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iOS 11 - Photo's taken are JPEG not HEIF

N

Nemic

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 18, 2012
100
3
Hi all.

I took 2 photo's and transferred them to my iMac using AirDrop.

Both images are showing as being JPEG format rather than HEIF.

Finder displays the .jpg at the end of the filename and under Kind they are shown as JPEG.

I'm running iOS 11 on an iPhone 7.

My camera settings in Formats are:

High Efficiency "To reduce file size, capture photos and videos in the high-efficiency HIEF/HEVC format. Most Compatible will always use JPEG/H.264"

I cannot understand why the photos are not being described as HEIF.

Am I doing something wrong?

Additionally when I record a movie, it is showing as being H.264 rather that HEVC.

I have tried switching to Most Compatible (it stays the same) and then back to High Efficiency, and nothing changes.

I've tried taking identical photos in the 2 different formats, and when the camera is set to High Efficiency, the file size is little bit smaller 2.7MB compared to 2.9MB. But both are showing as being JPEG.

iMac is a Retina 5K Late 2014, running macOS Sierra 10.12.6
 
I suspect because it senses you are running Sierra. Sierra does not understand HEIF.

Similarly if you iMessage an iOS 10 iPhone, they’ll get a JPEG. Furthermore, if you send a HEIF Live Photo, they will receive a JPEG still image only.
 
EugW said:
I suspect because it senses you are running Sierra. Sierra does not understand HEIF.

Similarly if you iMessage an iOS 10 iPhone, they’ll get a JPEG. Furthermore, if you send a HEIF Live Photo, they will receive a JPEG still image only.
Click to expand...


Ah I see.

I assumed that as I was running the latest macOS HEIF and HEVC would work.

I forgot that macOS High Sierra has not yet been released! - and Apple Support indicates that High Sierra is compatible with HEIF and HEVC.

Interestingly Google Photos App displays the file types as "HEIC" not HEIF.

Thanks for your reply EugW :)
 
You need to change the option in the Photos settings from Auto to Original file format.

iOS will automatically convert the image when downloading to your computer (if the computer is not compatible with the HEIF file format) if you don't specify this option in PHOTOS settings
 
mds1256 said:
You need to change the option in the Photos settings from Auto to Original file format.

iOS will automatically convert the image when downloading to your computer (if the computer is not compatible with the HEIF file format) if you don't specify this option in PHOTOS settings
Click to expand...


Hi,

I just tried that now, and there is no change. Changes iOS Photo's to "Keep Originals"

Photo's are still displayed as .jpg on my iMac.

I suspect this is because Sierra is not compatible with HEIF - as EugW stated above - and only High Sierra is.

I wonder if my iMac is simply changing them to .jpg?
 
No, the iMac wouldn’t know what to with a HEIF file. The phone is changing it to JPEG before sending it.

BTW, HEIF is the overall format name, High Efficiency Image Format. HEIC is the suffix appended to the still image. I don’t know what the C stands for.
 
Nemic said:
Hi,

I just tried that now, and there is no change. Changes iOS Photo's to "Keep Originals"

Photo's are still displayed as .jpg on my iMac.

I suspect this is because Sierra is not compatible with HEIF - as EugW stated above - and only High Sierra is.

I wonder if my iMac is simply changing them to .jpg?
Click to expand...

You will need to connect to pc with a cable in order to get the true file (also keep originals switched on), soon as you share it in any other way it will convert it anyway.

Even though Sierra is not compatible you will still get the true file (just cannot open it at the minute).

https://www.macworld.com/article/32...-about-these-new-video-and-photo-formats.html
 
Are you shooting in Burst? or Burst Shot? If Yes, then it's JPEG. I reported it already to apple. 1 shot is HEIF but burst shots are jpeg.

You can validate it by downloading an EXIF Viewer in your iphone. It will show you the format.
 
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I have iOS 11 on my iPhone 7 Plus and macOS High Sierra Beta on my MacBook Pro.

I have the following enabled:
- settings > camera > format > high efficiency
- settings > photos > transfer to mac or PC > keep originals

But when I take a picture and transfer to my mac, or save to dropbox/Files app, or send via the mail app, file type is still JPEG...

What am I doing wrong?
 
Boardiesboi said:
I have iOS 11 on my iPhone 7 Plus and macOS High Sierra Beta on my MacBook Pro.

I have the following enabled:
- settings > camera > format > high efficiency
- settings > photos > transfer to mac or PC > keep originals

But when I take a picture and transfer to my mac, or save to dropbox/Files app, or send via the mail app, file type is still JPEG...

What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Plug the device into your computer using a cable (as said above) and you can get the original types - trying to do it wirelessly will result in JPG format
 
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I have exported a 15s 4K 60FPS video clip. The HEVC (=H265) file has a size of 104.4MB and the converted H264 file is 75.4MB in size. When you look at stills you can see that some details are slightly degraded, mostly the contrast in small areas. You have to look really close to see the differences.
 
mds1256 said:
Plug the device into your computer using a cable (as said above) and you can get the original types - trying to do it wirelessly will result in JPG format
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Yes I just connected my 7+ to my work PC and had a look a the original formats and they are indeed HEIC.

I'm just surprised that even with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, AirDrop still does not export the photos in HEIC.
 
so if I send a picture to a Andoid device or a Windows PC or even a Mac not on high sierra they still can see it as a Jpeg correct?
 
mds1256 said:
Plug the device into your computer using a cable (as said above) and you can get the original types - trying to do it wirelessly will result in JPG format
Click to expand...

hi
i wonder what would happen if you use AirDrop to transfer it between 2 iPhone 8 both running iOS 11.
 
niji said:
hi
i wonder what would happen if you use AirDrop to transfer it between 2 iPhone 8 both running iOS 11.
Click to expand...
Interesting.... Supposedly it should determine if it can view the new format if not then fall back. I would hope it would transfer in native format but I guess someone should test....
[doublepost=1506515250][/doublepost]
garethjs said:
is there a way of converting all my pics in library to HEIF?
Click to expand...
I would like to know this too - I heard that you should do it as it would be a lossy format getting converted to another lossy format and it would degrade the quality - not sure if I agree..... But maybe that's why Apple has left current images in their original formats and only new will be changed.
 
yes it's never a good idea to convert from one lossy format to another. you are basically double dipping the loss in quality
 
Thanks for all of the replies to this thread :)

Well I have upgraded to High Sierra and sadly AirDrop is still converting my iPhone photo's to .JPEG - I hope that Apple fix this in the future.

As suggested by MDS1256 above I tried the cable connection to my iMac and used Image Capture to transfer the photo.

It now shows as being a .HEIC and is 1.3 MB as opposed to the .JPEG which is 2 MB.

Videos are still showing as .MOV in Finder but Info shows the Codec as HEVC.

Tapping the SpaceBar to preview the Video now displays a thumbnail rather than playing the video, which is a shame as I use that feature a lot. :-(

Also using a cable seems a tad backdated after so long being used to AirDrop :-/
 
I recall reading that if you use the Share Sheet or AirDrop the iPhone will automatically transcode to JPEG or H.264.
I've tried the recommended setting for keeping the original format and using Image Capture to pull the video's or images but they still move over USB as JPEG or H.264.
 
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