iCloud Photos to PC - Half Resolution - iPhone 12

I use Apple's iCloud program to automatically download images from my iCloud account to my Windows PC. I have been doing this for years and it has worked great. The photos reliably appears in their original full version on my PC soon after I took them.


Earlier this year I went from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 12 mini. I migrated everything to the iPhone 12 using Apple's process. That copied all settings, all data, etc. From the very first photo I took on the iPhone 12, the photo that eventually ends up on my PC is half resolution.


  • iCloud still has a copy of the original full res photo that I can still manually get by download from the website directly
  • The photo taken is 3024x4032 and the image on sent to my PC is 2048x1536
  • Does not matter if it's JPEG or HEIC

I called Apple Support and spent hours trying different settings, rebooting, taking pictures, sending picture, changing settings, and zeroing in on the issue. We had scheduled a follow up call for today at 1PM but information how to speak to that same tech never arrived and a phone call never happened. So I called Apple Support again and a different tech tried to explain this is all expected behavior. I asked why it worked correctly on the iPhone 7 but not the 12 and the answer was "different hardware". I explained the iPhone 12 is newer but it's "expected behavior". I explained no change in settings but the behavior was different between the 7 and the 12 and the answer again was this was "expected". This was very disappointing and I felt like it was gaslighting, making me think I had gone crazy.


The hours I spent on the original call was a complete waste if there is no follow up. I disagree this is expected behavior. I found other support "questions" where others did not get answers and Apple Support was not helpful. No one had responded in a while so they were closed and I had to ask a new question... but it's the same question. I tried everything in those other posts but nothing resolves this which seems to clearly be a bug for newer iPhones.


Did anyone have any luck moving this forward with Apple Support? Not that it matters but if anyone is wondering, my case id was 101889571977.

Posted on Dec 22, 2022 12:15 PM

Reply
4 replies

Dec 23, 2022 10:38 AM in response to joejapan

I have confirmed it does not seem to be related to any known exif data (at least what exiftool v12.52 can see). I tested this with the following:

  1. Acquired Full Size from my iCloud Account
  2. Uploaded Full Size to wife's iCloud account
  3. iCloud for Windows App correctly sent Full Size to her PC
  4. Compared exif data and it matched on all files, was not altered. Additionally the files matched down to the byte so, while not guaranteed, it would be quite improbable to have altered hidden exif data between the two files.


I then tried another test:

  1. Acquired Full Size from my iCloud Account
  2. Updated one exif value: Orientation Rotate 180
  3. Uploaded file with new exif value to my iCloud account via website website
  4. iCloud for Windows App correctly sent original full size image to my PC with all exif (including Orientation Rotate 180) correct


This points more toward something in the "iPhone 12 -> iCloud -> iCloud for Windows App" process having the issue instead of something with the image itself.


Dec 22, 2022 12:21 PM in response to joejapan

Here is an additional oddity:


My wife currently has an iPhone 8 and her own PC set up with Apple's iCloud app. Her photos correctly arrive to her PC with full resolution. If I take a photo with my iPhone 12, text it to her, and she saves it locally to her iPhone 8, that photo will correctly end up in her iCloud account at full resolution BUT it will be sent to her PC at half resolution. It's like the bug (or "expected behavior", depending on your matter of perspective) follows the original phone/image.

Dec 22, 2022 12:32 PM in response to joejapan

More info: My mom has an iPhone SE 2020. I confirmed she uses the same process, settings, app, etc. and full res images correctly make it to her PC.


iPhone SE (with Optimize iPhone Storage ON) --> iCloud (correct full Res) --> PC (correct fullRes)

vs.

iPhone 12 mini (with Optimize iPhone Storage ON) --> iCloud (correct full Res) --> PC (INcorrect half Res)

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iCloud Photos to PC - Half Resolution - iPhone 12

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