There is no DCIM folder at all when I connect my phone to my pc

The photos are in a database managed by the Photos app on the iPhone. Apple never intended to make that data structure accessible from outside of the iPhone, if anything, the fact that you can see anything on the internal iPhone storage is a major bug that has been in many versions of iOS.

You should use the Windows photo management app or iCloud for Windows to transfer photos.

Try this:

Connect your iPhone to your computer using the cable.

On your PC, open File Explorer.

Then you select “This PC” from the list on the left.

Double-click your iPhone.

Then you will see the DCIM folder.

Double-click the DCIM folder. ..