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

That is very interesting as I experienced the same problem. When I was opening the HEIC-Files in IrfanView, this program would notify me, that the file was actually an JPEG.

This means, that probably iOS is not capable to export multiple image HEIC file to Windows and the image is a mixture of JPEG-encoding and HEIC filename. Very disturbing.

Dear Apple team, would you please finally start working on this!!!!

So, I've been experiencing this problem for about a month now. I hadn't notice before and I probably have more photos with this issue.

With the iPhone11Pro in July 2020, all Portrait mode photos did not exhibit this problem after importing to my PC running Windows 10. This started happening about a month ago, exactly on 8 April 2021. It can be that I have more photos like this, but I'm not sure and I have to go to my backups to check. I'm almost sure this is an iOS 14 issue, maybe 14.2 and later.

Since discovering this issue, I've attributed to the HEIF/HEVC extensions in the Windows App Store. However this is not right. I have a linux machine which can correctly connect to the iPhone filesystem and I have the exact same problem. The Portrait Mode photos also exhibit large grey area.

I could still try the iOS Beta, but I'd rather not mess with that.

And also, I could use the "Most Compatible" setting, but that kind of defeats the purpose and advantages of having the High Efficiency.

Finally, I tried using DiskAid/iMazing (the free version limited to 50 transfers) and I was able to download the original IMG_####.HEIC and the corresponding IMG_E####.HEIC without corruption (large grey area). I haven't tried other 3rd party utilities, but this is for enough to conclude that:

1) an update to the iOS caused this which the next update may eventually fix it OR maybe Microsoft will update the HEIF/HEVC Extensions to add built-in support iOS 14.5.1 or later

2) it is possible to correctly retrieve those problematic Portrait Mode photos as is, but using a 3rd Party app like iMazing, CopyTrans, and the subscription based ilk...

I much prefer the issue is solved via #1, because like some/most people I already have a system set up to download the photos from the phone to my Win10 machine, filter, categorize, file and archive them properly. This 3rd party trick is one more unnecesary complication.

TL;DR: this is for sure a bug with iOS 14.5.1 (possibly since 14.2), because both Windows (w/ iTunes) and Linux (w/o iTunes) download a corrupted Portraid Mode photo (in HEIC format), while a 3rd party app like iMazing will successfully download it.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Are you sure about your Phone11Pro in July 2020? Or is it possible that by then you were using the "automatic" import option and imported JPG files instead? I ask just because I have never been able (inlcudind early 2020) to import .HEIC files with modifications like portrait properly...

I do strongly not expect for Apple to address this problem in a iOS update. It is a known bug since a loooong time know and many iOS updates have passes since withou any improvement...

Maybe there are software licensing issues?

This will absolutely be the last iphone I bought - even if I bought them all since the very first one came out. Now that Steve Jobs is gone, apple quality is getting worse every day...

I have exactly the same problem with my iPhone 12 with iOS 14.6. Tried on both Mac and Windows 10 PC, the gray artifact is very obvious and disturbing. Hope Apple will fix this bug. I cannot believe such an easily reproducible bug is not fixed for such a long duration.

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I'm sure that 1) it is an iPhone11Pro, 2) that I have this photo from July 2020 (I distinctively remember the place, the event, and of course the date), and 3) I always import in HEIC format.

I will however double check with my photo archives and come back to this. My theory is that in mid 2020 I was using iOS13 and this "feature" /s did not exist back then.

What I can assure all, is even with the iOS14.6 and the most recent HEVC Video Extensions 1.01.41483.0 from Microsoft, the gray area error remains. #greyareaheicgate

Hello,

so you mean it also happens with a Mac, not only with a Windows or Linux PC ?

Ah, maybe we have a chance Apple may consider the pb if it also occurs in a 100% Apple world.

Hey Apple, somebody around there ? Please, have a look, thank you.

Sébastien

Its very very frustrating that Apple chooses to ignore this issue after multiple reports and escalation. Very disappointed and am questioning my loyalty to Apple, this issue shouldn't sit unaddressed for so long.

Correct - it does not work.

And even if the transfer did, my classy, well lit, high res photographs get downgraded and reduced in quality.

So why did I pay top-dollar for a new iPhone 12...?

Thanks Apple.

It depends how many files you download in one time and what system ( I think for mac it will work, not for Windows ). When I have downloaded and tried one photo, yes it works fine. But when you do it with like 50GBs it crashes ( it looks like iPhone disconnects )

I too am very frustrated by this persistent issue. I have two iPhone 11's and am able to reproduce this issue on each. I agree with the others who are questioning loyalty to Apple. Premium products don't allow flaws like this to persist, overpriced ones do.

I have also experienced the crash when transferring too many photos in Automatic and have found correlation with the display timeout. If I need to transfer a large amount of photos using the "Automatic" mode I first go to Settings => Display & Brightness => Auto-Lock and set it to "Never". This keeps the screen on and reduces the likelihood of crashing. Don't forget to set it back to your preferred setting when done.

My workflow for dealing with this issue when I upload my photos and videos is to transfer all unedited photos IMG_#### using "Keep Originals" and then I transfer the ones that are IMG_E#### under the "Automatic" setting.

If you are reading this and having this issue please upvote and add a comment, we need this fixed!

Yep same problem with both iphone 11po max and iphone 12 pro max on Windows 10 and even Windows 11.... OMG Apple can you fix this issue. Confirm only happens when set to keep originals and the photo is potrait img_Exxxxx

Also the above comments are correct about automatically, keeps crashing and disconnecting phone. Thats been for a while, but the greyed out bottom of photos about a year or so. So annoying, all good photos can view them in Windows.

Windows 10 latest update, transfer portrait mode HEIC photos to the desktop via cable. Direct cable to hard drive. SAME issue. Bottom 1/4 of the photo is missing and has a blip in the photo scan about a third of the way across a scan line before the photo disappears. JPG photo of the same scene is perfect. It's something in the photo processing software that Apple hasn't fixed yet or given the time, has no inclination to fix.

If I had to guess, the HEIC photo processing into the portrait mode is running out of memory or space before it completes every photo, so it just stops the processing. With every portrait photo, with a camera with plenty of HD space on the phone.

It's a BUG apple. . . the photos aren't processing into portrait mode with HEIC format.

I have to take portraits composed with the bottom 1/4 not in frame. VERY frustrating. Apple has a product that doesn't work as advertised, and there is no fix for the corrupted image that is created in portrait mode. And even worse, no word from the company that they are aware of the issue, willing to fix it or even acknowledge where the problem exists. Its software/hardware on Apple's end.

And the transfer to the HD is not automatic in my case, it's simply opening up the iPhone directory and transferring the photos through cut and paste to a file folder in Windows. I can't get the iPhone to work with the cloud transfer. . they just stay in the cloud and will not download to the HD. So I use direct via cable to HD. Which should work even better than cloud transfers.

Notice that the bit depth is different. Resolution even for the damaged photos is the same because the photo is still shown in the format, only the photo information/[picture is missing from the bottom of the photo.

Looking at the photos, the scan of image into the portrait mode or HEIC format seems to stop with a color that is close to the the bit where the picture drops out into grey for the rest of the line in the photo. So a blue shirt ends up with a blue line at the bottom of the photo before the software gives up and just goes to grey, for instance. When the photo is converted from HEIC to JPG the final line with color information converts to the grey background like the rest of the photo.