HEIC Application is Suddenly Required to view iCloud downloaded photos

Bob,

I just finished about a two hour session with Apple Chat then with Apple phone support. At no time did any of the reps indicate that there was any changes or updates to the iCloud website. But I suspect that there was. After all this searching and explaining what was happening, my last technician was able to back me into a solution for this problem.

When you have your photos in iCloud selected for download, then

Right mouse click to open the menu.

In this menu select "More Download Options"

Then choose icon that corresponds to "Unmodified Originals" (it should be first download option).

The result is a compressed file that extracts to JPEG as it did previously.

At least for now this is working.

My fingers are crossed every time I select a block of photos.

Good Luck

Zynnwood,

I just finished about a two hour session with Apple Chat then with Apple phone support. At no time did any of the reps indicate that there was any changes or updates to the iCloud website. But I suspect that there was. After all this searching and explaining what was happening, my last technician was able to back me into a solution for this problem.

When you have your photos in iCloud selected for download, then

Right mouse click to open the menu.

In this menu select "More Download Options"

Then choose icon that corresponds to "Unmodified Originals" (it should be first download option).

The result is a compressed file that extracts to JPEG as it did previously.

At least for now this is working.

My fingers are crossed every time I select a block of photos.

Good Luck

I found the option under the icon to the right of the download icon. This opened a menu with several download options. The one that shows JPEG or other compatible formats worked for single photos. I did not try videos of Live Photos.

hope this helps.

We are Still looking for a way to change the default option,

Thank You Bobimn you are absolutely correct.

I have completed additional testing that confirms that the default download option has been changed to the HEIC.

Furthermore, in the Download options, Yes it is possible to select a JPEC download or most compatible download file choice, but this only works for one single photo at a time.

Attempting to use this "JPEG. . . " download option on any quantity large than one the download file reverts to the default file of HEIC.

This makes a download of large numbers of photos laborious to say the least.

So far, we cannot find a Settings location to change the download file option to the "JPEG..." option.

So the real question is how can one change the default from the "HEIC" to the "JPEG..." file extension?

Please help if you can.

Thanks, Tim G

Thank you.

it is working.

I’m not defending the change, but it only takes one extra click and a menu selection.

There should be a way to set a default for this menu selection.

it would also be very nice if there the FAQ or instructions gave a hint about the selection options.

bye fir now