Problems putting jpegs onto a thumb drive
January 1, 2020 10:48 AM Subscribe
I'm trying to load a 4GB USB thumb drive with [200 iPhone photos + 27 short iPhone videos + 9 Android photos ]. It's not working. The iPhone files won't open and I get a popup saying, "The file “IMG_1234.JPG” could not be opened. It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize." ...Why?
Here are all the details:
The 4-GB USB thumb drive was purchased from some random online seller.
On the thumb drive, I've saved two folders of photos:
- A 39 MB folder of photos taken by my partner. He used an Android phone, and used his PC to put them onto the USB drive. There are 9 jpegs. These all open properly on my Mac.
- A 2.45 GB folder of photos taken by me, using an iPhone XR. There are 200 jpegs + 27 short .mov files (the video lengths range from 10 seconds to 2 minutes). I air-dropped them from my iPhone onto my Mac (Sierra) desktop in batches, dragged them all into a desktop folder, then dragged that folder onto the drive icon on my desktop.
These files all open correctly from my desktop folder - and they all look fine on the USB drive's file directory. But when I click the files to open them from the drive, none of them will open, and I get a popup saying "The file “IMG_1234.JPG” could not be opened. It may be damaged, or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize."
Why?
Other possibly-relevant info:
When I first put the files on the drive, I tried putting them on in about 6 batches, and the drive got full before I was done - even though the files are less than 3GB total, and it's a 4GB drive.
I tried erasing them by dragging everything into the trash & emptying the trash while the drive was mounted. The drive LOOKED empty, but still had almost no available space.
So then I erased the whole USB drive using Disk Utility (as advised here). Then I tried importing all the pics again, in only 2 batches: a big folder of my iPhone photos and videos, and a small folder of my partner's Android photos. This time they all seemed to import... and the Android files open fine on my Mac- but none of the iPhone files will open on my Mac.
I'd really appreciate any advice. I still have all the photos and videos, both on our phones and our laptops, so I can easily delete the drive and start over if needed. But I'll need pretty simple instructions, as this is demonstrably not an area of expertise for me. Thanks!
Here are all the details:
The 4-GB USB thumb drive was purchased from some random online seller.
On the thumb drive, I've saved two folders of photos:
- A 39 MB folder of photos taken by my partner. He used an Android phone, and used his PC to put them onto the USB drive. There are 9 jpegs. These all open properly on my Mac.
- A 2.45 GB folder of photos taken by me, using an iPhone XR. There are 200 jpegs + 27 short .mov files (the video lengths range from 10 seconds to 2 minutes). I air-dropped them from my iPhone onto my Mac (Sierra) desktop in batches, dragged them all into a desktop folder, then dragged that folder onto the drive icon on my desktop.
These files all open correctly from my desktop folder - and they all look fine on the USB drive's file directory. But when I click the files to open them from the drive, none of them will open, and I get a popup saying "The file “IMG_1234.JPG” could not be opened. It may be damaged, or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize."
Why?
Other possibly-relevant info:
When I first put the files on the drive, I tried putting them on in about 6 batches, and the drive got full before I was done - even though the files are less than 3GB total, and it's a 4GB drive.
I tried erasing them by dragging everything into the trash & emptying the trash while the drive was mounted. The drive LOOKED empty, but still had almost no available space.
So then I erased the whole USB drive using Disk Utility (as advised here). Then I tried importing all the pics again, in only 2 batches: a big folder of my iPhone photos and videos, and a small folder of my partner's Android photos. This time they all seemed to import... and the Android files open fine on my Mac- but none of the iPhone files will open on my Mac.
I'd really appreciate any advice. I still have all the photos and videos, both on our phones and our laptops, so I can easily delete the drive and start over if needed. But I'll need pretty simple instructions, as this is demonstrably not an area of expertise for me. Thanks!
Best answer: Sounds like the flash drive is bad. If possible, you should try a different one.
posted by irisclara at 11:37 AM on January 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by irisclara at 11:37 AM on January 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ugh, thanks! I special ordered it and it took for-everrr to arrive. I’ll get another!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 1:01 PM on January 1, 2020
posted by nouvelle-personne at 1:01 PM on January 1, 2020
Best answer: You might also have better luck (in general, in the future) with a portable hard drive (also good for staying backed up)...I recently picked up a 2TB drive at best buy for like $30-40
posted by sexyrobot at 2:18 PM on January 2, 2020
posted by sexyrobot at 2:18 PM on January 2, 2020
Best answer: Just sounds like a standard USB drive faking its capacity. Try with a known genuine drive.
posted by turkeyphant at 8:15 PM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by turkeyphant at 8:15 PM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Unfortunately troubleshooting (deleting & recopying, erasing/reformatting, reformatting in another Mac, reformatting in a PC, reformatting in different formats etc etc) usually leads me to finding another USB stick that just works first time rather than burning more time looking for a fix (your time is worth more than the stick).
I put it down to cheap-memory sticks and/or limited life-span (eg treat the stick as disposable & limited use). I've also read of counterfeit USB sticks being a thing that happens & also sticks sold as one capacity but are actually a reduced capacity (where possible buy brand-name from a reputable supplier - even then....)
Do you have an SD card or other USB stick to try ?
Can you email (or dropbox/google-drive/onedrive) the files to their destination instead (they don't seem large) ?
Good luck.
posted by phigmov at 11:20 AM on January 1, 2020