For most people, the camera on their iPhone is the best they ever owned. But that doesn’t count for much if you can’t save those beautiful photos to your PC, as is the case for many users who found their iPhone DCIM folder was empty!
The DCIM folder is where your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch saves its Digital Camera IMages. You should find all the photos from your device in the DCIM folder when you connect it to a PC.
So how can that DCIM folder be empty if there are hundreds of photos on your iPhone!? That’s what we’re here to find out.
For those who don’t already know, let’s take a minute to explain how to connect your iDevice to a PC and find the DCIM folder. Feel free to skip this section if you’re already familiar with the process.
How to open the DCIM folder on a PC:
Power on and unlock your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Use the cable that came with your device to connect it to a PC.
If prompted, tap Trust This Computer on your device.
Open File Explorer on the PC and go to:
Computer/[iDevice]/Internal Storage/DCIM
You should now see folders with all your photos in them.
Find your iPhone DCIM folder using Windows File Explorer. Image from How-to Geek.
You aren’t the only one to find an empty DCIM folder on your iPhone. Over 2,000 other users have had this happen to them. Yet, contrary to how it seems, there probably isn’t a problem with Apple’s software. This is an intended feature.
Plenty of other Apple users have experienced this same issue.
And I’m not calling it a feature ironically. It’s one that many of us benefit from every day: iCloud Photos.
Why does iCloud Photos mean my iPhone DCIM folder is empty?
iCloud Photos serves two major functions:
It synchronizes your photos and videos across all your devices.
It saves internal storage on your devices by uploading those photos and videos to iCloud.
As you may have guessed, it’s the second function that empties the DCIM folder on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
With iCloud Photos on, your iDevice only stores previews of the photos in your library. It downloads the full-resolution version from iCloud whenever you open a photo, shown by a white loading circle in the lower-right.
A loading circle appears in the Photos app when downloading from iCloud.
The DCIM folder stores photos that your iDevice recently downloaded or hasn’t uploaded to iCloud yet. Usually, this is a small selection of your photo library. That’s why the DCIM folder is empty when you connect your iPhone to a PC.
I know, I know. This doesn’t actually help matters. Sure, now we know why your iPhone DCIM folder is empty. But you’re no closer to transferring those photos to your PC.
Well, we’ve got a couple of solutions to that as well:
Change your iCloud Photos settings.
Download photos directly from iCloud Photos.
How do I change my iCloud Photos settings to transfer my photos?
Choose to download all your iCloud Photos to your iDevice.
The part of iCloud Photos that keeps all your photos and videos stored in the cloud is optional. Of course, for some of us it’s better that way: I can’t fit my 100GB photo library on my 64GB iPhone without iCloud Photos.
But if you’ve got ample free storage and you want your photos stored on your iDevice, you just need to change a setting and wait for them to download. Then you can copy them from your DCIM folder to your PC.
Turn on Download and Keep Originals on your iDevice:
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch go to Settings > Photos.
Under the iCloud section, choose Download and Keep Originals.
Your iDevice downloads photos whenever connected to Wi-Fi.
This could take several days depending on your Internet speed and library size.
Check the progress of your download by scrolling to the bottom of the Photos app.
As your photos and videos are all downloaded, they populate the DCIM folder on your iDevice. You can then connect it to your PC and transfer the photos across.
How do I download photos directly from iCloud Photos to a PC?
Why not cut out the middle man? If you store your photos on iCloud, download them straight from the cloud to your computer. There’s no need to transfer through your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch at all!
Download a small selection of photos from the iCloud website:
If you only want to transfer a selection of photos to your PC (less than 1,000 photos at a time), you can do it directly from the iCloud website.
Next to Photos, click Options… and turn on iCloud Photos.
Under Download new photos and videos to my PC, click Change…
Choose where you want to save your downloaded photos and videos.
Open a File Explorer window.
Under Favorites, click iCloud Photos from the sidebar.
Near the top-left of the window, choose Download photos and videos.
Select All and click Download.
Choose to download all your photos or go year-by-year. Image from Tech Advisor.
What if iCloud Photos is turned off?
Some of you may find your iPhone’s DCIM folder remains empty even when you turn off iCloud Photos. This may seem like the end of the line, but we haven’t run out of tricks yet.
Try the troubleshooting suggestions below, and let us know in the comments which one works for you.
Watch out for Photo Stream
Photo Stream uses iCloud to show recent photos taken on all your devices. Image from Apple.
Even if you turned off iCloud Photos, you might still be getting fooled by Photo Stream. This iCloud feature lets you view recent photos from all your iDevices in the Photos app, regardless of where they’re actually saved.
That means, with Photo Stream turned on, some of the photos you view on your iPad might actually be on your iPhone. Or vice versa. You need to find out which device has your photos on it and connect that device to your PC.
