Play live photos (.heic extension) in Photos app on Mac

Question

Play live photos (.heic extension) in Photos app on Mac

Hi,

When I import live photos from my iPhone 7 (iOS 13.3.1) to my MacBook Pro (OS Mojave 10.14.6) they do not play in the Photos app. The same photos do play on my iPhone.

The files are opened as still images with the .heic extension in the Photos app.

The most recent time that I successfully exported a live photo from my iPhone to my Mac was in April 2019 (one year ago). However, when I have tried to export live photos from my iPhone to my Mac over the past month they appear as still images on my Mac.

The "Keep Originals" option has always been selected in /Settings / Photos on my iPhone.

Any help that anyone could provide would be much appreciated!

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 21, 2020 12:56 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

léonie

Level 10

195,437 points

Apr 22, 2020 1:14 PM in response to marraghdehigan

You'd better import the Live Photos using a USB connection.

Then you will see both the .MOV and the .HEIC file. (but only, if you remove all HEIC files, that have already been imported without the corresponding video component)

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

195,437 points

Apr 21, 2020 1:18 PM in response to marraghdehigan

A Live Photo is a pair of a still frame and a video component. When you import the photos from an iPhone you should be seeing a .HEIC file (the still frame) and a .MOV file (the video component). You have to import both files together, or the Live Photo cannot come alive.

If you imported only the .HEIC still frame, you have to remove it fro the library completely (including from recently Deleted), before you import the pair of the still frame and the video clip, or the pair cannot be imported paired as a Live Photo.

How have you been transferring the Live Photo? If you are shooting Live Photos on the iPhone, do not use My Photo Stream. It is breaking the Live Photos by transferring only the still frame. my Photo Stream needs to be disabled, if you want to be able to import Live Photos correctly using a USB connection.

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Answer 3

Apr 22, 2020 12:58 PM in response to léonie

Many thanks for the reply Léonie!

I am not seeing any .mov files when I import a "live photo". Please see this video (https://youtu.be/k5hW57gATdo) that I uploaded to YouTube to show what is happening when I Airdrop the file to my Mac.

I am importing them by using AirDrop.

For now I would like to figure out how to import a Live Photo before re-importing the photos that did not get imported successfully.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

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Answer 4

Apr 23, 2020 12:24 PM in response to léonie

Importing using a USB connection worked.

Thank you very very much Léonie!

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Play live photos (.heic extension) in Photos app on Mac

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