Windows 10 photo import is a thing of evil and I found a work around!

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
Almost everyone I know who does digital photography relies on their computer to fiddle around with pictures in various ways. My impression is that if you do digital, a computer is essential.

Here at El Rancho Elliott, we have several computers, all of them running Windows 7. Windows 7 has a lovely, lovely photos import function. Connect your camera or SD card to a Windows 7 computer, it pops up a dialog box that allows you to label the photos to be imported – “LX100, Frear Park Sunset” for example. When you hit okay, Win7 creates a folder with the date and the label you want and imports all the photos into the folder and each one of them has a number and the label information you want.

It’s slick, easy, and fast. So slick and fast that when I shot a remote assignment recently, and the client wanted a thumbdrive (flashdrive) with the pix, I imported them on my Win7 ultrabook and then wrote them to the flashdrive in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, my dearly beloved ultrabook has developed an aberrant fan noise, and the quoted cost of repair, well, let’s just say it closely resembles the shower scene from a bad prison movie.

A friend in the IT business tells me what to look for in a laptop: i5 or i7 processor, 8 gigs of ram, 256 gig solid state drive. I find one at a price I am willing to pay, and it really delivers the goods in terms of performance. Unfortunately, the only way I could get it was with Windows 10, which is the latest and greatest version of Windows.

What distinguishes Windows 10 is a matrix in the middle of the screen with various “Apps” that you can click on or touch (there is a touch sensitive screen) to do what you want. There is an app for photos.

I want to migrate photos from the old ultrabook to the new laptop, so I dutifully copy all the photo folders (with their nice dates and labeling provided by Win7) to a flashdrive and bring them to the Win10 machine. I open the photos app, select all the photo folders from the flashdrive and instruct the machine to paste them into the photo app. Win10 doesn’t like “paste” and inquires “Do you want to Import?” I say “Yeah, sure,” and Win10 brings the photos onto the new machine.

When I click on the photo app, it does not show all the nicely labeled folders that I had provided. Instead it is showing broad date-related categories: December, 2015; November 2015, and so on. I look in Picasa, which I had downloaded and use frequently for minor photo manipulation. All the folders in Picasa are truncated too.

In desperation, I review the Win10 video tutorial, which tells the glories of its new voice-activated search function (called Cortana or something): “You can tell Cortana to show you the pictures you took in January!” YEAH, BUT YOU CAN’T SHOW ME THE PHOTOS I TOOK WITH THE LX100 IN FREAR PARK BECAUSE YOU OBLITERATED THE INFORMATION, YOU STUPID GIT!

In the magic of my mind, I envision Cortana’s soothing female voice saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand ‘go screw yourself.’”

A glimmer of hope flickers in my brain, when I first imported photos into Win10, it gave me the option of importing them through Picasa. Quickly I shoot one shot and slide the SD card in the slot on the Win10 machine. Import with Picasa, I instruct it. Picasa pops up a dialog that allows me to enter all the information I want as the folder label. It doesn’t automatically put a date on the folder, but I can do that for myself. Further, using the file explorer function, I find that a folder with the appropriate labeling now exists in the master folder that holds all photos. The Win10 photo app still doesn’t display the labeling information, but now I know that the imported photo folder exists someplace where Picasa and DXO 9 can get at it.

Looking at the file explorer (which is similar to the old Windows explorer), an idea occurs: what if I copy photo folders and files from the old machine (now stored on the flashdrive) directly into the Pictures folder shown within file explorer . . . will it retain all the nice folder labeling information? Delightfully, the answer is YES!

So here’s the bottom line: if you find yourself using a Win10 machine, ignore the photo app. If you need to import photos from your camera, you can do it with the import function of Picasa, and it works pretty well. Further it will create a properly labeled folder inside the Pictures master folder.

If you need to import a bunch of existing photo folders into Win10, use the file explorer (it looks like a tan folder down at the bottom of the screen in the task bar), and it will allow you to cut and paste a bunch of folders while preserving all the information from Win7.

