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I'm using WinMerge to compare files from a PC folder to a folder on my iPhone.

WinMerge requires the file path for each location, so grabbing my desktop folder location is no issue: C:\Users\Trevor\Desktop\Photos.

However, WinMerge won't recognize my iPhone path as a proper location. When I copy this path from the title bar, it shows as This PC\Apple iPhone\Internal Storage\DCIM. I assume it won't recognize because This PC is the source instead of a conventional drive.

How do I fix this? I would expect my iPhone to appear as a normal D: or E: drive, but I don't know how to do this. I selected Display the full path in the title bar from Control Panel, and the title bar still only displays This PC.

Trevor D
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  • I don't think it is possible. – LPChip Apr 13 '19 at 13:53
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    Android devices (and I suspect iPhones as well) do not report themselves as "standard" storage devices to your operating system. Instead they report as self-managing devices that use the Media Transfer Protocol. The do not show up as a drive because your operating system has no access to it at the storage level, it is essentially an intelligent file sharing device over a USB network. You will need to copy whatever files you want to compare to your computer and examine them there. – Mokubai Apr 13 '19 at 14:33
  • Related [information here](https://superuser.com/a/1376745/19943) – Mokubai Apr 13 '19 at 14:35
  • @Mokubai iPhones are Apple products, which means it is far stricter than Android. It is very toned down because Apple wants you to use iTunes to do all the stuff. So I'm not even sure it is a Media Transfer Protocol. – LPChip Apr 13 '19 at 21:12
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    Also, the only way this may even remotely work, is by copying everything from the iPhone to a folder on your computer, and compare it once it is there, then remove everything from the iPhone, and copy back the result after the compare. – LPChip Apr 13 '19 at 21:14
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    @Mokubai and LPChip I appreciate this feedback. I am actually already backing up by copying folders from my iPhone to my PC. There is one folder with a handful of files that the PC won’t recognize which stops the file transfer, so only 2/3 transferred over. This is why I used WinMerge to compare, so I would know which files transferred and which didn’t, so I could manually copy files while excluding those that the PC won’t recognize. – Trevor D Apr 14 '19 at 12:04

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