HEIC file format is Unwelcomed!

I was horribly surprised to find that the photos I took today, of a high school reunion were in some unknown file format called .heic. I was further horrified to learn that nothing on my PC can read them. In fact, I had to download a converter to view them. I typically download my photos (jpg) and then import them into Lightroom. But now I have to go an extra step.

Apple should not be forcing people into file formats they can not view. I find this to be asinine. I would love to contact the person at Apple who thought this was a good idea. This is the wrong way to go about bringing customer to a new file format. I later learned that I could choose my regular file format via the settings: Camera: Format.

I am very very very angry at Apple. They are so elitist in doing things like this. My next phone I will go back to Android. Android does not pull stunts like this. I will be going to the NYC Apple store to give them a good tongue lashing about this issue. I am not an Apple Lemming.

And please don't give me the non-sense that this forum is not run by Apple. What Non-sense. If true, does not Apple stand behind it's products?

iPhone 7 Plus

Posted on Sep 30, 2017 6:29 PM

Top-ranking reply

68MGBob

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Oct 27, 2017 1:13 AM

Hi,

I found this problem with my iPad 2 (IOS 9) a couple of weeks ago and posted on ‘iCloud.com’ community as it seemed to be related to icloud photo library.

Anyway, I fixed my problem by purchasing an App on Apple Store called ‘HEIC 2 JPG’.

This app can auto search your entire photo library Very quickly and convert HEIC to JPEGs. Option to either keep or delete HEIC files.

All my iPad photos reappeared.

I changed my iPhone 7 camera setting from High Efficiency mode to Most Compatible mode, so now I just get JPEGs and no more HEICs.

So this was an easy fix for me so if Apple don’t fix the issue, I’ll just ignore HEIC.

Hope this helps you.

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18 replies

Mar 14, 2018 4:42 PM in response to chrisquek

You are lucky you're not an artist or photographer---museums, galleries, instagram, websites all use JPEGs which are edited (cropped, color balance, etc) using the Photo (now defunct apparently) technology. Dropping off of Instagram, website, no longer entering juried museum shows, Pinterest, etc. is a huge problem for artists. Apple, I guess doesn't care. HEIF may ultimately be superior....but there needed to be an interim period of transition, not a cold start leaving many with zero.

Apr 19, 2018 11:11 PM in response to léonie

That "transfer to mac or pc" part does not exist on my iPhone. It only let me choose HEIC only or JPEG only..

léonie

Level 10

200,537 points

Apr 20, 2018 1:06 AM in response to wwwwwwww55

Then your iPhone cannot take photos in the HEIF format. But if you import photos you should be able to share them as JPEGs, if you have iOS 11 installed.

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HEIC file format is Unwelcomed!