I really think the development team for Win10 were a bunch of morons for allowing a perfectly useful photo import function from Win7 to be ruined. But at least now, there are ways around that.

Cheers, Jock
 
Luckily I will never need to go looking for a specific photo. My file management is non-existent. These are actual names of folders on my desktop.... "October 2014 Photo dump", "May 2015 Photo Mess", "Photos from Summer 2013", and the appropriately titled "October 2015 Photo Chaos". These all correlate to times when I decided I would "start with a clean slate" and organize my photos "going forward" and I would just have these few chaotic unsorted folders to dig through when I needed to look for something older.

Of course, I have never needed to look for something older. And, in fact, since I am more of a serial camera buyer than a photographer, I'm not too concerned by my lack of organization. After I've taken the photo, if I deem it good enough to share, I share it. And then it never sees the light of day again.

I'm glad you found a new system that works for you. I recently "upgraded" a couple machines here to Windows 10. As an operating system, it is neither the end of the world, nor the second coming.
 
Luckily I will never need to go looking for a specific photo. My file management is non-existent. These are actual names of folders on my desktop.... "October 2014 Photo dump", "May 2015 Photo Mess", "Photos from Summer 2013", and the appropriately titled "October 2015 Photo Chaos". These all correlate to times when I decided I would "start with a clean slate" and organize my photos "going forward" and I would just have these few chaotic unsorted folders to dig through when I needed to look for something older.

Of course, I have never needed to look for something older. And, in fact, since I am more of a serial camera buyer than a photographer, I'm not too concerned by my lack of organization. After I've taken the photo, if I deem it good enough to share, I share it. And then it never sees the light of day again.

I'm glad you found a new system that works for you. I recently "upgraded" a couple machines here to Windows 10. As an operating system, it is neither the end of the world, nor the second coming.

Until I found the work around, I was willing to believe it was the end of the world. I have since moderated my views (sigh)

Cheers, Jock
 
I load 3000 or so photos onto my iPhone or iPad at a time, all in filename sequence, so I can find any photo in a few seconds with only one major folder (and a few specialized folders) on the Apple device under photos. I don't believe Apple provides a way to do that, or that anyone even knows that can be done, making the Apple devices crippled for loading, finding, and viewing specific photos conveniently and quickly.

So I discovered that the Mac or PC using iTunes loads files onto the i-devices in sequence by the date/time ("Creation Date") that those photos were written to the folder where they are accessed by iTunes, to copy to the i-devices. Now since the PC using Explorer, or the Mac using its O/S copy function, does some kind of optimized internal copying where the files are NOT moved or copied in any particular sequence, setting up a folder using those facilities is a fail.

So, good ol' DOS on the PC, when instructed to copy files from (ex: C:\Pic\Source) to (ex: C:\Pic\Dest), copies them serially and in filename sequence, effecting a new folder sorted by filename and also by Creation Date, so that when iTunes copies that folder to the i-devices, they are available on the device's photo app in filename sequence. So if one is looking for Sunsets, one scrolls rapidly down in a handful of seconds and Voila!! there they are.

Why is this important? Because I teach from my photos and videos on my 128 gb iPad and iPhone, and finding files without having to spend hours going through separate folders is essential. All of the Apple reps whom I've talked to are unaware that this can be done.
 
Sorry, bit late here. I have one machine on Win 8 and another on 7. Both are nagging to upgrade, but I am. Not. Ready. Yet.

I have always copied and pasted; I never even knew there was such a thing as photo import...
 
Sorry, bit late here. I have one machine on Win 8 and another on 7. Both are nagging to upgrade, but I am. Not. Ready. Yet.

I have always copied and pasted; I never even knew there was such a thing as photo import...

