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

As I undestand, you can either transfer the images as HEIC ("keep originals") or JPG (= automatic), but not both.

When choosing HEIC the image will display corrupted on Windows if it contains editing (such as portrait or other).

When choosing JPG (= automatic) the image quality is reduced and some EXIF information may get lost.

Apple has been informed of these problems, but does not help.

So you have to chose between faulty files or lower quality JPG (as for now, January 2021).

This is a well documented issue that multiple users, including myself are experiencing. I have an iPhone 12 Pro and am using Windows 10. Both have the latest software updates. (iOS 14.4)

The issue is for all portrait photos, which are in the format "IMG_E###.HEIC".

iOS photo settings are set to "Keep Originals". If I set this to "Automatic", there are other issues and the large documents do not copy over. Also, keeping originals is the preferred option as this preserves all the background data and features.

I am shocked that Apple hasn't fixed this issue! I was here a month and a half ago trying to figure out what the issue was. I thought that time would heal all wounds, but clearly not with Apple.

Is this a form of soft racketeering to "encourage" aka force the Apple ecosystem on Windows users? Maybe people will assume this is a Windows problem and the only solution is to switch to a Mac? This must be some next generation antitrust. Sadly I think this is the logic and the reason this is such low priority. But if we make it clear this is an Apple bug, and not Windows, maybe they will prioritize a fix.

This is a problem even on high end Apple devices in 2021 - HP in 2006 didn't even set the bar this low lol

Hi everyone,

Following up on this, the senior advise/manager never came back with updates/news. I have sent her an email today, let's see what she replies (if she does). I'm exhausted at this point, I don't buy that they still believe this is a hardware issue.

As @raydizzle29 mentioned, if you set your photo settings to "Automatic" some files won't copy as the 'transcode' going inside the iOS device from HEIC/HEVC to JPEG/MOV will fail, even files going over 500MB (not that large) will fail.

What is the point then? Where the heck are the benefits of having your photos and videos in HEIC/HEVC then?

This is unbelievable, and I agree that this may be some sort of 'soft racketeering' to encourage/force/push people to use iMacs/MacBooks if they want to see their photos properly. I'm done with this BS.

I'll let you know if something else comes up.

PS. Using iPhone 11 Pro Max with iOS 14.4 and stills the same.

Hello everyone,

same exact problem here with an iphone XR :

- original photos IMG_xxxx.HEIC are totally fine,

- modified photos used to be .JPG in an earlier iOS release and they were totally fine (but larger),

- modified photos are now IMG_Exxx.HEIC and they are corrupt.

The problem was brought by an iOS update (I don't remember which one) and I never managed to get a modified photo since then ... unless I copy it as JPG which is so inconvenient : larger size and I have to do a separate copy of these files after changing the transfer setting on my phone.

When I transfer this photo not through direct copy from the phone with a cable but using an external application (such as Phone Drive), the file is perfectly fine.

So Apple, it's not a hardware issue, it's not a Microsoft issue, it's a software issue on your side : please fix this.

iphone XR / iOS 14.4

Thank you

I'm having the same issue too on iPhone 12 Pro Max, in fact my wife's as well. I'm using the 'keep originals' option too as the 'automatic' does not allow me to export videos that are too big in size.

It's ironic that we upgraded our iphones for a better camera and now we can't even export the better quality picture. :(

Please fix.

I have this problem for about two months. Iphone X - I have had the for a number of years and keep it updated. I have not changed any camera/ phone settings. I use the USB cord to transfer my photos. I have never used icoud or the windows icloud app.

It seemed at first some "E" photos would transfer OK and others were grey.

For the past few weeks - all the "E" photos are grey out. I can transfer the same photo in jpeg without grey corruption, but not any edited photos.

I can up load to google photo album and to amazon photos without problem.

I have tried to research this for the las few weeks to no avail,

Please keep posting if any new information becomes available.

Hello everyone,

Following up on this, the senior advisor/manager never came back to me, last interaction (email) was back on Mar 8th. I tried to get in touch since then by sending her emails on Mar 9th, 11th, 15th, and yesterday 29th.

Seems she's not replying anymore, her name is Chara.

