Since upgrading to Mojave, air drop of photos from my iPhone X running iOS 12 to my MBP end up as HEIC instead of the usual JPEG.
This is a nuisance, because HEIC is not recognized by other sites (e.g. MailChimp). So I have to convert them to JPEG before uploading them elsewhere.
Is there a way I can get air drop to work with JPEG again?
Thanks,
doug
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), i5, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM
HEIF/HEIC or High-efficiency image format is a more modern file format for images. It provides more quality at the same or less file size. Think H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and H.265 (HEVC) for video. Without these compression standards high quality 1080p and especially 4k would not be possible especially for those with slow internet connections. HEVC will makes it possible to get reasonable sizes for 10-bit 4K HDR all the way up to 8K and also use the much wider Rec. 2020. The best TVs today can only show about 75-80% of the 2020 color space. Rec 2020 is also much wider than the P3 displays on iPhone 7 and newer and MacBook Pro 2016 and newer.
Well this new HEIF format was launched with iOS 11 and High Sierra. Now if your phone was set to “High efficiency” under the camera settings, the iPhone 7/7 Plus or newer will use HEIF. If you set it to “Most compatible” it will use JPEG.
Now here’s the story. Under photos settings in iOS, when transfer photos is set to automatic if will send HEIF if you’re using macOS High Sierra or newer and JPEG if you’re using anything else. If the other phone is on iOS 11 or newer then it will also get HEIF.
If you want to save in JPEG and always JPEG do this:
Open “camera settings” and choose Camera settings/Formats/MOST COMPATIBLE and then go to Photos settings and choose “KEEP ORIGINALS.” That’s it.
Now, it’s possible that photos saved originally in HEIF will not be able to be transferred as a JPEG on Mojave.
If this is the case then you have to convert these images back to JPEG using whatever software you want for that purpose.
Please keep in mind that sooner or later we will start seeing more and more support for HEIF. It is an official standard and not just some crazy format that Apple is backing. The reason why many places on the web don’t support it is because not everyone has it. JPEG is still the most common standard. Think USB-C vs. USB Type A. USB-C will completely replace type A but it takes a while.
Once most dSLRs and other camera support HEIF, JPEG will be history. People will either shoot RAW or HEIF. The thing is changes have to be forced otherwise people will stick to using what they know.
Hope this post is useful!
How did you change the setting on your Iphone to "most compatible"?
Are you saying this has to do with a change since iOS 12 and not since Mojave? I don't remember having this air drop issue since changing to iOS 12 and prior to Mojave.
Or are you saying that High Sierra didn't support HEIC and so that's why the images had been arriving as JPEG.
does ticking the "most compatible" box keep the HEIC format on the iOS device, and convert to JPEG when air dropping?
or does it save all new captures (and store them) in JPEG?
the latter would be a very convenient truth, however it's highly counter-intuitive to make all iphone/mac users *change* a setting to keep the *same* functionality they had pre-update.
Your suggestion didn't work for me (Set to keep original and then automatic again), my iPhone 7 (iOS 12.0.1) still airdrops HEIC files to my Mojave Macbook. Yes the HEIC files on airdrop started right after the Mojave update.
I'm irritated by this too. It absolutely IS because of Mojave. I was uploading via Airdrop just before I updated to Mojave and immediately after (well, sort of immediately - I've had so many problems with my Mac since the update it's taken a few days for me to be able to use the Mac at all!!) it started to air drop import as HEIC. Hopeless for Ebay and probably hopeless for a whole lot more that we don't realise yet too.! What even IS HEIC?
i think ios12 was the first piece of the puzzle, but things didn't break until the second piece (mojave) was put in place.
i sell 15-25k monthly on ebay, and it's a real chore batch converting these HEIC files
And even more irritatingly, even making the changes suggested above, both on photos on my phone and camera, it STILL now airdrops HEIC files , even for photos taken ages ago.
How do I change the HEIC files once on the Mac back to JPG so I can use EBay once again? And probably other sites I haven't discovered that have a problem with HEIC files yet?
Thanks in anticipation.
And I've just tried to air drop upload a photo taken today with the "most compatible" section switched on and it won't import to Photos now so that's not a good point either. so it looks like we can either take photos as JPG which we can use in lots of places as it's the most compatible format, but then if we want to use them on the Mac in iPhotos it won't let us. ****** if we do and ****** if we don't . I hate this. Just bought an Apple x and I've not opened the box yet. Thinking of taking it back for a Samsung. I don't like these latest changes.
Actually, scratch that - I seem to have managed to import it to iPhotos now. Panic over. But I still don't like it. Warning everyone I know who hasn't downloaded IOS 11 (because I think that's when the first piece of the jigsaw stared judging by which photos get airdropped as HEIC files).
What OS were you using before Mojave? High Sierra already had full HEIF support. I remember everything importing as HEIF with my 7 Plus on High Sierra.
It’s very possible that a later High Sierra version like 10.13.5 or 10.13.6 broke something and photos were being transferred as JPEG when the iPhone was set to High Efficiency and Automatic.
Was on High Sierra.. not sure what version but definitely high Sierra. Was on 12 on my phone and on Tuesday everything airdropped as jpeg. Tuesday night Mojave installed and Wednesday airdropping as heic files.
I tried converting them to jpeg via Preview and it did convert them but EBay said the files were corrupt and couldn’t add them to my listing.
Really annoyed that all my photos are heic as I will have to find sine sort of batch converter going forward - anyone know any good ones?
I just went back and checked this business today and there is a serious problem with HEIC in Mojave. For example I can't import Live Photos. They are always AirDropped as still HEIC images. I can only get the Live Photo if I send myself an iMessage and then open it in Photos from inside iMessage. If I do it any other way the photos will never be Live inside Photos.
This was never a problem with High Sierra. Right now at least on the Mac, Photos is acting like beta software. I've also had it crash on me on a couple of times.
OMG!! I am affected as well. Just made both changes on CAMERA and PHOTOS settings on my iPhone X, but my last photoshoot 340 photos for ebay, airdrops to my MAC as HEIC!! Anyone found an easy way to convert back to JPG and then successfully uploading to EBAY? Thank you apple for saving my space on my iPhone! That is the reason I bought 256GB so I can save MORE SPACE... Have 204Gb left...
Doug, I'm experiencing the exact same issue now. I agree that the issue started with the Mojave upgrade. Prior to that my air drops from my iPhone 8 to my MacBook pro were jpg files. Now they are HEIC files. I got the this discussion when I searched in google for a question similar to yours .
Yeah, my opinion of Apple products just went WAY DOWN HILL. I can't get my iphone X to change to ANYTHING BUT HEIC. It used to send JPG's when airdropping, but no matter what settings I put in the photos settings, it will ONLY do heic. What a piece of ****.
How to air drop with JPG instead of HEIC?
