Downloading photos to a PC & HEIC Format from an iPhone X

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Downloading photos to a PC & HEIC Format from an iPhone X

You need to have tons of patience and adhere to Apple's way of doing things but..... There are no "buts". Adhere to Apple or plan on spending hours trying to make it work without doing it Apples way....

Spent hours, 1. Downloading/backing up Photos to my PC (connection to iPhone X constantly breaking off at some point) and 2. Dealing with Apple's HEIC format photos....

Just who does Apple think they are? They dictate to their customers what they think is best for us. No options and the last place to go for a iOS fix. They are tone deaf in so many ways.

I thought the compatability issues were finally under control? Nope, has to be Apple's way or spend hours finding fixes, spending time converting photos and dealing with, what should happen, issues which you expect not to happen in 2020.... Expect this to go the way of Sony's Betamax.

Regarding problem #1 above, found a well hidden "trick" which helped but did not 100% solve the issue if anyone is interested... Regarding problem #2, trying out "iMazing HEIC converter" later... BTW, Both (potential) solutions did not come from Apple.

Hmmmm?

Posted on Aug 25, 2020 7:58 AM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

200,861 points

Aug 25, 2020 11:49 AM in response to Gregii01

You did try the obvious fixes, didn't you? Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

To avoid HEIC photos on your iPhone set the Settings > Camera > Formats to "Most Compatible". Then the iPhone will take the images in the JPEG format.
To download the HEIC photos from your iPhone as JPEGs instead of HEIC you can change the Settings > Photos : TRANSFER TO MAC OR PC and set it to "Automatic".

I am not sure, where this went wrong for you.

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Answer 2

Gregii01 Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 1, 2020 2:49 AM in response to léonie

Hi and thanks for your help!

regarding the conversion issue I found a good conversion program that works with „batches“ of files instead of one-by-one conversion of HEIC to jpg. Cannot see any losses of foto quality so this is a workable solution. However checking the settings (which I should have somehow noticed from the beginning) I probably took for granted that the files were not jpg from the BEGINNING (more or less the industry standard). The „most compatible“ selection upon initial configuration of the phone did not make it obvious to me that the pictures would be stored in a „less compatible“ format.... In the days of Storage costs being extremely cheep, it continues to baffle me why Apple still charges a premium for internal storage and allows no removable storage cards (obviously a $$£¥€ maker for Apple) and yet still creates its own foto format to „reduce storage space“ through a format which is „less compatible“.

Regarding the download onto a PC the solution I found is somewhat strange... Since I work off of several PCs and Laptops I do not want the pictures to download automatically.... However, my iPhone X settings was on „automatic“ download to Mac and/or PC... Yes, was set to automatic!

The solution to my download problem was to set it to „manual“! Yes, after switching to manual the interruptions nearly vanished. I say „nearly“ as there was still 1 or 2 crashes but did manage to download all 800+ pictures and videos after about an hour (USB 3).

Found the solution (switching to manual) after a longer search and not in an Apple sponsored Forum.

However, I sincerely thank-you for your help!

Greg

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Downloading photos to a PC & HEIC Format from an iPhone X

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