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Portrait type photos are corrupted (grey area appear) when transferring from iPhone to PC

When using the bulk transfer from iPhone to PC (Windows 10) with "Keep Originals" settings in Photos, the imported portrait (IMG_Exxxx) photos are corrupted and they are imported as HEIC as well as the originals.

Few months ago with the above settings, the portrait photos were transferred as IMG_Exxxx.JPG instead of HEIC format. There is no any other issue with the normal HEIC photos, only with the portrait type photos.

If I change to the "Automatic" setting when transferring to PC in the Photos application, the portrait images are transferred properly in IMG_E.jpg, but in this scenario all other HEIC photos are not rotated properly and the EXIF data can be lost.


I prefer using the "Keep Originals" settings when transferring from iPhone to PC, but it seems that there is a bug when you are importing the Portrait type of photos that should be copied as JPG and rotated properly regardless of the "Keep Originals" settings.


Thank you,


Peter

iPhone 11, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 1, 2020 1:52 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Nov 24, 2020 9:57 PM

S314-EsPi Said:

"Portrait type photos are corrupted (grey area appear) when transferring from iPhone to PC"

-------


I. Contact Microsoft:

Find out what's going on, from Microsoft's end of things. If no fix yet, Apple probably has yet to play their role in this.

How to Contact Microsoft:

Start here, with the Virtual Support Agent. Start a chat with a rep, asking them where this all stands. I'm most certain that Microsoft has yet to do their part in catching up with all these changes made by Apple.


II. Provide Apple Feedback:

Do your Part. Seeing seven "Me To" marks as of this reply, this seems to be a common issue - most certainly a bug. So, inform Apple of this bug - Apple won't get back to you directly, but the more feedback they receive on this, the more they will know what bugs are occurring and needs to be fixed.

How to Give Feedback:

  1. Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
  2. Select: "Bug Report" for "Feedback Type"
  3. Inform Apple: of how you came across this issue, and how you've troubleshot it thus far.
  4. Proceed from there as necessary

Similar questions

141 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Nov 24, 2020 9:57 PM in response to S314-EsPi

S314-EsPi Said:

"Portrait type photos are corrupted (grey area appear) when transferring from iPhone to PC"

-------


I. Contact Microsoft:

Find out what's going on, from Microsoft's end of things. If no fix yet, Apple probably has yet to play their role in this.

How to Contact Microsoft:

Start here, with the Virtual Support Agent. Start a chat with a rep, asking them where this all stands. I'm most certain that Microsoft has yet to do their part in catching up with all these changes made by Apple.


II. Provide Apple Feedback:

Do your Part. Seeing seven "Me To" marks as of this reply, this seems to be a common issue - most certainly a bug. So, inform Apple of this bug - Apple won't get back to you directly, but the more feedback they receive on this, the more they will know what bugs are occurring and needs to be fixed.

How to Give Feedback:

  1. Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
  2. Select: "Bug Report" for "Feedback Type"
  3. Inform Apple: of how you came across this issue, and how you've troubleshot it thus far.
  4. Proceed from there as necessary

Feb 20, 2022 12:43 PM in response to Ryder_del_Fin

@Ryder_del_Fin, Refer my answer on the other post about this issue in Apple Communities: Portrait Mode Photos Corrupted (Gray Bar) - Apple Community


To summarise though:


  • yes, I'm using the Windows iCloud app, not a web browser (although there's a partial workaround to the download size for unedited photos in a web browser, it doesn't help us with the grey bar issue).
  • you can change the name of the folder where iCloud saves photos. I've called mine "Download" in the location you saw in my screenshot.
  • no, using an external drive doesn't help. Not sure why you are seeing a difference?
  • The only workarounds I found were to use a 3rd party cloud backup tool (I tested OneDrive, Dropbox and iDrive and both work to get the full resolution edited photo)


Other important points to note:


  • the issue is not just "Portrait" mode photos. Can't remember what setting I used for the below landscape photo, but clearly the grey bar occurred.



Note: My reason for mentioning the HEIF extension was that I was just adding to @davidg82's post to explain which extension on MS Store to use.   It's not really relevant to the grey bar issue - just friendly advice because someone was saying they didn't know how to display (valid) .heic files on Windows.  FWIW, I have Windows 10 and it certainly didn't recognize .heic files by default. I needed to install the extensions to be able to display the photo in an .heic file.  Based on my Google'ing, WIndows 11 doesn't support .heic out of the box either - you need to install the extension for it too. If you don't have the extension installed, you can still open the file with 3rd party tools that support .heic, or you can open it to examine it at byte level with an editor that supports doing so. As you're adamant photos with a grey bar are just mis-named jpeg files, it sounds like you've probably done that.

