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

I have been facing the same problem. The problem got resolved temporarily with an update to the OS, when they had started displaying the folders as per month_year names. However, with another update 14.7.1 (the most recent one), the problem with IMG_E****.HEIC files being cropped while transferring to windows 10 is back for me!

How can we fix affected jpg files. I already tried 3 jpg recovery tools but to no avail. The jpg file I possess is supposed to be the (affected) original because I have the "keep originals" setting selected for transfer to mac or pc. Don't have any other originals on the iphone as I always delete them from my phone after I download them to my NAS for storage reasons.

So this thread and issue have been ongoing since Nov 2020 (and likely earlier) but no Apple solution has been given? I am getting sick of Apple's disregard for how their products mate up with Windows and Linux users.

Essentially, if you're a Windows user then there's no point in using Portrait mode or any other premium iPhone photo features. By extension, there's less reason to use an iPhone if you're a Windows user.

WTF Apple. You could not fix this within a year??? So many baby photos are now ruined. I connected cable and moved all photos to pc folder. Now many of them are corrupted. I never get those photos back. I really hope someone sues apple for this. Camera was one key factor I bought this overpriced product and now this disaster happens. Instead they are researching how to scan and spy your photos in newer update on iOS 15. Very disappointing I can’t stress that enough.

Also disappointed to come across this issue today. For me it was any edited HEIC file on the phone, which includes portraits.

I had to view recent album with 'Edited' filter, upload all those files to iCloud Drive (not iCloud Photos), download to Windows PC, rename with "IMG_E", and overwrite the USB copied files.

What a pain!

@DrollAntois

The issue with that setting is that it converts your HEIC images to JPEG and all H265 encoded videos to H264, which takes significantly more (approx. double) the space. Additionally, it would often corrupt a large video file due to transcoding errors while transferring.

Hello everyone,

I'm still on iOS14.8 with my iPhone11Pro. I've got Windows10 with all updates up to 16.10.2021 and on the Microsoft Store I can see HEIF Image Extensions version 1.0.42621.0 and HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer version 1.0.42701.0 updated as of 15.10.2021.

I've connected my iPhone to the USB-C port on my PC, navigated to the most recent DCIM folder and copy/pasted a Portrait Mode photo taken on 13.10.2021. Lo and behold, the situation remains.

So, I will continue to make separate downloads, by selecting all Portrait Mode photos and saving on a temp folder on iCloud Drive and sync that with my PC. The rest I can safely download with Faststone Image Viewer.

Other replies from this thread indicate that photos modified on the iDevice will also generate grey areas. I was not able to confirm this. So far I only get the grey areas with Portrait Mode photos (front and back cameras).

Cheers,

So... Keep Originals don't work cause portrait type photos (and edited landscape ones as well) get destroyed when importing. Allright... let's use Automatic for lesser qualify photos.

With automatic checked in settings I get error message when on half way of copying: The device is unreachable.

When I google it, solution is to check Keep Originals in settings instead of Automatic...

I really hate Apple right now! :(((

Hey all, this is the update from 27.11.2021. So, I'm still running iOS 14.8.1 on my iPhone11Pro. I have Windows 11 with the most recent version of iTuenes, as well as the HEIC and HEVC codecs from the Microsoft App Store. Greygate is still an Apple feature (tm) on the Portrait Mode photos.

I recently found out that other photos (non Portrait Mode) also get corrupted from Greygate.

Looking at the files, they have the same size on disk and only the bit depth changes from 32bit (good) to 24bit (corrupted).

Anyway, I've updated my workflow to the following.

Instead of selecting and saving on iCloud Drive the Portrait Mode photos, now I open the Photos app, goto Library, on the (...) menu I filter by "Edited" photos, and finally save them to iCloud Drive. Note that this catches many useless edited screenshots and all.

G'luck everyone. Maybe on iOS16 this is fixed ;-) who knows.

@waltereleven MS has squat to do with an issue related to transferring photos from an Apple device. Same thing if you have an issue with a Sony camcorder, MS will tell you to contact the manufacturer of the device. Apple should work on the issue and if there they find it has to do with a bug with the MS operating system then they should be the one filing the bug. The consumer should not be chasing who is responsible for resolving the bug. You own an Apple device and it does not work the way it is intended so Apple must be the one running with the ball.

By the way this issue not only happens for portrait photos but some landscape pictures as well unless taking photos of mountains far far away triggers the portrait mode...

Same issue here, but not portrait mode, but pictures edited with a 90 degree rotation. IMG_xxxx.HEIC is fine when transferred, but is the unaltered original. All IMG_Exxxx.HEIC images have a grey area at the bottom.

OK, I did some sleuthing with a hex editor, and I just realized the IMG_Exxxx.HEIC images are NOT ACTUALLY HEIC AT ALL! They are actually JPEGs. And this seems to be part of the issue.

I repeat. The IMG_Exxxx.HEIC images are NOT ACTUALLY HEIC - THEY ARE JPEG images with the wrong extension!

I tried emailing myself the picture, and got a JPEG, that works. Further examination reveals that apart from a few bytes of metadata, the JPEG I got via email matches byte for byte with the IMG_Exxxx.HEIC file, EXCEPT THE HEIC FILE IS SHORTER - that is why the grey areas are there - the file is truncated, and the grey area is the missing data.

I also tried uploading the image via the Dropbox app, and got the WORKING IMAGE THAT IS ACTUALLY A HEIC through that. Another curious thing is that the filesize of the Dropbox file (which is actually the correct HEIC file) is always 512 bytes smaller than the broken misnamed JPEG file.

So it seems like in the transfer process, a JPEG is made, like when you pick "Automatic" instead of "Keep Originals", but the phone takes the NAME AND SIZE of the HEIC file, but the DATA from the JPEG file.

I am having the same issue with HEIC photos with filter or retouching but I realized that the original was still there and ultimately that was all that matters. With the few photos that were corruptes I use Drive to download the originals and work perfectly. Thank god there where few photos corrupted.

Update from 8 DEC 2021. I've updated iOS to iOS 15.1, and took some photos in Portrait mode. And unsurprisingly the issue remains.

I'm running an up to date Windows 11, as well as the most recent versions of the Microsoft HEIC and HVEC codecs from the Windows App Store.

This problem has been around since iPhone 7 -- with ANY image that is edited. Notice the 'E' in the filename, such as IMG_E6340.HEIC. This is NOT a Microsoft problem. It is Apple who wrote the code which does the transfers, so they need to step up and fix this problem which has now existed for YEARS.

Please Apple, FIX THIS PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!