Using Vista I just access the iPhone folders after I plug it in and drag the pictures where I want them. Very manual, but I grew weary of trying to make photo apps do what I wanted them to do. (I post pics using HTML on a web server).
I joined this site just to post my solution to this problem. It worked for me and I hope it helps anyone else who has a need for it.
I had the same issue as the OP: My computer (and my work one) would not recognise my iphone as a camera. Even if (as you, PNutts, have suggested above) I seek out the drive and attempt to access the files manually, I have no luck. The camera does not come up as a drive and there is no way to access it as such. That said, I have just managed to regain control of my Iphone's camera roll...
Solution One:
I read about a solution to this problem. The solution I read went as follows: You have to remove all of the pictures on your iphone that do not come from the iphone itself (not too sure about pics sent from other iphones saved into the camera roll). The idea, according to this solution, is that those "foreign" images (images from the internet and other mobile phones with different cameras) cause some sort of stuff up on the iphone resulting in it not being recognised by a PC. People attest to this solution working, but I can't confirm it as I had 11GB of photos and was not prepared to sift through them to delete all of those "foreign" images.
Solution Two:
The solution that
did work for me was to download
Iphone Browser and use that program to access the DCIM folder of your iphone. Once there, I right-clicked on each 1XXAPPLE folder and manually copied all of the folders (along with the photos inside) to my desktop. Once I'd ensured that all of the files/photos were safely copied across, I then went back and deleted each and every folder inside the DCIM folder on Iphone Browser before unplugging my iphone from the computer.
If you do attempt this solution, you must ensure that you have safely and completely copied all of your photos across before deleting them from your phone via Iphone Browser.
As a form of warning: If you have a lot of photos on your phone, you will want to set aside a few hours to complete this process. At least for my 11GB of files (yes, I'd been avoiding this problem for a long time
), it took a l
ooong time to save all of those photos/movies across to the desktop from the phone. Then, to delete the contents of the DCIM folder, it was also
very slow. You can speed it up some (at least for the deletion part) by going into the "Edit" section of Iphone Browser and then clicking "Options" and selecting "no automatic backup" (or something to that effect). Please note, however, that this will prevent Iphone Browser from making backup copies of your photos as it deletes, and
if you haven't saved your photos properly ... you will lose them altogether.
Now that my iphone's photo folders have been cleaned out, I can continue taking new photos and plug in my phone for the PC to recognise it.
As of now, I have the "do you want to copy these photos to your PC" box popping up and I also have the option of going into My Computer and manually copying the files across as there is now a "Digital Camera" present--something that I haven't seen for a year. Yey!
I think I'll avoid saving internet and received messages on my iphone in future.