Bill,

On your windows 7 machine, next time you insert an SD card or connect a camera to it, use the "Open with autoplay" option and choose "import photos with windows." It will open a dialog that will allow you label the photo as you wish -- XPro 1, christmas tree -- the import function will automatically add the date and lable each of the photos with the description you added and a number. It's just plain excellent.

In my not-so-humble opinion, as an operating system, Win10 seems to be designed for people who sell hamburgers by pointing at pictures of them on retail screen. Win7 appears to be designed for that group of individuals that Microsoft has forgotten: professionals. Five out of six of our computers runs Win7, and we are bugged constantly to "upgrade" to Win10. Fat chance.

Cheers, Jock
 
Almost everyone I know who does digital photography relies on their computer to fiddle around with pictures in various ways. My impression is that if you do digital, a computer is essential.

Here at El Rancho Elliott, we have several computers, all of them running Windows 7. Windows 7 has a lovely, lovely photos import function. Connect your camera or SD card to a Windows 7 computer, it pops up a dialog box that allows you to label the photos to be imported – “LX100, Frear Park Sunset” for example. When you hit okay, Win7 creates a folder with the date and the label you want and imports all the photos into the folder and each one of them has a number and the label information you want.

It’s slick, easy, and fast. So slick and fast that when I shot a remote assignment recently, and the client wanted a thumbdrive (flashdrive) with the pix, I imported them on my Win7 ultrabook and then wrote them to the flashdrive in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, my dearly beloved ultrabook has developed an aberrant fan noise, and the quoted cost of repair, well, let’s just say it closely resembles the shower scene from a bad prison movie.

A friend in the IT business tells me what to look for in a laptop: i5 or i7 processor, 8 gigs of ram, 256 gig solid state drive. I find one at a price I am willing to pay, and it really delivers the goods in terms of performance. Unfortunately, the only way I could get it was with Windows 10, which is the latest and greatest version of Windows.

What distinguishes Windows 10 is a matrix in the middle of the screen with various “Apps” that you can click on or touch (there is a touch sensitive screen) to do what you want. There is an app for photos.

I want to migrate photos from the old ultrabook to the new laptop, so I dutifully copy all the photo folders (with their nice dates and labeling provided by Win7) to a flashdrive and bring them to the Win10 machine. I open the photos app, select all the photo folders from the flashdrive and instruct the machine to paste them into the photo app. Win10 doesn’t like “paste” and inquires “Do you want to Import?” I say “Yeah, sure,” and Win10 brings the photos onto the new machine.

When I click on the photo app, it does not show all the nicely labeled folders that I had provided. Instead it is showing broad date-related categories: December, 2015; November 2015, and so on. I look in Picasa, which I had downloaded and use frequently for minor photo manipulation. All the folders in Picasa are truncated too.

In desperation, I review the Win10 video tutorial, which tells the glories of its new voice-activated search function (called Cortana or something): “You can tell Cortana to show you the pictures you took in January!” YEAH, BUT YOU CAN’T SHOW ME THE PHOTOS I TOOK WITH THE LX100 IN FREAR PARK BECAUSE YOU OBLITERATED THE INFORMATION, YOU STUPID GIT!

In the magic of my mind, I envision Cortana’s soothing female voice saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand ‘go screw yourself.’”

A glimmer of hope flickers in my brain, when I first imported photos into Win10, it gave me the option of importing them through Picasa. Quickly I shoot one shot and slide the SD card in the slot on the Win10 machine. Import with Picasa, I instruct it. Picasa pops up a dialog that allows me to enter all the information I want as the folder label. It doesn’t automatically put a date on the folder, but I can do that for myself. Further, using the file explorer function, I find that a folder with the appropriate labeling now exists in the master folder that holds all photos. The Win10 photo app still doesn’t display the labeling information, but now I know that the imported photo folder exists someplace where Picasa and DXO 9 can get at it.

