Problems Editing HEIF in Photos App on 2013 iMac running Catalina (10.15.7)

The Photos app on my iMac will properly display and edit HEIC (HEIF) files shot on iPhones and iPads, but will not allow me to edit an HEIF photo shot on a new Sony A7IV. The photos app displays the HEIF thumbnail properly, but when I double-click to edit it, the photo just turns into a solid white image, and I can't proceed with any edits.

The same HEIF photo from the Sony A7IV can be edited just fine on my iPhone 12Pro and my 12.9" M1 iPad Pro.

Again, running macOS 10.15.7 (Catalina) on a late 2013 27" iMac with 16GB RAM. Per Apple Support documents, this combination SHOULD support HEIF without issue.

Any ideas?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 20, 2022 11:26 AM

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2 replies

sokkerjeff Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 20, 2022 1:56 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks, Tony! That’s pretty much the conclusion I had come to, but figured I’d ask around.

Jan 20, 2022 1:03 PM in response to sokkerjeff

I think your problem is the camera was released two generations of MacOS after Catalina. I'm guessing SONY is doing something with the HEIF Files from that camera which Catalina doesn't know about.

I don't think you're going to have a solution other than to ask the camera to use jpg - if you want to edit them on the older machine.

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Problems Editing HEIF in Photos App on 2013 iMac running Catalina (10.15.7)