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I just restored an iPhone 5 backup to an iPod touch both on iOS 6.1.3 (10B329) to rapidly load every app and setting, yet I'd really like the camera roll to start over with 0001.

I've gone in and deleted all the photos that restored onto the iPad using Image Capture, but the counter is stored on the device in a manner I can't figure out how to access

Is there a way to clear this counter and get the next photo I take to be IMG_0001.jpg without needing to erase all content and settings and start without restoring the backup?

(As a postscript, on iOS 10 and later, this reset procedure is very much discouraged - I’ve taken to managing any file name changes entirely from Photos app once I have imported and archived the originals. The sync via iCloud works faster and more reliably for me since this question was first posted)

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  • Would jailbreaking be an option for you here?
    – nohillside ♦
    Apr 9, 2013 at 4:28
  • It would be a last resort, but I didn't restrict it since it might help someone else and might document exactly where the counter is stored. Hard to tell without the details (and I'm not up on 6.1.3 jailbreak feasibility either)
    – bmike ♦
    Apr 9, 2013 at 12:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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With an Application such as iExplorer navigate to PhotoData / MISC where you'll find a file called DCIM_APPLE.plist which contains the following:

<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>DCIMLastDirectoryNumber</key>
    <integer>100</integer>
    <key>DCIMLastFileNumber</key>
    <integer>251</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

The DCIMLastFileNumber parameter is quite self explanatory. Set the number at which you want the counter to start at and restart the iPhone to apply the changes.

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  • 3
    Excellent. Using PhoneView, I was able to reset both my Last Directory to 100 and image to 0001. Thanks so much for the explanation. After attempting to delete the images using Image Capture, some were still left over, so I pruned those as well using the tool. I then had some empty albums in the Photos app, but deleting them seems to have things clean to start afresh.
    – bmike ♦
    Apr 9, 2013 at 13:20

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