Looking at the file explorer (which is similar to the old Windows explorer), an idea occurs: what if I copy photo folders and files from the old machine (now stored on the flashdrive) directly into the Pictures folder shown within file explorer . . . will it retain all the nice folder labeling information? Delightfully, the answer is YES!

So here’s the bottom line: if you find yourself using a Win10 machine, ignore the photo app. If you need to import photos from your camera, you can do it with the import function of Picasa, and it works pretty well. Further it will create a properly labeled folder inside the Pictures master folder.

If you need to import a bunch of existing photo folders into Win10, use the file explorer (it looks like a tan folder down at the bottom of the screen in the task bar), and it will allow you to cut and paste a bunch of folders while preserving all the information from Win7.

I really think the development team for Win10 were a bunch of morons for allowing a perfectly useful photo import function from Win7 to be ruined. But at least now, there are ways around that.

Cheers, Jock

It is annoying when an app removes a feature you like. At least you found a work around.

You surely go a few extra steps than I do. I simply drag and drop into a folder until it reaches around 100 or so. Then I off load them into folders about the time of year.
 
I'm with you Jock. I "upgraded" to 10. My work-around was to dump it and go back to 7. Happy again for now, though I'm guessing at some point moving away from 7 might be more compelling.
 
It's a hard decision when the OS upgrade may give you some extra speed or security but really not give any new features you care about. My MacBook politely suggests Yosemite periodically, but I still resist the call of the wild.
 
Interesting...

Call me old-fashioned, but my workflow is really basic.
1. Remove SD card from camera
2. Insert in PC
3. Create folder on PC in appropriate place (I have three main "destinations"; "Destinations" (travels of more than 1 day in duration) "Events and days out" (one day or less) "By camera" (most of the stuff that doesn't fit into the first two)
4. Load up all images into new folder
5. Open Photoshop
6. Review images in Windows preview/Picasa. Drag and drop any worth processing into PS
7. Process. Create "Finished" sub-folder in just created folder. Save images to Finished. Naming convention is Location/Event|Date|Subject|Camera|incremental digit
8. Drag and drop into Ipernity uploader. Add keywords. Create Album if needed. Add to existing albums as appropriate. Upload

It may sound laborious but it is Microsoft-proof and it works ;)
 
Interesting...

Call me old-fashioned, but my workflow is really basic.
1. Remove SD card from camera
2. Insert in PC
3. Create folder on PC in appropriate place (I have three main "destinations"; "Destinations" (travels of more than 1 day in duration) "Events and days out" (one day or less) "By camera" (most of the stuff that doesn't fit into the first two)
4. Load up all images into new folder
5. Open Photoshop
6. Review images in Windows preview/Picasa. Drag and drop any worth processing into PS
7. Process. Create "Finished" sub-folder in just created folder. Save images to Finished. Naming convention is Location/Event|Date|Subject|Camera|incremental digit
8. Drag and drop into Ipernity uploader. Add keywords. Create Album if needed. Add to existing albums as appropriate. Upload

It may sound laborious but it is Microsoft-proof and it works ;)
You're a dangerous man, Bill.
 
I've been a Mac person since 1984 except for those few years when I couldn't afford the equip or software. My file management consists of (consists of overkeeping old photos):
1. Remove SD card from camera, insert in Mac.
2. If Image Import decides to open I use it to transfer files (but not delete off card) all new photos and toss them in folders by month/year. If Image Import decides not to work I just drag and drop in the finder to the said folders. Sometimes Flickr Uploader realizes I've added photos and automatically uploads to Flickr.
3. Once a year (usually around New Years) I put all of the previous years photos on my 2TB drive. Once every 3-4 years I upgrade my external drive, copy the previous drive data to the new one and add more recent years set.
4. Review images in Mac Finder or Flickr. Process in Lightroom (older copy) at home or CS at work (don't tell anyone) if needed.
8. Occasionally I tear the house apart trying to find those CD's from my early digital years when i took those fantastic photos at Bumbershoot. Someday they'll show up....
 
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