Ever-repeating file names/ Surely not!

I am getting fotos sent to me from friends who are apparently now using newly-acquired iPhones. Windows keeps on telling me when I try to save their fotos that I already have them. Is this a feature of iPhone that it repeats the same old & unchangeable file id's or should I look in Windows itself for a solution?

I've not seen this with my iPhone, it must be said.. Normally the file name is just incremental, IIRC.

If 2 friends send send 1 photo each and the file name is the same eg 00001.jpg then windows will ask the question. Just rename one of the files.

Edited by broadband66 (Sun 22-Jan-12 19:49:24)

Is it not common courtesy for the sender to rename the photo to something meaningful before sending it?

Can you not save the images in different directories?

What's common courtesy got to do with anything. If I send a file to someone I can name it as anything I want.

The point is if Windows finds another file with the same name in the same folder you get the option to rename it.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

What's common courtesy got to do with anything

For one thing it is one way of letting you know who your true friends are.

What? So you send me a file that is named 0005.jpg and it clashes with a file in my folder named 0005.jpg.

Are you saying you would be miffed if I altered to be 0005_gomezz.jpg. If that's the case then I'm glad I'm not your friend. The file sent then belongs to me and I can even delete it if I wish.

Not off my phone you can't. It is no longer your photograph. So you do not mind your friends carelessly making things awkward for you needing you to do extra work. I expect you are very popular.

I couldn't make head nor tail of your last post.

The whole point of the post, as I suspect you haven't got to grips with, is if persons A & B happen to send person C different files but with the same filename then C has to alter at least 1 of the filenames assuming they are to be stored in the same folder.

Is that a crime?

I think you have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. I am suggesting that it is A and B who should take the trouble to change the file name before they send it and not put the effort onto poor old C who has to sort out their thoughtlessness.

How does A & B know what to change to?

It would be common courtesy for your friends to rename their photos to give some hint as to what subjects they depict before they sent them to you

If they don't know how what the picture is about how do they expect C to know?

I would only send pictures to someone that the pictures pertained to therefore no need to rename. I'm sure they could work it out and rename them to something they wanted.

Pictures on a camera phone are normally taken then sent with covering text. If the picture is then copied/moved from the recipient's phone to a PC, that is when the problems occur.

A is in Austria and B is in France. They both happen to rename their own photo to "me skiing on holiday". Back to square one.

Before the thread gets hijacked may I add that I suspect iPhone has a default file id which is <Photo1> and <Photo2> etc and so my sender sends me these and I save them. If he then sends me a fresh lot of fotos then these will repeat the same file id.

(It has been suggested to me that iPhone does not permit any file names except the default set?)

Windows will then prompt me, do I wish to save or cancel. If I select save for the second lot Windows XP will overwrite the first lot. Since the file id cannot be changed in my arrival mailbox I now have to create a new folder and the appropriate path to it and save the newcomers in that new folder. This is iPhone madness or a special kind of Windows hell.

There is another method. You save the first lot and then change the file id of them in the usual way to something that is meaningful. Then the second batch can be saved as <Photo5> etc --- but of course it is DUTY of the sender to allocate meaningful & unique file id to each foto, that is a given

Or my wife, in despair, does a screengrab of an iPhone foto and adjusts the marquee to a suitable area. That process also enables her to specify a new file id (even a path if she knew what such a thing was, not being unkind, not everybody pc geek) and it will also automatically compress it to a decent size of jpg

At least they showed willing. And the likelihood of a name clash is greatly reduced. And the recipient has less to do to make them unique while not worrying what meaningful title to give them.

In reply to a post by Littleseen:

Windows will then prompt me, do I wish to save or cancel.

Just prior to this it presents you with a Save dialogue box so you can select the folder to save in and lists the files of that type already present. If it duplicates one of those you can rename it in the File name: box near the bottom before you press Save and you'll never see the "do you wish to save or cancel" prompt.

I have solved the problem which I am advised does not occur with Windows 7 (I use XP Pro)

My USA m/c friend sends me many rather nice fotos, each of a stunning 2.5MB (when 135KB would be just fine) and he confesses these are iPhone fotos and he uses the iPhone defaults. So I then have the over-writing problem I referred to. He says it is an equipment fault my end and that he has no intention of changing his incremental iPhone names which are <Photo 1> and <Photo 2> et seq

I have solved the problem by placing him on my blacklist. But who has lost out then?

I think I may have got to btm of these iPhone file id where incoming saves over-write previous saves.

It is not a problem with Windows 7 which I am told allows you to change the file name at the Windows prompt --- whereas XP which I use does not.

There is however another aspect which two-timing husbands may care to consider --- and even their suspicious wives. If one hovers the mouse arrow on the foto's filename it will display what equipment took the foto (e.g. 3GS) and will date/time stamp the occasion. However, if one over-writes that earlier foto with a later one (taken somewhere else perhaps) then the later foto will carry the earlier one's time/date stamp. Could this be some sort of matrimonial ouch?

As for my USA friend who confesses to using an iPhone set to defaults he avers it is all an equipment fault my end, that he has no intention of changing his iPhone default file id's just to suit me. It would mean, he grumbles, that he would have to change all the file id's in whatever folder he has saved them to. My response has been to place his e-mail address in my blacklist. But who then is the loser?

In reply to a post by Littleseen:

It is not a problem with Windows 7 which I am told allows you to change the file name at the Windows prompt --- whereas XP which I use does not.

Oh yes, XP does! Instead of doing Save Attachments with the email unopened, open the email and right click on the photo Attachment and do Save As. Then just change the filename at the bottom of the Save Attachment As dialogue.

EDIT: I doubt it is any different with the Win 7 OS itself; it may just be the difference between the email clients.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 24-Jan-12 15:29:49)