Issues downloading video (with edits) correctly via iCloud.com Photos (possible glitch?)

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Issues downloading video (with edits) correctly via iCloud.com Photos (possible glitch?)

I’m planning on uploading some 1080p videos I recorded on my iPhone(s) to a site that requests the media be in the highest quality possible (1080p or up) without audio

Because uploading from the iPhone directly doesn’t tell you exactly what it’s uploading, I have decided to download the video to a PC (Windows 10) via iCloud.com then check the videos before uploading them to the site

Of course downloading videos/photos the standard way downloads them as “most compatible” (720p MP4 with edits), which obviously won’t work for me (since I need them to be at least 1080p), so I downloaded the videos via the “Download Options” feature

In order to remove audio (as per the site’s requirements), I have decided to “edit” the videos in question and disable the audio that way (by tapping on the speaker icon), then download the videos via “Highest Resolution Including Edits” (the middle option), which (I believe) should result in a 1080p MOV file including “edits” (no audio in this case)

The options, as far as I previously experienced, should be

Unmodified Originals - Original resolution as captured (say 1080p or 4K), without “edits” (as in the downloaded video will include audio in my case), as an MOV file
Highest Resolution Including Edits - Original resolution as captured (say 1080p or 4K), with “edits” (as in the downloaded video will not include audio in my case), as an MOV file
Most Compatible Including Edits - Resolution downscaled to 720p, with “edits” (as in the downloaded video will not include audio in my case), as an MP4 file

The problem is instead of doing the above, it seems to be downloading them however it wants, regardless of what option I choose

I’ve had some videos download as 1080p MP4 files without audio (not sure how that was possible, this would be fine, I don’t care if it’s MP4 or MOV, actually I would prefer this better, but isn’t consistent)
I’ve had some videos download as 1080p MOV files with audio (this is after specifically downloading with the “Highest Resolution With “Edits”, not “Unmodified Originals”, I even deleted the file and redownloaded it with the same result
I’ve had some videos download as 720p MP4 files with audio (this shouldn’t even happen, it shouldn’t even be possible, there isn’t even an option for “Unmodified Most Compatible” even if I did click the wrong option)

All videos in question are at least 1080p, most are HEVC (1080p or 4K, all 1080p in this case though), I tested videos specifically in HEVC recorded from my iPhone 8+, all the above happens with these videos, so I could have two videos, both HEVC, both recorded on my 8+, one will download say as a 1080p MP4 with no audio and the other will download say as a 1080p MOV with audio, even though both videos were treated the same (muted in “edit” and downloaded as “Highest Resolution Including Edits”)

This is the first time I noticed this happening as it seemed to work fine prior to this, is this a glitch on iCloud.com or something?

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 16

Posted on Apr 28, 2024 5:47 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Mikedamirault2 Author

Level 1

27 points

May 12, 2024 7:22 PM in response to Mikedamirault2

Update: I sent feedback on the issue, so hopefully the issue is fixed (I haven’t checked lately, so I’m not sure)

I did find a workaround, so hopefully this helps others

This will keep edits (similar to “Highest Resolution Including Edits”), so if you want “Unmodified Originals”, on your iPhone, copy the video (if you want to keep edits) and “Revert to Original” (hold down the video until the menu comes up and select “Revert to Original”)

On your iPhone, hold down the video you want to download in full resolution (“Unmodified Originals” or “Highest Resolution Including Edits”) until the menu comes up, then tap “Share” (to select multiple videos, tap “Select” on the upper right and tap on the videos you want, then tap the “Share” button on the lower left, the square with an arrow pointing up)

In the “Share” menu, scroll down and select “Save to Files”, and make sure it saves to your iCloud Drive, create a folder or decide where you want to save the videos on your iCloud Drive and save them, then open the Files app to make sure they saved and are syncing to your iCloud Drive, this should save the videos in full resolution to your iCloud Drive (4K or 1080p MOVs)

From there, go to iCloud.com, log in (accept the 2FA if you have to), then scroll down and click on “Drive”

Navigate to where you saved the videos on your iPhone’s Files app and download them from there

Since the videos are downloaded from iCloud Drive (and not Photos), the videos should download as full resolution MOV files

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Answer 2

May 5, 2024 4:28 PM in response to Mikedamirault2

Update: I have finally gotten all the videos in question to download as 1080p MP4 files without audio, which should work for my purposes

That said, I tested it with a 4K video I recorded, and downloading it with the “Unmodified Originals” option resulted in a 720p MP4 file, I tried all three options which all lead to the same result, so there was no way to download it in 4K resolution

Here’s the info on iCloud, showing it is in fact 4K

Though even after downloading it with the “Unmodified Originals” option (all three options result in this), this is the result I get, showing it downloaded in 720p resolution

It seems that arossy and kubly_music are having the same issue here

iCloud has stopped downloading unmodified… - Apple Community

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Issues downloading video (with edits) correctly via iCloud.com Photos (possible glitch?)

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