Whenever you are looking at some image files on your PC or Mac you may sometimes notice that the image is not visible in the thumbnail, in windows. The image name will be different in apple devices but the image will be visible in the thumbnail but not the same case when it comes to windows. In windows, the file name will be visible, for example, “imagge01.aae” but the image will not be visible in the thumbnail. Whenever you try to open the aae file in windows it will show an error pop up message saying “Windows cannot open this file”. If such a message comes when you try to open an aae file then don’t be worried, it is completely normal.
What is an AAE file actually?
AAE file is created when a picture is edited on an Apple device. Confusing? Let me make it simple. Let’s say that you have a JPG file and you decide to edit the image on an Apple device. When you save the image with all the edits still part of the image, the device saves the image as something called aae extension file. The name aae will be at last just like .JPG file.
But why is the name not visible on an Apple device?
AAE files are pretty common when it comes to Apple devices. Apple does not alienate a file that the device is already familiar with so as the file can be opened in the device, the extension name is not visible when you look at the file as a thumbnail. But if you transfer the same file to a Windows PC or an android phone then the file name and its .aae extension will be visible because the system or the device is not actually familiar with the file and it shows the name.
Also Read: Filerepmalware: What Is It And How To Remove It
Can you open .aae files on devices other than Apple devices?
As we saw above in the article we can know that the .aae files are a result of files edited on Apple devices. So this file can be opened only on Apple devices and no other device. So if you try to open this file on any device that is not an Apple device then the .aae file will not open.
Why the file will not open on devices other than Apple devices?
The edit for the image was all done in software that is used exclusively on Apple devices. Can’t understand? Look at it this way. Let’s say that you save a file in photoshop as a .psd file, can you open that file in any other software photoshop or adobe software. So here in this case, if you try to open this file in software or applications other than adobe picture applications then it won’t open. The same mechanism applies here too. A file that has been edited in an Apple device cannot be opened on any other device.
Should you delete the aae file extension image?
This is a pretty common question, should you delete the file? The answer is, it depends. If you are planning to transfer the file to an Apple device then don’t delete it as you can actually use the file to make some useful edits. But what if you are never going to transfer it to another Apple device or this file won’t be helpful for you? Then you can delete it. If you don’t care about losing all the edits or you are not going to transfer the file then you can delete it for sure.
Conclusion:
In case you come across such aee files on any device, be it apple or windows, do not panic. Decide what you are actually going to do with the file. Are you going to edit it in the future by transferring it to an Apple device or the edits are done? Do you only have windows devices that have a .aae file? If you want to convert it to jpg then you need an Apple device. There may be some sources on the web that can help you convert aae files to jpg so search for those too. AAE file extension images are pretty common if you use Apple devices.
