.AAE File, What It Is, How to Delete It and Keep It

Have you noticed files on your computer with the following extension: .AAE? This file extension usually cannot be opened with a program installed on the PC, so you are probably wondering why this extension appears? Should I remove it? Don't worry. Below, we will explain what these files are and how they can be recognized by a computer with Windows.

AAE – What is it?

Many people search for information about suspicious files with .AAE extensions. Other users detect their presence when they try to find a particular photo and sort it by type (or similar option) in the search engine. Also, these files can exist on computers with .AAE extensions. OS Windows or Mac.

On Windows, they are very frustrating to find, as the .AAE extension is hidden by default: they look like image files without the preview icon. When you try to open them, you get an error message stating that this type of file cannot be opened.

In fact, .AAE files (XML-based format) are created by Apple's Photos application and store information about the modifications made to a particular file.

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These files are in addition, allowing the original files to remain untouched in case users decide to revert photos back to their original state. Therefore, if .AAE files are deleted, only the adjustments made to a photo or image through the Photos app.

Explanation

Files with the .aae extension are usually created by operating systems MacOS o iOS en Mac, iPhone o iPad, or together with JPG photo files. This includes, for example, «Photo-App» in a iPhone o iPad, «Aperture» in a Mac.

Transfer .AAE files successfully on Windows

If you now have an .AAE file on your Windows PC, it was probably created when transferring from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. To prevent this from happening again during the transfer, we recommend a bypass using Google Drive.

Upload the photos to Google Drive and from there to your computer. The image processing will be preserved and you won't have any mysterious .AAE files on your computer.

How to transfer photos so they remain existing edits?

When transferring modified photos from an iPhone to a Mac computer running OS X (and later), you should not encounter any problems with Windows and some older versions of Mac OS (such as pre-OS X Yosemite), the file with the list of customizations will remain on the iPhone. Even if you move the file manually, there are no default applications that can open it.

To solve this frustrating problem, you need to look for a third-party software capable of reading the .AAE file format. If you are not a Mac OS user, you will have trouble finding a software to open the mod list file. Let's look at the solutions:

• Solution 1: A more reliable solution is to force the iPhone to apply changes to the original file or export the modified copy.
• Solution 2: Another of the easiest methods is to send yourself an email with an attached photo from an iPhone (in which the image is modified). Alternatively, you can choose to upload the edited version to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or other similar platform.

NOTE: : You should keep in mind that these social networks reduce the quality of uploaded photos to maintain website loading speeds.

• Solution 3: Another good option is to save photos in a storage in the cloud like iCloud or similar. Newer Apple devices offer an AirDrop feature, which is also a nice solution, but can be difficult to use.

How to open AAE files?

Opening iPhone AAE files is a fairly simple process, and you can easily view the images by following the steps given below.

• Alternative 1: The first step is to unhide it, and this can be done by opening each of the edited images individually with the help of a third-party iOS photo editing app and then saving them again without any editing or alterations. This is an effective way to create multiple copies of your camera roll with the AAE extension modifications.

All you have to do is get rid of the original image and import the saved image with the modifications and editing.

• Alternative 2: Another alternative for this could be to make use of an IOS application that is fully dedicated to transferring only AAE extension file types to transfer the images to the computer along with retaining the alterations that were made to the original image. Before you perform the transfer, you must be sure that the application you have chosen supports this type of feature.

Keep or delete .AAE files

On various technical support websites, many people ask whether they should delete or keep .AAE files, as they are not sure about the purpose of these files. The information above should help you make a decision.

You can rest assured that deleting files on Windows computers will not have any adverse effects, as there is no default software to open them. Please also note that the connection between the original file and the file with the modification list is lost if the parent file is renamed, until the .AAE file is renamed manually.

Therefore, if you rename a lot of photos that had edits and you can't remember the exact name of the image, they will become irrelevant and useless. Deleting them will not affect your photos and in any case they will only take up a few KB of storage.

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If you have been facing issues on how to open AAE files or issues related to retaining the alterations you have made to your images on your iOS device or PC. Then, we hope that this article will help you deal with all these issues and provide you with some highly efficient results.