Conversion of HEIC to JPG during transfer from Iphone to laptop

I tested with my iPhone and are getting the same result - the way the option "Automatic" used to work has changed.

• With the previous system versions the "Automatic" would force the conversion from HEIC to JPEG, even, when importing on a system version, that is compatible with HEIC.
• Now, on iOS 16.3.1 the "Automatic" option is just checking, if the system we are importing to can handle HEIC images. If the system supports HEIC, the files will not be converted when importing.

The canged behaviour is the best solution, if we want to use HEIC on systems that are supporting it, as the automatic conversion to JPEGs will interfere with the duplicate detection on import.

It would be good, if Apple would offer a third import option, that will force the conversion to JPEG, even on devices supporting HEIC. You may want to send feedback to Apple with a feature request Feedback - Photos - Apple

For my business, I save hundreds of photos and must occasionally go back and review them. I also work across Mac and PC platforms. This HEIC format has made things more difficult because most PCs won't read it without installing new software. Unfortunately, I receive photos from many sources so I can't force people to only send me JPEG files. (Don't get me started on "Live Photos"!)

I also noticed a remarkable lag in performance when displaying HEIC, even on a Mac. I can get my work done much faster when all the photos are JPEG than ones in HEIC. In short, I needed a way to eradicate HEIC from my files. Fortunately, a developer must have had a similar problem so made an elegant solution.

I've been using iMazing Converter and have been very happy with the results.

Just got back from a long trip.

Wife's iPhone 12 is on iOS 17.3.1. Mine is same model, on iOS 17.4.

2000 photos between us.

My PC is a recent Windows 11 I got at the end of 2023.

Used the File Explorer's 'Import Photos and Videos' to import her photos, and then mine.

Hers all landed as .JPG and .MOV

Mine all landed as .HEIC and .MOV

Same Settings | Photos | "Transfer To Mac or PC" set to Automatic

So somewhere after 17.3.1, APPLE changed its sensing of the attached device, and there's not a ****** thing I can do about it, because I can't roll back to the 17.3.1 version of iOS.

Because we're all dumb, and APPLE is smart.

So I'll drag out an old Win7 laptop, and test using it to import photos from our phones to my NAS for all future imports. Maybe iOS 17.4 still sees Win7 as a non-HEIC-compatible platform.

If that works, it's simpler and more reliable than trying and testing all the s/w purported to do mass-conversion from HEIC to JPG, and paying for the 'privilege.'

APPLE knows this should still be an option, to export as JPG, but doesn't care. and obviously doesn't read these threads.

Update: Just FYI, I connected the same phone, still same iOS, same settings, to my old Win7 box, and everything transferred as JPGs. So this is all on Apple making an unannounced change to the OS, just to f with all its users.

Now I can delete all those HEICs that my admittedly old software, but still more capable than current photo managers.

The previous behaviour has been causing a lot of problems, particularly on Mac computers.

When we have been syncing HEIF photos from an iPhone to a Mac with "most compatible" enabled, the JPEGs downloaded to Photos for Macs have not been recognises as duplicates of the previously synced photos and the users had a lot of unnecessary work to weed out the unwanted duplicates. As it is now it is much better for Mac users with Macs that can handle HEIF; it avoids duplicates and will save storage on the Mc and avoids artifacts when converting HEIF to JPEG.

Thanks.

Didn't used to be necessary. Shouldn't be now, either. Where space efficiency is needed (phone,) users should continue to use the HEIC format for space efficiency. Where space isn't as important (PC/Mac drives are upgradable, and external drives are easy to add,) the option of what format is exported should CONTINUE to be available.

On your phone you can go to Settings>Camera>Formats and choose "Most Compatible," which means jpg.