Nov 29, 2020 12:31 AM in response to jo3553

Hi Everyone,


To further add to this, to summarize the previous and current behaviors:


1) Previously (few months ago):


iPhone / Settings / Photos: Transfer to Mac or PC: Keep originals


When transferred all the photos from iPhone to PC (Windows 10 OS): all HEIC files transferred properly, all "Portrait" photos automatically transferred as IMG_EXXXX.JPG (The original photo was properly transferred as IMG_XXXX.HEIC).



2) Currently:


iPhone / Settings / Photos: Transfer to Mac or PC: Keep originals


When transferred all the photos from iPhone to PC (Windows 10 OS): all HEIC files transferred properly, all "Portrait" photos transferred as IMG_EXXXX.HEIC (!) and the issue with the grey area appeared.


I'll file this in the ticket at the corresponding Apple & MS supports and will get back to you if I receive an update.


Cheers,


Peter

Dec 21, 2020 4:14 PM in response to S314-EsPi

Hi to the 22 people facing this issue


Following up, Apple advised me today to update my iPhone to iOS 14.3 and replicate the issue, even when I was so skeptical (since I've read all the changes via About iOS 14 Updates - Apple Support for iOS 14.3), there's no changes for Camera/Photos aside of ProRAW for iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, even do, I decided to give a shot but again, I'm getting the same result...


I'm about to loose my mind, I spend more than a $1.2k on a device that I can't even use it as it's supposed to. Portrait is one of those "enhance features" for Pro and Pro Max models... this is so frustrating.


I'll keep you posted in case I have further information/support.


Best regards,


Walter



May 13, 2021 10:48 AM in response to TheLittles

Hello everyone,


And yet we're still here... and yet TheLittles keep trying to "advise" us to leave feedback...

And yet many of you have even shared binary, raw and metadata; we're certainly tech savvy users, aren't we?

And yet the I have this question too button keeps rising up (212 as of May 13th 2021)...

And yet after 7 months, 4 iOS golden master updates, and so many, many beta sprints were released; we still stuck here...

As I said on my conclusion post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251982667?answerId=254921715022#254921715022

I lost my faith long time ago.


I'm glad this thread is being helpful to let so many people know this is a well self-user-known issue, but please do not except this is going to get fix soon, we well probably need to stick on JPEG, 8bit w/ no DeepFusion/ProRAW, etc.


Do not hesitate to keep updating this thread in case you have have something to share, eventually, you're going to get tired and will probably resigned thereafter (like me).


Take good care everyone,


Walter


Feb 16, 2022 11:58 PM in response to S314-EsPi

Hope this helps !


If windows does not support the file format you would need to get an extension or codec that can play that format maybe from Microsoft store. I have not tested the extension out, so check out the reviews they do have others as well just search the extension.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/heic-image-viewer-converter/9n8k5qxzsjnv#activetab=pivot:overviewtab


The Image Extension enables Windows 10 devices to read and write files that use the iphones unique format. You will still need to associate the extension with the photo viewer, or you can just download a photo app that supports the extension.


Apple doesn't supply your windows computer. Thats why it works when you import using "compatible" which says it all right there. The key word being "compatible" it slipped past me before too .... windows imports them, but cant read them properly because its not programmed for it most likely, which im surprised it opened/imported it at all .

more info

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/photos-app-video-editor-error-can-t-view-this-file-type-173ae0be-2b7d-d413-589e-84ccca0de02e


Upload to onedrive then re-download may also work with google drive and icloud apple gives 5GB of icloud storage log into icloud.com access photos then download what you want, or try and upload photos directly from the phone while logged into icloud.com on safari browser upload the photo to icloud drive then go to

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/upload-heif-and-hevc-photos-and-videos-to-onedrive-96d137f5-369b-4d99-9db8-523c736da425


change default photo app

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-default-programs-in-windows-10-e5d82cad-17d1-c53b-3505-f10a32e1894d


Apple did provide software that you can use for photos if its set up automatically sync check it from time to time sometimes it may lose the connection to apple servers or you may leave your computer off for long periods of time which since the computers off do data is being transmitted, so whatever you do what show on the computer until you connect back to the internet, so it can send the info to your computer from the server that had the info the phone had on it....see apple llooking out for yall and microsoft is the problem

Set up and use iCloud for Windows - Apple Support




The video goes over associating the file type with the apps, also changing the default apps



Mar 21, 2022 4:54 AM in response to S314-EsPi

I think, this issue may have been solved now..?


  1. I typically use my iPhone 12 camera 'zoomed', so that images fill the 16x9 frame
  2. When synced two images appear on my PC - one 'natural / native' and one 'zoomed in'
  3. The zoomed images are ALWAYS the ones distorted with the grey crop, as show in this pic of both
  4. Yesterday I downloaded 6 MONTHS worth of images from my iPhone, each with a 'natural' aspect radio file and a 'zoom to 16x9' one.
  5. EVERY 'zoom' image had the grey corruption above UP TO 4th January 2022. After that date, the same zoom ones do not have the corruption.


