+2

Photos do not transfer in full resolution

Paul McKean 12 years ago updated by Jaime Rittenhouse 2 years ago 29
I selected full resolution for transferring photos from my iPhone 4S to my Windows 7 PC, but the size of the image files was reduced. For example, one photo on my iPhone has a file size of 1.81mb, but the copy transferred to my computer is only 427kb. Why is the file size being reduced?
Dear Paul,

Thanks for posting your question here. That's strange, the photos should transfer in full resolution without any modification. How did you check the size of the photos on your iPhone? Also, did you take those photos using your iPhone or were they imported from somewhere else or edited with an app? Let us know so we can understand where the problem may be.

Kind regards,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
Enrique,

I checked the size of the photos on the iPhone through iCloud. I did take the photos with my iphone 4S. That is why I became suspicious about the file size of the photos downloaded using the Photo Transfer App. The files seemed to too small for an 8 megapixel image. I did not edit the images prior to downloading them and I did a batch download, specifying full resolution. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Paul
Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. That's strange, did you select to download the photos in full resolution? The app should choose the full resolution images, in fact, iOS stores 3 different sizes of photos: full resolution, medium resolution (the one displayed on the screen) and thumbnail. Our app takes the full resolution version and downloads it to your computer. Can you try with another set of photos to see if you have the same result? Let me know.

Kind regards,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
Enrique,

I took some new photos and then downloaded them using the app. It worked perfectly. The photos downloaded in full resolution. I do not know what the problem was with the old photos, but it seems to be working now for any future pictures I take. Thanks for your help.

Paul
Hi Paul,

I'm glad to hear that. Let me know if you have any further questions. Have a great week!

Best regards,

Enrique
Hi Hong,

Thanks for contacting us. The app transfers full resolution photos always. It does not matter when you took the photos (before or after installing the app). The photo files are transferred in the exact same resolution as they are stored on the device.

Please check that the photos are stored in full resolution on your device. Also, when transferring from iPhone to iPad there is a switch on the last screen before initiating the transfer that lets you change from transferring in full or medium resolution, make sure that is set to full resolution -- by default it is always on medium resolution.

I hope this helps.

Let us know if you have other questions or comments.

Best,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
It seems that the same bug is still there. The pictures I took on my iPhone 5 prior to downloading the app all got transferred at 3M pixels, NOT the original 8M pixels. A new photo taken after the app is install on he iPhone was transferred at the correct 8M pixels resolution. I wonder why this was not reported by others. I have hundreds of pictures and videos on my phone before the app installation. Need them transferred correctly. Please fix this ASAP!
I've been having the same problem transferring full resolution versions of photos from my iPhone 5 to my Macbook Pro. Just wanted to be clear, are you expecting the upcoming update to fix the problem? And will it be out soon? thanks,
Will
Yes, we are working on the next update of the app which should address this issue. We've been trying to replicate it and seems to be an issue in iOS8. We've done lots of tests and we've been able to replicate it only on photos that have been edited (cropped, applied filters). Today Apple released an update to iOS version 8.1.2. Please try updating your devices to the latest version of iOS released today and let us know if you keep experimenting the same problem, we hope they address this issue with their photos API.

Thanks,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
I am having the same problem for the first time, since upgrading my iphone to iOS 8, even though I have never had it before in the several years I have been using the app. I am downloading using the Photo Transfer App on both iPhone and MacBook, and there is no obvious place to select to download full size, but it has always worked fine in the past. One odd thing: when I download ONE photo, it is full size. When I download a collection of photos including that same one, they come in much smaller size, although a couple here and there were full size. I also tried using the online app, which does allow you to select full size, and they also came in reduced size. I'm going to experiment and see how many I can download at a time and maintain the full size, but it is very tedious, as I have hundreds of photos from a 2-week vacation that need to be downloaded.
Hi Linda,

I'm so sorry for not responding to you before. Did you continue experimenting the same problem? We've done our investigation and one possible cause for this is if you enabled 'iCloud Photo Library' - you can check this by going to:

Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library

Let me know if you have that enabled please. When you enable this setting all your photos are automatically uploaded to the iCloud Photo Library and the full resolution version of your photos are removed from your device.

