Photos dragged from iMac Photos to desktop won't upload

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Level 1

91 points

Photos dragged from iMac Photos to desktop won't upload

If I drag a photo from the Photos App onto the iMac desktop it deposits a JPEG file, with the extension .jpeg. I do this to (eg) upload photos to a web site, or email them to non-Apple users. But the JPEG file is rejected by websites like Gumtree, Snapfish etc and unreadable by other users.

If I change the extension to .jpg it is still not usable. To make it usable I have to open it with Preview and export it as JPEG, in which case the resulting file has extension ".jpg" and is usable. On the other hand, if I export it from the Photos App using File > Export, as JPEG, it creates a file with extension ".jpeg" which is uploadable, but with a different colour profile and 5 times the size!

Does anyone know why the drag to desktop from Photos creates a jpeg file incompatible with non-Apple devices? I cannot find any setting for Photos to change the jpeg format it creates on export.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 30, 2021 7:07 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

197,089 points

Dec 31, 2021 2:29 AM in response to rjp123

When you drag a photo from Photos to the Desktop you are exporting the current preview. It will depend on the size of the photo or if it has adjustment applied, what kind of preview you will get. if the original file is small and has no adjustments applied, the original may double as the preview.

It is safer to use "File > Export" and to specify exactly, what you want:

Set the "Photo Kind" to "JPEG" and then specify the colour profile, the size (dimensions in pixel), and the JPRG Quality. The JPEG Quality specifies the amount of compression and thus the file size.

To reveal the controls for the export details click the disclosure arrow "v" to the right of "Photo Kind".

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Answer 2

rjp123 Author

Level 1

91 points

Dec 31, 2021 2:57 PM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie. That explains why the drag and drop export profile is different from the menu export profile.

I tried a couple of tests to see what happens:

Drag and drop export from a snap shot gives the same JPEG profile as drag and drop from the full view of the same image. I had wondered if it was scaling the jpeg according the current view within Photos.
Drag and drop export always generates a JPEG with the colour profile Display P3, which won't upload, but the default profile of "most compatible" using menu Export produces sRGB IEC61966-2.1 which will upload.
I thought maybe the drag and drop export was defaulting to my display colour setting, but my display is set to Epson Standard RGB - Gamma 1.8, not to Display P3 or sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

So the solution is to always export from the menu and choose most compatible colour profile.

I understand Display P3 is a wider colour space than SRGB, but why Apple Photos defaults to that for drag and drop is a mystery. One would think it would default to Most Compatible, ie SRGB.

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