iPhoto '11 supports the import of AVCHD movies. Does Photos for OS X also support the import of AVCHD movies? My goal is to get my AVCHD movies into iCloud Photo Library through Photos for OS X.
Photos for OS X-OTHER, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)
Photos for Mac can import AVCHD video, but I could find no Apple document, that says, if AVCHD is compatible with iCloud Photo Library.
iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support
Which photo and video formats does iCloud Photo Library support?
iCloud Photo Library automatically stores all of your photos and videos that you add from an iOS or Mac device in their original formats, including JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and MP4.
Léonie,
Thanks for replying.
I have a Canon VIXIA HF R600 video camera. The memory card used in this camera is not formatted in a way that I can get to import into Photos for OS X. The directory structure to the relevant files on the memory card is:
/Volumes/CANON/PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM
In that directory I have files named 00000.MTS through 00023.MTS.
The following instructions are for iPhoto '11, not Photos for OS X, but I figured they might be close enough:
Using AVCHD video with iPhoto '11 - Apple Support
When I try to follow the above instructions for Photos for OS X, I get a dialog box that says:
Nothing to Import
None of these files can be imported into your Photos library.
Why do you believe that Photos for OS X imports AVCHD?
Thanks,
Todd
Hi, Todd.
I mimicked a card with the following folder structure: ~/PRIVATE/AVCHD/BDMV/STREAM/00007.mts
Then I dragged the folder AVCHD onto the Photos icon and it imported the videos.
Two of the three videos uploaded to iCloud. It took all night.
Léonie,
Thanks for all of your help narrowing this down.
I'm still not able to import so I'll capture some more specifics here, for the community:
I unsuccessfully dragged and dropped the following onto the Photos icon in the Dock:
Each time Photos came to the foreground and presented the following:
Since you were able to verify that it's possible to import AVCHD video into Photos for OS X and have it upload to iCloud Photo Library, I'm guessing that the specific AVCHD file format that my camera produces is not acceptable, or that my software is a different version. I see that I can install OS X 10.10.5, so I'll try that next.
Thanks again for all of your help. And I don't expect that you'll go out and buy the same video camera to help me further. 😉
Thanks,
Todd
I tested on OS X 10.10.5, so perhaps updating will help.
And it may be camera specific. Also I notice the filename extension in my screenshot is lower case "mts", in your screenshot "MTS".
Léonie,
I updated to OS X 10.10.5. The error is the same.
For this AVCHD video, I'll manually convert it to MP4 video using some other tool and then import into Photos for OS X.
In the future, I'll use my video camera's MP4 mode.
You've been a great help.
Thanks,
Todd
I just got this camera. Not having much joy getting sharp footage despite setting it to the best quality and checking the focus several times. Any tips? It won't output to 1080 either, even though I shot at 1080.
Just thought i'd ask as you guys are ahead of me with this camera!
AVCHD Import
