File names after transfer

Hi. I did transfer over 1000 photos from an iPhone 6 to a 64GB iXpand Flash Drive. When I look at the files on a PC using IrfanView I found out that the files are not in order of “date taken”. Or in the order as seen in the CAmera Roll. Instead each file has a filename like this:

DEA98F50-7758-4315-A3AF-73481A2C76C8

What can I do to see them in the order that they are stored on the iPhone? Or by the date when the photos were take? Thank you.

Fernando

Fernando –

I have had exactly the same problem.

I reformatted the drive (at the suggestion of the chat tech support), re-downloaded and re-installed the iphone software (again at the suggestion of the next chat support person).

But I still get the same results – transferred photos have long hexadecimal names.

I did get it to work once for me, retaining the original names, but repeating exactly the same steps produced a different result with the long invented names – very frustrating.

And, I am discouraged to see that you have had no replies since early February.

To my mind this problem makes the device unusable and I am considering a return of the one that I bought.  Too bad – it seemed to have so much promise.

– Bart

Hi Fernando and Bart,

I’m Fred from SanDisk Customer Care. Thank you for posting in our forums. 

In iPhones and iPads, iOS assigns a random file name for photos and videos in the camera roll and sometimes these file names are not unique (when users delete some photos, add photos sent by someone else etc.). Therefore in the iXpand Sync app - file name change occurs during the camera roll sync process as a method to identify previously synced files in order to prevent them from being duplicated during future sync operations.

File names will remain the same if copied to the iXpand using the standard copy operation.

With either method of file copy (camera sync or standard file copy) file dates are preserved when copied to the iXpand. You can sort the picture and video files by “date modifed” in windows folders. This will allow you to view the pictures and videos in chronological order.

sort by date.png

-Fred

1 Like

Dear Fred, I have a similar problem transferring files from my Windows PC to my iPad. Whichever way I sort the photos in the iXpand app on my iPad, after copying them to my camera Roll, they appear in a ‘random’ order in Camera Roll. Not very impressed. Your suggestion would be appreciated. Many thanks, Andrew

I’ve found sorting by date modified is a good work around the non-user friendly hexadecimal file names. However, what I really want to know is whether when I try and copy files back from scandisk to my phone, is there any way of listing these files in chronological order so that I can easily search for the file I want copied back to my phone? As of right now, the photos are jumbled and the only remedy is the “file search” function which would be near impossible given the default file naming system. Any advice would be appreciated.

I had similar issue has you after my holidays, so did prepared a MsDOS script to change filename by including date inside.

You can do the same:

1/ Create a text file named “rename.bat”

2/ Copy the following inside.

@echo off

IF “%1”==“” GOTO End

set Origin=%1

set src=.\Source
set dst=.\Dest

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

for %%F in (%src%*.*) do (
set “MDate=%%~tF”
set “ParsedDate=!MDate:~6,4!-!MDate:~3,2!-!MDate:~0,2!-!MDate:~11,2!-!MDate:~14,2!”
copy %%F %dst%\IMG_!ParsedDate!-!Origin!%%~xF )

GOTO End

:Usage
echo “Need to specify postfix, ex : iPhone”

:End

Usage :

  • Create a “Source” folder and copy your photos inside

  • Create an empty folder “Dest”

Run command line in Windows : start menu, type “CMD”

Go to your parent folder of “Sources” and “Dest” using CD command (CD …, CD <folder name>)

Type:  rename.bat <postfix>, where <postfix> if postfix you which to use for all your files (usefull if you have several devices)

Output:

Files will have the following format : IMG_YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-<postfix>

ex : IMG_2017-08-14-07-44-iPhone

Hope this help !

Hello,

I have a slightly different issue but nevertheless related.

I would like to back-up my pictures from the iphone to the disk preserving the “moments” format.

That means in the folder name date and locations are preserved like this : “Montgomery, NJ - Cherry Hill Rd, May 9, 2015”.

I can obtain this format if i back-up my pictures with Photos app on my mac.

Currently through the Ixpand app all i get as the folder name is the month “03 - Mar”.

Is there a way to add to this month format the location where the picture were taken?

Thanks

Bogdan

Thanks for the answer about using the copy function to preserve the file names. That works.

This device answers a problem I’ve always had transferring photos from my iPhone to a Windows PC. The problem is that when I plug the iPhone directly into the computer, it is not at a drive letter. This makes it difficult to use a program to copy pictures from phone to computer. Now I just copy them to the iXpand flash drive first (using the copy function, not the backup function), and then when I plug it into my PC, it has a drive letter!