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HEIC - can not export MOV

In the past, I was able to export an HEIC image from Photos and extract both the jpg and the MOV.


This was documented in this 2018 Macworld article


The way to export both parts of the HEIC was to either:

  • Option-drag the image from photos to the desktop
  • Export unmodified from the app


When I do this with HEIC images now, I'm only getting the jpg.


Does anyone know of a fix for this or another way to extract the MOV?


Thanks in advance!


MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jul 7, 2020 7:37 AM

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Posted on Jul 11, 2020 5:19 AM

Only Live Photos are a pair of a still frame (HEIC or JPEG) and a video component. Not all photos showing as HEIC in your Photos Library may be Live Photos. Portraitmode photos may have been taken in the HEIC format, or any still photo. And even Live Photos may not have been imported as a Live Photo, for example, if you imported the Live Photo using My Photo Stream, you will only get the still frame imported into your Photos Library and not the video component. Are the photos, where you cannot export the video component showing as Live Photos in Photos? Or are they not in the Media > Live Photos album?


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 11, 2020 5:19 AM in response to thunderhouse

Only Live Photos are a pair of a still frame (HEIC or JPEG) and a video component. Not all photos showing as HEIC in your Photos Library may be Live Photos. Portraitmode photos may have been taken in the HEIC format, or any still photo. And even Live Photos may not have been imported as a Live Photo, for example, if you imported the Live Photo using My Photo Stream, you will only get the still frame imported into your Photos Library and not the video component. Are the photos, where you cannot export the video component showing as Live Photos in Photos? Or are they not in the Media > Live Photos album?


Jul 10, 2020 4:20 PM in response to thunderhouse

Hello thunderhouse,



Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are unable to export HEVC file as a movie file as expected on your Mac. To help with this, please try a different app as this Apple resource suggests:



"If you open an HEVC video in QuickTime Player on your Mac, you can choose File > Export As, then save to H.264 by making sure the HEVC checkbox isn’t selected."



Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices



Cheers!

Jul 10, 2020 4:40 PM in response to MoonJ.

Thank you for the response, MoonJ. However, I was not asking about exporting an HEVC file, I was asking about an HEIC file.


According to the Macworld article I linked in my original post, one can export the MOV component of an HEIC file from the Photos app.


The techniques in the article are either:

-- Option drag the HEIC image from the Photos app to the finder

-- Select the HEIC image then select Export->unmodified


Those techniques are not working for me on Mojave.

Jul 12, 2020 8:08 AM in response to léonie

Thank you, Leonie. Your answer helped me figure this out and to check photos on my iphone to see if they were taken as live photos.


I've just used Image Capture to copy photos I confirmed to be live photos on my phone to my desktop. Just by dragging the photos from Image Capture to the finder, the MOV component of the HEIC is automatically exported. The result in my finder is the HEIC file and a matching MOV file if the photo was a live photo.


I had set my phone to use HEIC but it looks like I accidentally turned of the Live photo setting for some of the photos I took. That is why those HEIC did not contain a MOV when I exported them.


In Settings -> Camera -> Preserve Settings, turning Live Photo option on keeps the last Live Photo setting rather than reverting automatically back to Live Photo On. In my case, I accidentally turned the Live Photo off, then this setting kept Live Photo off until I manually turned it back on. That explains why a few months of HEIC photos I took did not have a MOV component.


Thanks again Leonie and MoonJ. Mystery and frustration solved!



HEIC - can not export MOV

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