Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

14 points

Photos for Mac: HEIC and jpeg of the same picture

I'm using Photos for Mac: photos I take with my iPhone 7+ in HEIC format. They are sent to iCloud via My Photo Stream (I am not using the Photo Library) and I find them in Photos on the Mac. But when I afterwards synchronise pictures and video from my iPhone with the cable to the Mac, I'll end up with duplicates in JPEG and HEIC. This drains my memory. It started in September last year.

How do I solve this problem?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on May 8, 2018 2:53 PM

Best reply

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Posted on May 9, 2018 1:06 PM

Hello KL18,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities! I understand that when you import photos via USB from your iPhone 7 Plus to your MacBook Pro, you see duplicate photos in JPEG and HEIC format in Photos on your MacBook Pro. I would be happy to help provide clarification about this behavior.

The HEIC (or HEIF) format you are seeing are the photos synced to your MacBook Pro via Lightning to USB cable. Photo Stream supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and most RAW formats so the photos in JPEG format would be from your Photo Stream. You can learn more about using HEIF or HEVC media here:

Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

The following support article provides more information about how Photo Stream works:

My Photo Stream - Apple Support

Importing photos to your MacBook Pro using both methods is causing the duplicate photos. To prevent duplicate photos in the future, consider importing photos using just Photo Stream or importing manually from the iPhone 7 Plus via Lightning to USB cable.

Take care!

View in context

Photos for Mac: HEIC and jpeg of the same picture

Similar questions