I'm really tired about this, I just send a copy of the whole thread since I open the request back on Oct 2020 to important blogs such as M*c R*mors and *to*Mac letting them know that this could be a new 'gate' because, why would Apple insist to collect all the devices having this issue?

CONCLUSION: unfortunately, I was not able to get further assistance after spoke to 8 agents, 5 supervisors/senior advisors/managers or whatever they want to call themselves. Apple 'engineers' did not take actions, for the ones who have submitted feedback (l did) since last year, seems Apple don't actually care about. Users with mid/advance tech knowledge/skills will agree this does NOT seem to be a hardware issue, unless related to a new sort of gate.

I REALLY TRIED TO REACH FOR HELP, I LOST MY SH*T VERY LONG TIME AGO, THEY DID NOT PROVIDE A SOLUTION. COLLECTING MORE THAN 4 GB IN DIAGNOSTIC LOGS AND 70 MB IN PHOTO EXAMPLES, WAS FOR NOTHING.

Good luck to everyone, I give up; if anybody find something to help the 150+ users reporting the same issue, please share your inputs so you can do what Apple 'engineers' seem not being able/capable to. By the way, issue still can be replicate with the latest iOS version 14.4.2 released a couple days ago.

Best regards,

Hello,

I also submitted a feedback and I admit I was a little bit shocked because I did not get any kind of message or anything that would have confirmed Apple received it : you spend some time writing comments, providing details, you are ready to have any form of dialog, but no ... nothing at all (apparently this is similar to what happens in their forum or when you call the hotline, Apple just does not care).

My iphone is a corporate one, it's not my choice, and honestly this does not make me think I'll ever buy one on my own.

I am also suffering a similar issue with the iPhone 12 Pro.

E photos are giving me a corrupted grayed out area on the bottom of the E photos. Standard HEIC photos are fine.

Changing settings to photos from "Keep Originals" to "automatic" solves it, but is not really a satisfactory answer when it comes to utilizing the iPhone's camera quality to produce quality images.

I distinctly remember having no issue importing portrait or other edit photos from the iPhone back in 2019.

I discovered a trick: If you transfer the photos via DropBox (keeping the HEIC format) instead of USB, the photos are not corrupted anymore! There is no apparent quality degradation. The bit depth goes from 24 bits to 32 bits. The EXIF data is changed but nothing seems to be lost.

Well, bad news, iOS 14.5 is out and it did not fix the issue : bottom of IMG_E****.HEIC is desperately grey.

And again, there is no problem when the transfer is done through external methods (i.e. third party app or DropBox etc.), so it's definitely not a hardware issue, it's purely an iOS issue that Apple does not seem to acknowledge.

When you transfer HEIC-images that were manipulated (e.g. portrait or hi-key etc.) via Dropbox, only one image is transferred or will you get the original image plus the manipulated ones?

[Note: This would normally be the case if you set the image option to "automatic" in iOS and transfer JPG images but not when transferring .HEIC-files (iOS setting "keep originals") via Windows app.]

It's only the manipulated one.

A way not to use DropBox is:

1) On the phone, select the photos and "send to" (the box with an up arrow).

2) "Save to files".

3) Select any application (I use Firefox).

4) In iTunes on PC, select "File Sharing", then select the files and "Save..." (The save button is on the bottom right, you may have to scroll the "File Sharing" view if you have many items.

Thanks for the answer.

That's exactly what I thought.

My guess is, that either Windows or iOS have problems unpacking / packing multiple-image-HEIC files.

HEIC files also include the original image and in my experiencie only those have problems while beeing displayed in Windows, not the single-image-HEICs.

Can anyone confirm this behaviour?

In order to keep my Photos backed up as I go, (since I can no longer use the USB cord to my laptop to transfer the edited/ portrait iPhone photos - my preferred method of MANY years)

I am making albums on my phone - uploading album to Google Photos - then downloading that album to my laptop finally deleting the photos off my phone.

I am getting two back ups this way - google photos and then unzipping to my laptop

I do NOT use iCloud, as it is not a true back up.

THIS METHOD DOES preserve the edits to the photos and you only get the final 'E" copy of the photo uploaded to google and then down to laptop.

Google album only shows the desired copy of the photo. ( not multiple like you see using USB cord)