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Some backstory: I wanted to transfer some photos from my iPhone X (running iOS 13.6) to my Windows 10 PC (running Version 2004 – the "May 2020 Update") in their original, HEIC format. I noticed that whenever you upload a photo to a cloud storage platform (Google Drive, OneDrive) or via email (for example, the default Mail, Gmail, or Outlook apps), the HEIC photo is converted to a JPG file format. The only way to transfer the original HEIC format is via iTunes (or some other equivalent software), or – more quickly – by just connecting the iPhone via USB and using Windows' File Explorer to retrieve the file.

So, I did the latter and was browsing the directory for the photo that I wanted. Let's say, for example's sake, that the photo's filename was "IMG_100.HEIC". The corresponding directory structure was: This PC\Apple iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM\120APPLE\IMG_100.HEIC. However, I was shocked to see that there were – in fact – two files named "IMG_100.HEIC" in the exact same folder! What's more is that the photos weren't even the same (different date taken, different location, etc).

So, how is this even possible and how come iOS is able to store multiple photos with identical filenames in the same directory – something that is generally forbidden to do, to my knowledge, at least in Windows?
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  • APFS has quite a few tricks. I’m not even sure these files are properly stored there and its not a synthetic filesystem at this point with firmlinks / hard links / something else to be honest. What are you trying to do in the end here? Perhaps we can answer what you need without needing to reverse engineer this...
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 0:33
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    I'm not trying to do anything, actually. I just was curious as to how iOS is able to store multiple files with identical filenames in the same directory. I gave the backstory to explain how I first stumbled upon this bizarre matter. I don't actually need any help transferring photos, thanks xD.
    – CuriosityCalls
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 0:36
  • On a mac, I would use the mdls command to list all metadata since APFS can store localized names, display names, file system names and more. Not sure there’s an easy lever on what iOS presents to the windows OS via network share protocol... Cool question - wanted to help if you had a side quest while we see who has ideas on main : - )
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jul 27, 2020 at 0:48

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