How to stop iPhone from converting HEIC to JPEG when Airdropping to laptop

Question

Level 3

706 points

How to stop iPhone from converting HEIC to JPEG when Airdropping to laptop

I want to transfer my images in the original HEIC format to preserve the live effects. Yet everytime I Airdrop anything to my laptop the iPhone insists on converting them either to MOV or JPEG. The laptop is on Mojave and can handle them.

I have occasionally imported images via USB cable into Photos and they come over as HEIC.

I checked the settings on the iPhone and all seems correct:

Camera: “High Efficiency” is selected under “Formats”
Photos: “Keep Originals” is selected in the “Transfer to Mac or PC” section. (I tried automatic but it didn’t make any difference.)

Any hints would be much appreciated.

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

-Simon-

Level 2

208 points

Apr 26, 2020 8:59 AM in response to Martin S.

Hi,

Take a look at those settings before you share.

Small options> a the very top of share popup and than All photos data

(please note that this will share lot of metadata as well but I understand its your laptop so there is no need to take care about privacy)

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Answer 2

-Simon-

Level 2

208 points

Apr 26, 2020 10:15 AM in response to Martin S.

Interesting I was pretty sure that was working before. Anyway now its not sending live photo but only heic or jpeg on my setup at least MacOS 10.15.4(19E287) and iOS 13.4.5 (17F5044d)

However if you imessage to yourself and you got the message on the laptop it preserves live photo

of course it goes over photo stream to your Photos app so I was always getting this from there as it is faster. When you export original from Photos you got heic and mov files exported for your convenience.

Thats at least what I’m using recently (it wont work when the laptop is not setup with your Photo stream obviously - I don't know if thats the case)

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2020 8:07 AM in response to Martin S.

AirDrop from iPhone to PC?

Importing this media via USB --> Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

When you import HEIF or HEVC media from an attached iOS device to Photos, Image Capture, or a PC, the media might be converted to JPEG or H.264.

You can change this import behavior in iOS 11 or later. Go to Settings > Photos. In the TRANSFER TO MAC OR PC section, tap Keep Originals to prevent the media from being converted to JPEG or H.264 when importing.

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