Let me know and again my apologies for the big delay getting back to you.

Best,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
Hi Enrique,

Thanks for your reply. I had been emailing with Amber up to now.

The full version photos are still in my device, as was demonstrated when I emailed a full version to my computer after the reduced version was transferred with the app, and sent a screenshot to Amber. (I did that again today and can send you a screenshot showing both versions in my finder. I just attempted to add it below)

I have not done anything with iCloud settings since I previously used the app and successfully uploaded full versions of all my photos in late September. The only thing different now is that I updated my phone to the new iOS. I don't use iCloud at all because my laptop is too old to access it, and that's where I put the photos ultimately.

But I checked my settings anyway. I do have Photo Library enabled. HOWEVER, I JUST sent a full 1.8MB photo from my phone to my email, while the same photo which was uploaded previously with the app shows only 184 KB. So the photo library setting has not reduced the photos in my phone. The full versions are all still there. And even in the batches I uploaded with the app, occasionally a few would be full version, while the majority of them are reduced.

I have to ask: Could it have something to do with the new iOS version? Or some other default setting that might have come with it? That's the only thing that was changed on my phone just before this trip in mid-October. Or maybe I don't understand how iCloud works. When I email the photo from my phone, is it actually accessing a copy saved on iCloud???

Can you please email me as Amber did? I do not like communicating on a site I have to log into.

thanks,
Linda
I think I have figured out the problem. I get the medium resolution file when I xfer photos from my iPhone 5 to my MacBook Air, iOS 8 to Yosemite, using the app to app xfer technique. Using the app to app xfer, I see no option to select the resolution. Assuming that the above statement from Enrique on default image size settings is correct, the computer app should automatically download the highest or original resolution of the file from the iPhone app. However, this is not happening.

To double check, I thought I would try using the iPhone app to web browser download technique. When I did this, under each photo selected for download was the option to download a medium resolution image or a full resolution image. HOWEVER, when I selected full resolution, I got an image that was 852x640 pixels. That's the medium resolution size. BUT when I selected medium resolution, I got an image that was 1136x852 pixels. That is the full resolution size.

SO I think there is some conflict on parameter language between Apple iOS8 and the Photo Transfer App. When the Photo Transfer App specifies full sized image (either by user choice or default setting) the download results in the medium size image. And vice versa.
Wow. OK. That explains a lot, because I had also tried using the browser method before, but only with Full size selected. So theoretically if I download them with the web browser and select Medium, I should get the full size files. I will try this. I don't have Yosemite, but I'll see what happens anyway.

The next question of course is: Will you be notifying Apple of this predicament? Or is it something you will try to fix in future versions of your app? It was awfully convenient using the app to app method.
Hi Linda,

We are working on an update of the app with several new features and with fixes for iOS8 and Yosemite. We still need to tight some bolts but we hope to release it in the next 2-3 weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Best,

Enrique
Photo Transfer App
OK, I just tested J's theory. I'm sad to say it did not work. I tried downloading photos from my iphone to my Macbook, using the browser version of the app. First I tried taking a full pageful of photos, and selecting Medium res. They came in small files. Then I tried the same, selecting Full res. They still came in small files. A couple of photos were large (like 2.7 MB compared with 315 KB) in one of those folders. Then I picked out one photo and emailed it from my phone to myself, choosing Full size, and again it came in at 2.8MB. So I'm about to give up on this app. Perhaps my system is no longer supported. I'm using OS 10.6.8 on my Mac, while I've updated my phone to the latest iOS. But I really need to get these 500 large photos OFF my phone and I can't email them one at a time. I will start looking for another solution if you guys can't come up with a way for me to do it. Hoping you still can!
I should add that I think there's something fundamentally mixed up in my version of the app. When I click to view that same single photo in the app, and download just that one, neither the med or the full res comes in anywhere close to the emailed copy.
I've been having the same issues as discussed here, with my iPhone 4S. I have iOS version 8.1.2. Any news on your side guys? (Enrique)
BTW, MOST of the photos are transferred with reduced resolution. There is only a small fraction of pictures that I edit, so it can not be explained by the test you have done.
Hello Yuri,

With the recent updates, there have been fixes sense this original post. You should be able to still transfer your photos in full resolution with the web browser. The desktop app as well transfers your photos in the original format.