So - it appears to that me this "images corrupted by grey blocks" fault HAS BEEN FIXED, unless anyone knows otherwise? I regularly update IOS software


As is obvious above, I suspect it ONLY applies to image taken in '16x9' mode, which isn't a real zoom at all - it just crops the top and bottom.

Dec 27, 2020 11:46 AM in response to waltereleven

Hi Walter,


Sadly, You are not getting my point.

It is correct that HEIC/HEVC was introduced with iOS 11.

But whenever you use a portrait mode, then iOS generates 2 images: IMG_XXXX and IMG_EXXX.

Since iOS 11 until iOS 14 (not included) the IMG_XXXX was in HEIC while IMG_EXXXX was in JPG format whenever we choose the "Keep Original"

Starting from iOS 14 both images started to be in HEIC file extension and the issue of the corrupted image started to show up:

  • The IMG_XXXX.HEIC is totally OK (but doesn't include the portrait effect)
  • The IMG_EXXXX.HEIC is not OK (which include the portrait effect)


If we choose "Automatic" in iOS 14+ then both will be JPG and everything seems to be OK but that's not what we want to achieve.


There are 2 possible solutions for Apple:

  1. Rollback the change where in "Keep Original" will produce HEIC file for the IMG_XXXX and JPG for the IMG_EXXXX
  2. Fix the issue where IMG_EXXXX will be HEIC and picture won't be corrupted as shown in previous feedbacks.


I assume that Apple will choose option #2 to fix as they probably want to fully migrate to HEIC format..


Sep 5, 2021 5:50 AM in response to Lardon_Jim

So, I no longer care about the #greyareagate bug and have since incorporated the new unapologetic Apple "feature" into my workflow as follows:


  1. assume I'm running the latest and greatest non-beta iOS version on the iDevice (do not select Most Compatible option for exporting)
  2. make sure the Win10 machine is updated, including iCloud and iTunes (from the Windows AppStore), and FastStoneViewer
  3. connect iDevice via USB cable and download all photos from iPhone with FSV (automagically sort into daily folders)
  4. in the iDevice open the Photos app, open the Portrait Mode tag/filter/container/whatever, select all photos and export to a temp folder on iCloud using the Files App
  5. wait for my Win10 machine to sync with iCloud
  6. use Windows PowerToys to quickly rename the Portrait Mode photos to include the *E* on the filename
  7. move/replace (or copy to new folder if you want to keep the #greyareagate abominations)
  8. give yourself a pat on the back and send a thank you tweet to Mr. Tim Apple for the great job his doing running the show /s


Life is short. Cheers,

Nov 24, 2020 9:24 PM in response to S314-EsPi

Hi Peter,


I'm having a hard time with the same!


I've been calling Apple Support during the last two weeks, let's no talk about the miss commitment from their supervisors/managers promising callbacks they never complete; but after escalating this to their "engineering support" the solution was "change to the most compatible option so you'll have no issues while exporting your photos".

This is the most ridiculous answer I ever got from any kind of customer care/tech support, HEIF and HEVC libraries on my Windows PC are up and running, only HEIC files coming out from portrait mode regardless from wide/telephoto lenses are going wrong. For some reason every single HEIC file containing the final and processed image is coming up with the gray area at the bottom.


Attach you'll see an example of the same photo using the photo viewer from Windows 10 Pro Build 20H2 updated as of today Nov 24th 2020, and a third party app (Adobe Photoshop) throwing up the same result.


I've made a whole test using the wide and telephoto lenses on my iPhone 11 Pro Max. I sent this album to a manager and the "engineering support" so they can review it.


I'm expecting a callback by thursday Nov 26th at 8:00 PM CST, I'll update this topic in case more people are going through this BS.


For research purposes, feel free to download and review the photos by yourself. Definetly something going wrong here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlIXGCmwqXuPgiREZhks2_NYTjD5?e=tBrPjT



Best regards,


Walter

Apr 28, 2021 5:55 AM in response to Mabuse777

Wait, maybe I was wrong, how do to extract multiple images from one HEIC?

Because the size is almost the same, I think they both have the original.


The correct HEIC is 813,922 bytes and identified as a HEIC by imagemagick

"HEIC 1836x2417 1836x2417+0+0 8-bit sRGB 0.016u 0:00.001"


The corrupted HEIC is 814,434 bytes and identified as JPEG by imagemagick

"JPEG 1836x2417 1836x2417+0+0 8-bit sRGB 814434B 0.000u 0:00.000"

But then opening it, I get "premature end of JPEG file"

I have "keep originals" checked in the iPhone settings.


The binary info is very different between the two:

Portrait type photos are corrupted (grey area appear) when transferring from iPhone to PC

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