Will the Most Recent Mac OS import Photos and Videos that Were Taken in High Efficiency Mode?

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LivBeech Author

Level 1

8 points

Will the Most Recent Mac OS import Photos and Videos that Were Taken in High Efficiency Mode?

Greetings

First off, I am running:

OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 on my 2013 MacBook Air

and

iOS 14.3 on my iPhone 8

I cannot import images and videos into iPhoto (yes, it's so old it's still iPhoto), and I'm realizing now it might be because I was taking images and videos in High Efficiency mode, not realizing years ago that this would change the file format. So my questions are:

Will an update to the most recent Mac OS allow me to import these high efficiency .JPG and .MOV files to Photos?

If not, is there a way to convert photos and videos into regular .jpg and .mov files on my phone?

Or are my 4000+ images and videos stuck on my phone forever?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Liv

iPhone 8, iOS 14

Posted on Feb 10, 2021 1:21 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

197,393 points

Feb 10, 2021 2:59 PM in response to LivBeech

You need use at least macOS 10.13 High Sierra to be able to work with media in the High Efficiency format on a Mac. All newer versions of macOS are supporting this format, see this support document: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

Your MacBook Air 2013 might be compatible with Big Sur, the latest system, see: How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur - Apple Support

But if you need to keep older 32-bit software working, don't upgrade beyond macOS 10.14 Mojave.

See: How to get old versions of macOS – Apple Support

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Answer 2

Feb 10, 2021 2:33 PM in response to LivBeech

In short, yes upgrading to the latest version of Mac OS will allow you to import the photos and videos. The high efficiency format (HEIF) was introduced back in 2017.

Is there a reason why you have not updated the Mac OS to date, is it because you need to run legacy software?

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