Import HEIC photos to new MacBook

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Level 1

4 points

Import HEIC photos to new MacBook

Hello,

I have a 2013 MacBook Pro and it's obviously time to replace it. Before buying a new MacBook, I bought iCloud+ and wanted to upload my whole Photos (iPhotos, Photos, not sure what the current name is) library to the cloud. However, it appears my MacBook just couldn't do it, despite multiple attempts. I exported all my photos to an external hard drive as HEIC files and selected Unmodified Original at export screen so that my photos could keep their time and location data, since exporting as JPG made them a "new" photo and lost the time stamp and location.

Anyway, I now have an external hard drive and a Windows PC, and thought I would be able to drag and drop photos into iCloud on a browser, but that is not the case since iCloud won't take the HEIC files.

If I get a new MacBook, which I was planning on doing so anyway, would I be able to import my photos onto the new computer's iPhoto/Photos and upload to iCloud that way?

Or is there another way around this? I am surprised that HEIC files, which my own iPhone took, cannot be uploaded into iCloud...an Apple product...?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Mar 8, 2023 1:49 PM

Reply

Answer 1

dawngreg08

Community Specialist

Mar 9, 2023 9:18 AM in response to notbeatriz

Hello notbeatriz,

It seems that you have done the correct steps in order to import photos to iCloud. Let's try the steps below again to ensure there was no step missed in the process.

"Upload photos

You can upload JPEG images from your computer to your Personal Library using iCloud.com.

If you want to upload photos to your iCloud Shared Photo Library, use the Photos app on a device with iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura or later.

In Photos on iCloud.com, click .
Select the photos you want to add from your computer, then follow the onscreen instructions.

Download photos and videos

In Photos on iCloud.com, select the photos or videos you want to download, or double-click a single photo or video.
Do either of the following:

Download the most compatible version: click .
- Photos are downloaded at the highest quality available for your device (HEIC if available). Videos are MP4/H.264. Photos and videos include edits made since they were added to iCloud Photos.
Download the original version: click , choose More Download Options, select Unmodified Original, then click Download.
- The unmodified original version is in the same file format that was originally captured or imported and does not include any edits."

Import HEIC photos to new MacBook

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