If you take a pic with the camera it lands in the camera roll. If I email it I get the option to send the "Original" (2592x1936 @ 72dpi). If I then take it out of the camera roll and copy it to a folder that syncs back to the phone and I try to email it, it then shows the original as 2056x1536 @ 72dpi. The original on the computer stays at the original resolution of 2592x1936 but iTunes re-reses it on the fly. Does anyone know of a way to stop iTunes from optimizing (changing the resolution) of the photos being copied back? I like to keep the camera roll empty and reorganizing the photos into folders.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iTunes Changing Resolution of Photos
- Thread starter rstark18
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Try downloading your photos from you iPhone with iPhoto. It will download all the photos at the full resolution and you have the option to "Keep Photos" or "Delete all Photos" from your phone. This is what I do. Don't use iTunes, use iPhoto and click "import all". This should work. I hope this answers your question!
First off I'm on a PC so iPhoto is out. Regardless, the problem I'm having is NOT on the computer. All the images download to the PC at full res and stay that way. It's when they get copied back to the iPhone that they are getting re-sized. Is there a way to copy them back to the iPhone without them being re-sized?
I am not sure. I don't use a PC so I can't really help you in that department. You are wanting to copy images to your iPhone? for what reason? I think it resizes them because that is the display resolution on the screen and they look fine displayed at that resolution. Are you having trouble getting the full res photos off your phone? I don't think your problem is a glitch I just think iTunes optimizes/resizes them for display on the iPhone screen...and saves them to your computer (for printing/editing/e-mail) at full resolution so you have the 5MP ones on your PC and when it copies them back to your iPhone is optimizes them to the iPhone max res of 640x960 for display on the retina display. I think this is right.
I am having the same problem.
When I unload my camera roll to my computer, everything is hi-res.
When I put them into folders and re-sync them back to the phone (so they appear in folders, and not the camera roll) iTunes goes through EVERY picture and says "optimizing for iPhone..." when really what it's doing is compressing and resizing the photos so they look blurry and less sharp. It sucks.
When I unload my camera roll to my computer, everything is hi-res.
When I put them into folders and re-sync them back to the phone (so they appear in folders, and not the camera roll) iTunes goes through EVERY picture and says "optimizing for iPhone..." when really what it's doing is compressing and resizing the photos so they look blurry and less sharp. It sucks.
It's the iTunes way of trying to save space on your phone - it does it with all my photos, including the ones I took with my 8MP DSLR & uploaded to the phone. I have 5GB of photos on my computer that sync with my phone, but they take up considerably less space on my phone (355 songs, 4 videos, 838 photos, and 84 apps all take up less than 5GB on my phone).
And I have to say, I think the pix look better on my phone's screen than they do on my computer
And I have to say, I think the pix look better on my phone's screen than they do on my computer
Although the attempted help is appreciated, the original problem is not being understood or addressed.
PROBLEM: When syncing photos back to your iPhone (outside of your camera roll) from your PC, the photos are reduced in size and quality.
DESIRED SOLUTION: Can we turn this "optimization" off?
SECONDARY SOLUTION: A work around with additional software, such as alternative photo manager (on the iPhone, not computer).
The problem isn't in syncing the camera roll TO the PC, as the photos turn up untouched and in original size and quality. The problem occurss when you try to put the photos BACK to the iPhone after moving them into other folders (that you then point iTunes at to sync back to your phone.)
There are a myriad of reasons this "optimization" is not desireable... A couple of examples that this personally becomes an issue:
- photos of documents that you want to zoom to read
- photos with details that you want to zoom in on
In my opinion, leaving the photos in the Camera Roll is not an acceptible option (I've taken literally thousands of photos).
So, with that said, does anyone have suggestions?
As far as the problem, that is the way it is designed to operate. iTunes optimizes the photos to reduce the used space. It is discussed in the on-line manual for the phone.
I understand you asking about "turning off" this feature, but it isn't available to do right now.
I do remember reading either here on on the Apple Discussion page there is an App that allows for moving photos from the computer back to the phone without using iTunes, and it may retain the original resolution. I'm going from memory here, so don't quote me on it.
While I've copied a lot of photos that I've taken with my Canon DSLR that have quite large resolution, I've not noticed that the pictures look bad on my iPhone. I have a 3G, and am looking forward to seeing how different they may look with the iPhone 4.
As far as the comment regarding leaving photos on the camera roll, it isn't a good idea because of the chance of losing them if you have to do a restore. I've read a story of someone that had upwards of 5000 photos there and had to do a restore and lost everything. They had not been syncing to iTunes either, so there was no backup. Living dangerously I believe.
I understand you asking about "turning off" this feature, but it isn't available to do right now.
I do remember reading either here on on the Apple Discussion page there is an App that allows for moving photos from the computer back to the phone without using iTunes, and it may retain the original resolution. I'm going from memory here, so don't quote me on it.
While I've copied a lot of photos that I've taken with my Canon DSLR that have quite large resolution, I've not noticed that the pictures look bad on my iPhone. I have a 3G, and am looking forward to seeing how different they may look with the iPhone 4.
As far as the comment regarding leaving photos on the camera roll, it isn't a good idea because of the chance of losing them if you have to do a restore. I've read a story of someone that had upwards of 5000 photos there and had to do a restore and lost everything. They had not been syncing to iTunes either, so there was no backup. Living dangerously I believe.
i know there used to be some setting in itunes to change this... did they get rid of it? i'm not sure if it changed it to full resolution or just a higher one than the normal compressed one. its been a long time since i remember seeing it. but i specifically remember trying to decide which one to use because 1) i didn't want it to hog up my ipod touch but 2) if my computer crashed and i lost all my pics i wanted to use my ipod as a backup and have them at full res. my work computer doesn't have itunes so i can't check it out. sorry i can't be of more help, i'll look when i get home.
if i understand your problem correctly its not that they don't look good on your iphone at low res, but you want to continue to email them to people at full res, right?
a feature i would like to see is to be able to organize your photos right from your iphone.
if i understand your problem correctly its not that they don't look good on your iphone at low res, but you want to continue to email them to people at full res, right?
a feature i would like to see is to be able to organize your photos right from your iphone.
AMEN to the feature of organizing photos directly on the phone!
And you bring up another scenario where having full res is desirable; emailing the pics from the iphone (from the iPhone not the computer). The recipient would then only get to enjoy the image in a small resolution on their big screen.
So really, the problem boils down to being able to use the photos on your iPhone beyond just un-zoomed photo browsing only on the iPhone.
Correct.
This would be an even better solution.
Could everyone that would like this feature implemented please leave feedback for Apple stating so.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html