How to open Apple iOS .AAE file?
Is a way to open and access the cropped version of the image or other information in the .AAE file?
.aae files are only used by iOS and OS X 10.10+.
They can be viewed by a text editor to see what edits were made to the photo, but won't allow you to access the modified photo in Windows.
An AAE file contains edits made to an image using the Photos app on an iOS device. It is used to transfer non-destructive edits a user has made to .JPG images in iOS to the macOS system. AAE files can be found accompanying the images for which they contain edits.
More Information
AAE files are used by iOS 8 and later and OS X 10.10 and later. If you import pictures from an iOS device to Windows, the JPEG images will only get transferred and not the AAE files, which will cause you to lose your edits. Also, AAE files can be deleted without erasing your pictures but any edits made to them will be removed.
The AAE file is referenced by the Photos app when opening the JPG file in which it is associated. It can also be opened by text editors such as TextEdit and Notepad to view the edits made to the corresponding photo.
Source .AAE File Extension
So how can I access the modified photo on Windows?
Use any other photo editing app on your iOS device. Open the app and import the photo in it, and then save it again without making any changes. The only thing you need to be careful of here is that the app you use doesn’t add a watermark and that it doesn’t compress the photo, or crop it.
You’re obviously going to want a free app in this case so we recommend Snapseed by Google or Darkroom by Adobe. Both let you save a copy of a photo without having to make single change to it. Once you’ve saved a copy, simply connect your phone to your PC/Mac and copy it from the device’s storage like you would any other photo.
Source How To Import A Photo Edited On Your iPhone To Your Computer
I was having this problem, but I realised windows has saved the edits! If you have a photo with an accompanying aae file, windows/apple is somehow making a copy of that photo. For example, if you have an apple photo IMG_2602 with IMG_2602.aae, another jpeg copy will be saved with IMG_e2602 and this image contains the edits. So we can go ahead and delete these aae files and it doesn’t have an issue with the img_exxxx copy