Hi,
I’m a photographer and recently noticed that when I airdrop my photos (which I took with medium format cameras with extremely high quality) from my macbook pro to my iphone, they lose quality alot!! The sharpness is completely gone, and details are very less. Does anyone know how to solve this?!
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.7
That sure is blurry, all right. We may have to keep asking questions to narrow down the cause.
Are you really running iOS 18 on your iPhone-- that is not released yet, and if you're running a Beta version of the software, you would expect some glitches. Perhaps you actually upgraded to iOS 17?
I can't find on here if you have said that you are using iCloud Photos to sync your iPhone and Mac. Are you? And if you are using iCloud on your phone, do you have "Optimize Storage" selected in Settings>Photos? If you do, then you may be seeing a reduced resolution image to save storage space. This usually clears up when zoomed, because Photos will grab the full sized image from iCloud when it's needed. Also try hitting the Edit button-- that, too, should bring in a higher resolution image. The info window gives the size of the referenced file in iCloud.
Since zoom doesn't clear up the picture, can you tell us how much free memory you have on your phone? When I go to Settings>General>iPhone Storage, my iPhone says
that I have used 74 GB out of 128 GB. My phone has 54 GB of free memory, plenty of room to display full images when I need it to. What does yours, say? (By the way, these numbers fluctuate as the phone needs more or less temporary storage, so I really have less than 54 GB that's actually useful.)
Also, was your phone plugged in, and did you have a strong internet connection when you zoomed in?
Storage may be the problem, but if not, we can look at other possibilities...
That sure is blurry, all right. We may have to keep asking questions to narrow down the cause.
Are you really running iOS 18 on your iPhone-- that is not released yet, and if you're running a Beta version of the software, you would expect some glitches. Perhaps you actually upgraded to iOS 17?
I can't find on here if you have said that you are using iCloud Photos to sync your iPhone and Mac. Are you? And if you are using iCloud on your phone, do you have "Optimize Storage" selected in Settings>Photos? If you do, then you may be seeing a reduced resolution image to save storage space. This usually clears up when zoomed, because Photos will grab the full sized image from iCloud when it's needed. Also try hitting the Edit button-- that, too, should bring in a higher resolution image. The info window gives the size of the referenced file in iCloud.
Since zoom doesn't clear up the picture, can you tell us how much free memory you have on your phone? When I go to Settings>General>iPhone Storage, my iPhone says
that I have used 74 GB out of 128 GB. My phone has 54 GB of free memory, plenty of room to display full images when I need it to. What does yours, say? (By the way, these numbers fluctuate as the phone needs more or less temporary storage, so I really have less than 54 GB that's actually useful.)
Also, was your phone plugged in, and did you have a strong internet connection when you zoomed in?
Storage may be the problem, but if not, we can look at other possibilities...
I read that if you optimize storage space, AirDrop may transfer compressed versions of files. From the site mobikin.(com)
Sounds weird. From what app did you AirDrop (Finder, Preview, QuickLook etc)? Do the resolutions, file sizes and jpeg compression specs differ on the original vs AirDropped photos?
Can you tell us more? Do you, in fact, use the Monterey on your Mac, as your signature says?
What about your the iOS of your phone?
How do the pictures look on your Mac? Are they crystal clear there? What does the picture look like on your phone when you zoom in? Does it clear up at all?
What resolution does the Info window say on your Mac and on your Phone. I'm looking at one of my Nikon pictures, and it says 6890x3876, after it has been cropped. It's the same on my Mac and phone. When I AirDrop a picture from my Mac to my iPhone it has the same dimensions.
I'm using macOS 14.5 and iOS 17.5.1
Thanks for your reply!
I’m using Monterey on Mac and my iphone.
The dimensions of photos on both Mac and iphone are same, but on my iphone when I zoom in on photos, it becomes blury
[Edited by Moderator]
From Finder I just open menu with right click then Share and Airdrop the photos. Dimensions and file size are same on both device. I never had this issue before, and this is so annoying
You can clearly see what I mean on the screenshots below! The first one is zoom in on Mac, and the second one is zoom in on iPhone! I double checked the dimensions and both were same
So it seems AirDrop does not lose quality, but iPhone displays the zoomed in image differently than the Mac, right?
Airdrop Photos lose quality
