) encodes every image with metadata, i.e. data about the image. This technique is called Exchangeable Image File Format, or EXIF. This data consists of useful elements such as the size of the original image in pixels, the date and time the image was taken, the GPS coordinates, the device and the model of the device. photo, encoding type, and information that a shutter might be interested in, such as aperture and shutter speed, and equivalent ISO setting. And there is the potential for much more.
I tell you all this because some of this information helps to choose when to start a new folder. I read that the multiple folders are “for your privacy and security”. With all that EXIF information pasted on every photo, it’s hard for me to figure out how putting them in a bunch of different folders provides either privacy or security.
But your question was how to bring them to your PC without taking the folder structure with you. Well, as I said above, you are somehow causing your own problem by using File Explorer to do the transfer. This software has no built-in image handling – it just handles files. This includes files in folders. It assumes files are in folders because that’s where you want them to be. And honestly, in most cases, that’s true. I would be very upset if File Explorer took it upon itself to flatten a carefully constructed hierarchy of files and folders into one flat folder.
I believe the app you should be using in Windows is Photos. When you plug your iPhone into your PC via a USB cable, you should actually be able to launch Photos automatically. If you don’t get this, you may have set something else as default. You can open Photos manually through the Start menu at any time.
Unlike File Explorer, Photos is natively aware of images and knows how to manage them. It also offers a bunch of import options that suit you perfectly. In light of your questions, one of the most important options is where the imported images will be stored on your PC. It allows you to sort the photos on your phone using some of the information contained in each image’s EXIF record. Then you can tick the ones you want, and finally choose to leave a copy on your phone or move them entirely to your PC. Check it out. I think it will do exactly what you want.
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