Why are JPEG XL images not syncing to iPhone?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Why are JPEG XL images not syncing to iPhone?

I sync a selection of my photos between my Mac and my iPhone.

I put all these photos in a folder on my Mac, and they get synced automatically when I plug my iPhone in.

I have been using the JPEG image format so far, but I want to take advantage of the JPEG XL format features (smaller file size, hdr capability, etc.).

If I create a JPEG XL image and send it to my iPhone via Airdrop, it displays very well on the iPhone 16. All fine.

But when I connect my iPhone to my Mac, the JPEG XL images are ignored from the sync process, just as if they were not recognized as valid images.

I use an M1 MacBook Pro with macOS Sequoia 15.0, and an iPhone 16 Pro with iOS 18.0.

Anybody has an idea how to make that work?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 14″

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 7:45 AM

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Answer 1

M1c6 Author

Level 1

6 points

Nov 12, 2024 7:44 AM in response to M1c6

I think I might better understand the nature of the issue.

Apple seems to use Jpeg XL on iPhone exclusively as a lossy compression option for storing raw images. It does not export actual .jxl files, but rather .dng files, that contain a Jpeg XL compressed version of the raw image.

It might be why simple Jpeg XL images (in .jxl files) support is not (yet?) complete, and why they are not recognized as valid images for iPhone sync.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,752 points

Sep 25, 2024 10:21 AM in response to M1c6

Without knowing for certain, the syncing process may be filtering the jxl image type as an unknown, but only Apple would know that for certain and no Apple employees participate in these public user-supported communities.

You could send feedback directly to the macOS product team about this syncing issue, but there is no assurance you will hear back from them. It might be something they are aware of and may come as a fix in 15.1 and 18.1.

Unrelated to your immediate syncing issue, you can find JPEG XL images via Spotlight with the following:

kind:"jpeg xl"

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,752 points

Sep 25, 2024 8:53 AM in response to M1c6

It is a bit odd as a jpeg-xl image displays just fine in Preview on Sequoia v15.0 and also in iPadOS 18.0 when using the Files tool.

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Answer 4

M1c6 Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 25, 2024 8:58 AM in response to VikingOSX

Yes, it works absolutely fine in both macOS Sequoia and iOS 18.0. This is why I decided it was OK to change to jpeg XL. Yet the images do not sync automatically from my Mac to my phone…

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