The easiest way to find out where photos are actually stored is to turn off Photo Stream on all your devices.
Turn off Photo Stream on your iDevices:
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch go to Settings > Photos.
Turn off Upload to My Photo Stream.
This doesn’t delete any photos, but now you can only view a photo on the iDevice that took it.
Make sure your iDevice allows your PC to access it
You can’t transfer photos if your iPhone doesn’t trust your PC.
It’s possible your PC doesn’t have permission to view the DCIM folder on your iPhone, which is why it appears empty. You can reset this security preference using the Reset Location & Privacy option in your iDevice settings.
After you reset the Location & Privacy settings, connect your iDevice to your PC and tap Trust This Computer when prompted.
Reset Location & Privacy settings on your iDevices:
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch go to Settings > General > Reset.
Tap Reset Location & Privacy.
If prompted, enter your passcode.
Confirm you want to Reset Settings.
Check your Apple Mobile Device USB Driver
Uninstall the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver. Image from VK Repair.
Although you don’t need iTunes to transfer photos to your PC, you do need the small pieces of software that come with it. These include the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver, which teaches your PC to speak to Apple devices.
Reinstall the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver on your PC:
Connect your iDevice to the PC, close iTunes if it opens.
Right-click the Start button and open Device Manager.
Find your iDevice under Portable Devices.
Right-click your iDevice and choose Uninstall device.
Tick the box to Delete driver software for this device.
Click OK, unplug your device, and restart your PC.
The driver reinstalls when you connect your iDevice again.
The DCIM contents might be hidden
Don’t ask me how. Don’t ask me why. Just know that some users discovered the photos on their iDevice were hidden from their PC. That’s why the DCIM folder showed as empty on their iPhone.
Mysterious as it is, it’s easy to solve using the options in Windows File Explorer.
Show hidden items in File Explorer:
Open File Explorer on your PC.
Go to View > Show/Hide.
Check the Hidden items box.
Tick the box to see Hidden items in your iPhone DCIM folder. Image from How-to Geek.
Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.
Thank you for your exhaustive and clear explanation. In the end, the trick was to install iTunes. Probably because of that, the right drivers have been installed, as you suggested. I have 10 Gb movies. Normally I upload everything to Onedrive, but these files were too large, so it constantly went wrong. Thanks again!
Why does everybody keep saying to check “Keep Originals”? The exact opposite worked for me. I unchecked “Keep Originals”, and I checked “Automatic”, and it finally displayed all the iPhone files and allowed me to copy from iPhone to desktop computer running Windows.
I also want to say that it is ridiculous that, in the year 2021, we are still having problems like this with everyday technology. I ought to be able to click 1 or 2 things and have all the files transfer over seamlessly. It is unconscionable how difficult the big tech companies have made the simplest of tasks. They all ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Excellent, thorough explanations. Got my photos onto my PC. Thank you!
I’m sure your ESL students in China learned quickly thanks to your teaching style.
You just never know which of the answers might resolve your particular problem. For me, it was “Make sure you’re running the latest version of iTunes on your PC …” … and on your iPhone. THANK YOU!
We’ve summarized this post into a few quick tips in case you don’t have time to read the full details:
Thank you for your exhaustive and clear explanation. In the end, the trick was to install iTunes. Probably because of that, the right drivers have been installed, as you suggested. I have 10 Gb movies. Normally I upload everything to Onedrive, but these files were too large, so it constantly went wrong. Thanks again!
This was great, thank you!
Why does everybody keep saying to check “Keep Originals”? The exact opposite worked for me. I unchecked “Keep Originals”, and I checked “Automatic”, and it finally displayed all the iPhone files and allowed me to copy from iPhone to desktop computer running Windows.
I also want to say that it is ridiculous that, in the year 2021, we are still having problems like this with everyday technology. I ought to be able to click 1 or 2 things and have all the files transfer over seamlessly. It is unconscionable how difficult the big tech companies have made the simplest of tasks. They all ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Excellent, thorough explanations. Got my photos onto my PC. Thank you!
I’m sure your ESL students in China learned quickly thanks to your teaching style.
Just wait, It will load eventually. it takes time because of the number of images and video you have. but if you wait it will load.
the “show hidden files” also worked for me. Thanks for the advise!
I tried the ‘show hidden items’ technique and it worked!!! Thank you so much! I can now get the 9000 pics off my phone and free up some space.
Thanks again.
I uninstalled the iTunes software and after that, the folder was recognized and all contents were showing up in the Apple folder.
You just never know which of the answers might resolve your particular problem. For me, it was “Make sure you’re running the latest version of iTunes on your PC …” … and on your iPhone. THANK YOU!