Having duplicates due to jpg and heic formats

Do you want your photos on your Mac to be JPEG or HEIF?

You can change how the photos are imported when using a USB connection: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

Importing this media via USB

When you import HEIF or HEVC media from an attached iOS device to Photos, Image Capture, or a PC, the media might be converted to JPEG or H.264.

You can change this import behavior in iOS 11. Go to Settings > Photos. In the "Transfer to Mac or PC" section, tap Keep Originals to prevent the media from being converted when importing.

Obviously duplicates were not detected before when Photos was probably looking at IMG_2829.JPG and IMG_2829.HEIC as different files even though it's really the same picture?

The duplicate detection in Photos, when importing image files is checking for identical files, so the file format has to be the same. Photos does not check for identical images. Photo Sweeper can scan your library for similar photos and detect multiple versions of the same photos.

HEIC or JPG? I see the file format is smaller with HEIC but is it better quality in the end?

HEIC files have the same image quality as the original image, but have a better compression.

But if we import images as HEIC and videos as HEVC, Photos will create an additional JPEG for the HEIC files to share with Media Browser, and an addition H.264 video for any HEVC video. Right now we will need more storage on our Mac, if we use the space saving HEIC and HEVC formats in Photos on a Mac. I hope, this will soon be fixed.

The converted items for the Media Browser can be found in the user library ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.MediaLibraryService/Data/Library/C aches

There are two subfolders:

• com.apple.iLifeMediaBrowser.ILPhotosTranscodeCache : Here are plenty of videos and images, converted from HEVC and HEIC to a more compatible format and eating several GB of my disk storage.
• com.apple.iLifeMediaBrowser: Here are thumbnails for the media browser

JRA Ward wrote:

I have this issue and it's causing chaos in my libraries. It's also spamming my Google Photos (sorry/not sorry) with these duplicates, and seemingly no way of preventing the JPEG photostream duplicates from uploading or making PS sync with the HEIC versions.

It seems crazy that the HEIC format is being implemented and promoted whilst only half the system actually supports it, at least provide this information so that we can make a call on the drawbacks of adopting the new format.

The easiest way to have HEIC and HEVC on the iPhone and to sync to the Mac without duplicates is iCLoudPhoto Library. Then the new iPhone media will sync as HEIC and HEVC to the Photos Libraries on the Macs.

This way I can save storage on my iPhone and in iCLoud, but on the Mac I need more storage, because Photos will create cached JPEG and H.264 videos for the media browser.

While my Macs support HEIC and HEVC, not all photo editing extensions I am using support them yet. When I want to edit a HEIF photo in Luminar 2018, I have to use the external Editors extension and convert the image file to TIFF, before I can edit it.

have PhotoStream enabled (but not iCloud Photo Library). On my Mac (running High Sierra version 10.13) photos taken with my iPhone show up in the Photos app in the Library as .jpg's. However, when connecting my iPhone via USB and selecting "Import All New Photos" the Photos app (Version 3.0) is creating duplicates of my photos, i.e. there are both the .jpg and the .heic formats. How can I prevent this,

Very simple - pick a horse and ride it and stop importing the same photo with different extensions using different import methods - either us MyPhotoSream or USB import - not both

LN

Glad I am not alone in this issue! What a surprise.

My understanding now is that Apple automatically converts PHOTOSTREAM photos from high efficiency .heic (on iPhone) to .jpg. Aside from mitigating the space saving benefit, this prompts Photos on my iMac to not recognize the image as having already been imported via photo stream, a convenience I have come to be happy with.

Wish 1: Apple let Photos import the .heic original file to my iMac from photostream

Wish 2: Suggest an app that will delete duplicate images after I import NEW and duplicate my content.

So perhaps best to wait until Apple adopts HEIC and HEVC systemwide before switching over to "Keep Originals" in IOS Photos preferences?

It will depend on how much storage you can afford on your Mac. It cannot be long, until more applications will be fully compatible with HEIC and HEVC and the Media Browser each will be unnecessary.

Having the same problem. No solution so far.

"Picking one horse" as proposed by LarryHN would certainly help, but means to switch to USB only eventually, as videos and live photos are not shared via Fotostream (please correct me, if I am wrong).

Looks like Fotostream creates the "jpg" files causing the duplicates. If Fotostream would simply transfer the "heir" files, problem should not occur. For whatever reason my iPhone does show any settings, meaning I can't adjust there anything. No idea how to fix this.

MS

but means to switch to USB only eventually, as videos and live photos are not shared via Fotostream (please correct me, if I am wrong).

Exactly. My Photo Stream does not transfer videos, and the video part of the Live Photos will be missing.

I have this issue and it's causing chaos in my libraries. It's also spamming my Google Photos (sorry/not sorry) with these duplicates, and seemingly no way of preventing the JPEG photostream duplicates from uploading or making PS sync with the HEIC versions.

It seems crazy that the HEIC format is being implemented and promoted whilst only half the system actually supports it, at least provide this information so that we can make a call on the drawbacks of adopting the new format.

Additionally, 'picking one horse', as Larry suggested, is a kick in the teeth as something that wasn't broken now is after being shunted to use this new format.

I used to connect to my Mac to supplement my archiving and backup videos only; it would not import duplicate photos that were already synced via photostream. Now, not only does it not sync live photos or HEIC via Photostream it creates duplicates making PS a pretty useless disaster.

Again, all through a suggested process: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

I think this is the best answer - but I have yet to check - will Photos pick up duplicates now, when it sees the same file name AND extension? Obviously duplicates were not detected before when Photos was probably looking at IMG_2829.JPG and IMG_2829.HEIC as different files even though it's really the same picture?

This begs the question - and I'm sure there are other threads that address this - but which format DO we want to end up with in Photos on our Macs which is what archives everything? HEIC or JPG? I see the file format is smaller with HEIC but is it better quality in the end?

Oh yikes. so Media Browser - (the "utility" that helps us browse media while using other apps like iMovie or Final Cut, right?) is still living in the JPG world? Well that isn't a good thing if we want to use the HEIC format in Photos - like you say I can see drive space getting eaten up really quickly. So perhaps best to wait until Apple adopts HEIC and HEVC systemwide before switching over to "Keep Originals" in IOS Photos preferences?

Thanks leonie.

I’m in the exact same situation. Did you find a solution? I think photo stream should use heic format...

Totally agree