Also the same questions as well. Did you take all the photos with your device or did you happen to modify / edit any of them using any other app or software?

Best,

Amber
Photo Transfer App
Same issue here. Yosemite on desktop, IOS 8.1.2 on iPhone 5. Using supplied Apple camera app. App seems to decide on its own how high resolution to make the final picture. Some are at full resolution (3 meg) others less. Regardless of that, i just imported 100 photos and about half of them were in full resolution and half were <200 kb. This issue is not resolved. Thank you. Rick
I'm having this issue with iPhone 5S to Windows 7 PC, but not with iPad to Windows 7 PC, for the same photos. To explain: If I take a photo on my iPhone 5S and transfer to my PC it is very low resolution, under 200K. If I transfer the exact same photo from my iPad (out of the Photo Stream library), I get the full resolution. I'm running iOS version 8.1.2 right now.
Hi Doug,

One of my responses above may be the solution for you. Check on your iPhone 5S if you enabled 'iCloud Photo Library':

Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library 

Let me know if you have that enabled please. When you enable this setting all your photos are automatically uploaded to the iCloud Photo Library and the full resolution version of your photos are removed from your device. In this case you can disable the setting for 'Optimize iPhone storage' which will re-download the full res versions of your photos from the cloud to the device.

Let me know and again my apologies for the big delay getting back to you. 

Best, 

Enrique 
Photo Transfer App

Don't worry about the delay! It's the weekend!

I do not have iCloud Photo Library enabled. I don't believe I ever did. I don't even use iCloud storage as I have almost 100% available.

I'm pretty certain the full resolution photos are on my iPhone, as the same photos are on my iPad via Photo Stream in full resolution, and the only place they came from is the iPhone.

And perhaps the best test of all: if I browse my phone via USB connection to my PC in Windows Explorer, I can see all my photos in full size (2+MB size), so I'm certain they are there.

Hi Doug,

Can you tell me if the photos that are transferring in smaller size were edited perhaps on the device? We are aware of a bug on iOS 8.0 where the photos that were edited don't return their full resolution version. Also, what version of iOS are you running? Have you installed the latest update from Apple (8.1.3)?

Best,

Enrique

Hi Enrique.

These photos have not been edited. I'm running 8.1.2 on the phone.

I'll install the 8.1.3 and let you know if anything changes.


Doug

+1
I don't think this problem has anything to do with edited photos or using iCloud. Too many of us have had the same problem without editing the photos or using iCloud. It would be great if those responses could be discarded and some new ideas start coming forth. Thanks.
Hi Linda, Doug,

We are in the latest testing phase of the new version of the app that hopefully resolves this issue on your devices. We would love to have your feedback on the new version of the app to make sure that this issue is resolved. We can include you on the beta tester program so you can install the updated app before it is released. For this I would just need you to send us your email address so I can send you an invite to the beta program. You can send us an email to: support@phototransferapp.com and then I will send you the invite and the simple instructions to install the app.

Thanks in advance!

Enrique

Just so you know, this issue is still present.  I have 4K video files and on the phone, through windows explorer, they're around 3 gigs in size but when I download it with the app, it doesn't matter if it's via surfing to the URL through the browser or download and install the app in Windows 11, it still cuts the file size nearly in half. I've attached two screenshots.  sizes-1 are the sizes on the iPhone and sizes-2 are sizes after transferred with Photo Transfer App.

Oh and naturally, I am choosing full size.  If I'm recording in 4K, there's no reason to transfer anything but the original size/quality.  I will say the videos are still in 4K but why in the world would they cut the file size in half?  It has to be removing something.

I forgot to add the pictures... here they are. :)

On iPhone:

After Photo Transfer App downloaded (on PC):

If I copy them from the iPhone to PC via USB-C/Lightning cable, they copy over as the full file size.  The issue is copying videos/images from the phone has always been challenging because you often get errors while trying to copy.