Unable to import AVCHD (BMDV) movies to photos app since High Sierra update

AVCHD media (including the .MTS files contained in there) use AC3 audio tracks.

Check if you have an older A52Codec.component installed in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. Remove it as AC3/A52 codecs are build-in to macOS nowadays. After rebooting, AVCHD import should work fine again.

The third party software Perian installes this incompatible version of an AC3 codec in the components folder, so uninstalling this might have the same effect.

on rx100,plug in to mac ,switch on as usual -- open photos , create a new folder eg sony video, then open the no name hard disk folder for the camera on desktop, then open the private folder, you see the avhd file , then open it but control-click it and on the drop menu click "show package contents , do the same again when it shows BDMV , open the stream folder and there are the individual videos with dates . select the ones you want and drag them into the folder you aready created in photos . Done

Its quite quick but ....

Apple should reinstate the original import or at least have the courtesy to say they were dropping it . Hours of wasted time Apple.

I had this exact same problem, here's how I solved it on macOS 10.13.4 High Sierra:

1. Insert the SD card into your iMac.
2. Launch iMovie, and make sure 'Media' at the top is selected.
3. Click the Import icon (top left).
4. The first time you do this, select the 'Import To' dropdown, and create a New Event named 'Transfer to Photos'. Subsequent times just make sure 'Transfer to Photos' is selected.
5. Under 'Cameras', select your SD card. You should see thumbnails for all your videos.
6. Click 'Import All'.
7. When the import is complete, you'll be prompted to Eject your SD card. You can go ahead and click 'Eject'.
8. Click File -> Reveal in Finder. This will open a Finder window showing the imported videos.
9. Select all the videos, click the Share icon, and select 'Add to Photos'
10. Switch to the Photos app and wait. There's no progress indicator, and if the videos are large it can take a while. Eventually they'll show up under Imports, then they'll show up under Photos, then their thumbnails will appear.
11. Now that the videos are in Photos, you can remove them from iMovie. Switch back to iMovie, select all the videos, and click File -> Delete Media from Event.

I hit the same problem with my Sony HX60V today. My workaround, such as it is, is this:

1. Insert SD card
2. When it appears on the desktop, select "Open" from its menu to open it in the Finder
3. Go into the "private" folder, which should contain the AVCHD file
4. Drag it into a folder on your Mac to copy it across
5. Double click the copy to open it in QuickTime
6. Quicktime should give you a selection of your clips to open
7. Select a clip to open it in QuickTimePlayer
8. Use "Save As" to save it as a movie file
9. Repeat 5. to 8. until you've got them all

I'm keeping the AVCHD file too, in the hope that Apple will issue a fix, but this at least lets me look at my videos and clear the space on the SD card.

I used instructions from video link below for attaching camera directly to computer. I opened Photos App first, then connected the USB to laptop. Photos App immediately showed all the videos and asked if I wanted to import. Videos are importing now. So far, "Info" window gives correct date and time of video as well as size, fps and length (in minutes/secs).

How To Transfer 4K Video From Sony RX100v To iPad - YouTube

We had this problem trying to import film clips from our Canon video camera to our MacBooks that are running High Sierra. Apple Support told us to do the following (and it worked immediately!):

• Go to the apple icon and open 'System Preferences'
• At the bottom, we found that Perian was installed - they told us to uninstall it
• Once we clicked 'uninstall', we were able to download the clips with no problem!

I've been fighting this as well and finally took an .mts file into MPEG Streamclip. It says it's an unsupported file type but it converts it to an .mov with audio. Might take awhile depending on the amount and length of clips but it works.

The only way I could get AVCHD movies to import since the updating into the latest version of Photos in High Sierra was to go an indirect route. Using the old iPhoto app I was able to import videos from my Lumix FZ70 SD card. I only had a few to import into my library so all I had to do was export them into a folder on my desktop and import those MOV files directly from there. Changing the date and time under Image to match event date for each video could be an issue if you have many. Also was able to drag copy from the card the AVCHD file to a folder on my desktop and import all of them into iMovie. This may be my workflow until there is a fix.

Thank you very much for the solution

I discovered recently the same importation problem with AVCHD videos from my SONY HX90V.

I removed the A52Codec.component file installed by Perian and now QuickTime opens the video properly

Hi Baracude,

I have been having similar problems since updating to High Sierra. Any attempt to download images from a Sony RX100iii using the USB cable results in my Mac freezing totally whilst displaying the following screen

I am unable to do anything until I physically restart by turning the Mac off and on again. I can down load images normally using an SD card reader but it does not recognize video files. Video files have to be downloaded onto my Macbook (running El Capitan) and then moved to my Mac using Airdrop! Apple really need to up their game with photo software as I am having similar problems with my Fuji X100f in that the Mac no longer recognizes Fuji Raw files. Heres hoping that the next update will sort it out

I've called with Apple for 50 minutes and we have found a solution to import AVCHD video's in Photo's.

We uninstalled Perian and Flip for Mac from the preferences panel.

After that a NVRAM reset took place. (P+R+Command-Option during a restart)

Then I could open the video's from my camera to Quick Time and could save them as Quick time movie. After that I could move the file to Apple Photo's.

So, the program still can't import the files directly, but with this solution you again could use the AVCHD files on your Mac.

This (opening the AVCHD folder in finder and dragging into Photos) didn't work for me using a folder in Photos, but it worked well using an album, thank you. You do have to update the dates as they come across with the import date.

Wow! After weeks (months?) of wondering about this, today through this list I found two You Tube videos that explained how to find the AVCHD files, convert them with Quick time and be able to see them on the Mac and also use them in iMovies. It seems the simpler solution would be to stop recording in AVCHD if your camera has the option -- my Panasonic Lumix cameras, do. I'm posting this in hope that it will be useful to others struggling with this issue.

This first video, which helped me, is followed by a second even more detailed one.

How to View & Convert AVCHD Format On Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS25 (Mac) - YouTube

Right-click the AVCHD file -> Show Package Contents

Right-click the BDMV file -> Show Package Contents

Open STREAM file. You should be able to see your movie files.