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[glynor]

I tried to transfer my wife's home movies off of her iPhone with MC tonight.  The result was not good.  I know I posted about this before, but I don't know what (if any) resolution or cause was the result.

Basically, I did this:

1. Used MC's built-in Camera AW to import the stuff off of the iPhone.  It showed up normally as a Camera in Windows and in MC.
2. I REMOVED the extensions jpg and png from the "items to import" list.  MOV was in the list.  I didn't want it to import the photos because PhotoStream does that automatically, and I already have them all in MC.
3. I made sure the "remove the items after" option was enabled.
4. I was using a MC Client (my HTPC) to do this.

Results:

1. MC did import all of the JPGs and PNGs, despite being told not to.  It also imported a broken GIF that wasn't on the camera at all, that I could find (not sure where that came from).
2. MC did not import any of the MOV files.
3. MC didn't remove any of the files from the "camera" itself.

Sigh.  So, this seems similar to my previous experience, only this time I specifically told it to ignore JPGs and PNGs and it ignored me instead.  What the heck?  Do I just need to give up on using MC as a photo importer/manager altogether?

The VAST majority of our new "home" photos and videos are taken with our iPhones.  Like everyone else.

[Matt]

I believe the options you're describing only apply to devices that appear like a drive.  The iPhone does not allow drive-style access so we have to funnel through WIA, which is limiting.

Importing content on a client instead of the server may also cause troubles.  Clients don't currently have the ability to upload to the server.

[Magic_Randy]

Hi glynor,

I have no problem bringing in pictures and movies from the iPhone to MC, but I use a simple approach.

1) I copy the pictures and movies from the iPhone to the PC using explorer (no import software)
2) I Then delete the pictures and movies from the iPhone using explorer
3) I then import the pictures to MC

[glynor]

That's what it was, Matt.  I remembered that this was an issue before (though I'd never tried not to import the photos before), but I couldn't remember the details or if it was fixable (and I couldn't find the thread in a brief search).

That's really too bad...  I know there is some way around it, of course, because a ton of other 3rd party applications can import properly from the iPhone, including Windows 7's Photo Importer itself (and Lightroom and so on and so forth).  I remember back on the old thread I found there was a newfangled replacement for WIA available from Microsoft, so it is probably related to that somehow.

In any case... This has got to be a common user-facing issue (most popular camera on Flickr and all of that).  You were looking for "polish" ideas... If it can't be fixed without a major undertaking, MC needs to disable those options and explain how it does work (what the limits are and how it can be expected to behave) when any WIA-only device is attached and selected.

Importing content on a client instead of the server may also cause troubles.  Clients don't currently have the ability to upload to the server.

FWIW... This part of it worked fine.  Of course, the client is set to download the photos to my M:\ drive on the network, and that's where MC monitors the new files anyway (though it didn't seem to re-auto-import the pictures).  In any case, this worked.  It probably would fail if I was trying to import without having the network drive mapped though.

I have no problem bringing in pictures and movies from the iPhone to MC, but I use a simple approach.

1) I copy the pictures and movies from the iPhone to the PC using explorer (no import software)
2) I Then delete the pictures and movies from the iPhone using explorer
3) I then import the pictures to MC

Yeah, that's what I did (after finding and deleting what MC imported).  But that's too complex and fiddly of a process for me to easily teach my wife how to do it.  I'm going to just find another application to use for importing photos, and then have MC monitor those file locations.  Probably Lightroom, but I'm not sure.  If Bridge handles it nicely, I'll just use that, since it is already installed on most of my machines.

[Matt]

I remember back on the old thread I found there was a newfangled replacement for WIA available from Microsoft, so it is probably related to that somehow.

You were looking for "polish" ideas...

You're right that there's a replacement for WIA, and I totally agree this is the type of thing it'd be nice to polish.

[gvanbrunt]

I was part of the original thread I believe. You can add most Canon cameras to the list of devices that suffer from this problem. I would love to use MC to do the importing rather than something else, but the MOV thing is a deal breaker. And now my Galaxy Nexus uses MTP for connection... no drive either.

So a big +1 from me to polish this.

[MrC]

For reference: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68946.0

[Magic_Randy]

...Yeah, that's what I did (after finding and deleting what MC imported).  But that's too complex and fiddly of a process for me to easily teach my wife how to do it.  I'm going to just find another application to use for importing photos, and then have MC monitor those file locations.  Probably Lightroom, but I'm not sure.  If Bridge handles it nicely, I'll just use that, since it is already installed on most of my machines.

Lightroom works fine except for one thing, it does not delete the pictures from the iPhone, it just copies them to the PC. You then need to delete them from the iPhone. If there are a lot of pictures the fastest way is to do the delete is in explorer. So the simplicity of using LR is kind of lost. If anyone knows how to automatically do the delete in Lightroom I would appreciate the tip.

[glynor]

That's a bummer.

Sigh... Anyone know of a good photo downloader utility that handles iPhones, MOV files, and can filter my photos and only import ones that it doesn't "already have" (or at least, can be set to just delete the photos off of the device after moving them to a location where I can prep them for the circular file)?

[JohnT]

The latest builds (starting with 123) now support image and video acquisition from the iPhone (and other devices) using our newly implemented WPD layer rather than WIA.  Try it out and let us know how it works for you.  It works well on the iPhone I've tested with here.

[glynor]

I just tested it with my iPhone 4 and my wife's 4S.  Seems to be working just as expected now.

One nice side thing is that MC is smart enough to recognize the photos it's already imported via PhotoStream as duplicates, and it ignores them.  It also doesn't remove them from the device then, which would be more convenient for me, but that's probably the safest bet.  Unless, maybe, there was an option to "also remove duplicates".  Your duplicate-detecting fingerprinting would have to be good then, though.

In any case, it is working now.  Both photos and movies import correctly.

I haven't yet adequately tested to see if the file types to transfer feature is working right now (can I exclude JPGs from transfer?), but the basics are right at least.  I'll test that later.

[Matt]

In any case, it is working now.  Both photos and movies import correctly.

Thanks for letting us know.  We had you in mind when we worked on it.

And thanks to JohnT for doing the work.