Level 1

20 points

HEIC Issue

I returned from a holiday to Europe to find that some of my images were in the new HEIC format around 900 images. I have the latest Mojave and iPhone 8 iOS systems installed and went about my usual business of importing the images into Photos and then auto deleting them from the phone when complete.

Everything went as planed and the images and few videos look fine when viewed within the Photos app however I typically like to export some of my images from trips and add them to Lightroom so I just export the unaltered originals and then import to Lightroom

The issue I'm having is that the HEIC images when exported are corrupted. The show green pixel boxes either on the lower half or in some cases the side of the exported images.

I decided to try to convert the images to JPG and the result was the same except the pixel corruption shows up a purple instead of green. I have the images as proof and would be happy to send them along with screen shots if you like. I have posted a couple here.

I need to know what the issue is and the fix or that a fix is on the way ASAP.

Thanks

Above is the image in Photos

Above is the exported JPG

Above is a screenshot of the exported HEIC as this forum would not allow the actual .HEIC image to be added to this message.

Clearly there is an issue with HEIC.

iPhone 8, macOS Mojave (10.14), Latest iTunes and iPhone updates.

Posted on Oct 11, 2018 4:56 PM

Top-ranking reply

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Posted on Oct 12, 2018 12:37 PM

This .heic just keeps getting more and more confusing. So here are the results of my tests.

Airdrop: HEIC image is converted during the airdrop process to a .jpg with no issues with the image. Tried multiple HEIC images to confirm.

USB: changed port from my USB hub to direct connect to the back of my iMac results as follows. Export unmodified original for 1 photo....same results HEIC is corrupted along the bottom of the image as shown in the my original post screen shot above. Export 1 Photo option to jpeg and the image shows corruption same as before.

USB: Swapped cables with the same results as above.

Also tried the old drag and drop from the Photos App to desktop with the same results. The HEIC is converted to a .jpeg before it hits the Desktop and the corruption is visible. All be it not green.

So conclusion. AirDrop seems to work but there is obviously issues with both the HEIC format and the interaction between Photos and the new HEIC format that needs to be fixed with an update.

Until then I will be reverting back to the "Most Compatible" setting in the camera on my iPhone.

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57 replies

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2018 6:15 PM in response to Marco Klobas

Here is your, imported into photos then, exported .HEIC on my computer. Bare in mind that I have a iMac with 32GB ram, 4GB graphic card, 1 TB hard drive and a 3.5 GHz intel i7. I thought it might be related to the APFS on hard drive but I have an SSD in my MacBook and I get the same results.

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 13, 2018 11:53 AM in response to Marco Klobas

Thanks for all the great feedback. As for iCloud, I don't use it. All my images reside on 1TB USB hard drive and are then backed up to various NAS Drives.

Not sure what the difference the iCloud would make with the issue of the corruption.

I'm beginning to think that it may be some hardware bug perhaps with he Graphics card.

Oct 13, 2018 12:11 PM in response to Digita1one

You're welcome.

The iCloud think is only a hypothesis. As is the graphic card/drivers. I'm prone to consider these two options as a possible cause.

Let's see if a future update by Apple (hopefully soon) will fix this. Maybe someone could try playing with a Mojave 10.14.1 beta.

Tomorrow I'll remove the folder and its files used for testing.

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 31, 2018 1:58 PM in response to pfriedel

Thanks for the feedback. I still have not heard from anyone at Apple about the issue and most likely won't. I have not updated to 10.14.1 but will soon and then post back if I experience the same issue. For now I have nixed .HEIC for all photos.

léonie

Level 10

200,531 points

Nov 13, 2018 3:20 AM in response to jtnoonan90

So the most recent update to Mojave did not fix it for you?

My iMac is nagging me to upgrade to Mojave, whenever I am turning it on, but I am keeping it on High Sierra, as long as I cannot be sure, that the the HEIC problem will be fixed.

Nov 13, 2018 12:29 PM in response to Digita1one

Thanks. It's really a pity since HEIF/HEIC has the same or better quality at exactly half the file size. For example one of my Live Photos is 1.6 MB as JPEG and just 800 KB as HEIC.

It's funny that the actual format is called HEIF (high efficient image format) but the file name used by Apple on macOS and iOS is HEIC. H.265 correctly shows up as HEVC (high efficiency video codec) files. HEVC is fantastic and allows reasonably small files for 4K HDR 10-bit video. A full UHD Bluray rip can be just 5-10 GB depending on bitrate in this format.

Edit: I incorrectly said that HEVC shows up as .HEVC. It is saved as Quicktime .MOV when shot on iPhone. That is the container I guess while HEVC is the codec and it shows up in the metadata.

Nov 13, 2018 12:45 PM in response to airics900

Cool, so it's only a matter of 3 weeks or so. I'm never on the beta, just the latest stable release so I had no idea. Thanks. There's also a minor annoyance with the favicons on the Touch Bar from Safari 12.0-present. Instead of filling up the virtual buttons, the SVG files are rendered as tiny squares. This was never the case since I bought this machine which came with Sierra 10.12.1.

Oct 12, 2018 11:53 AM in response to Digita1one

Hi.

Same issue here... iphone Xs max and imac 27" with mojave....

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2018 11:55 AM in response to Amenic330

Harsh however at least I'm not the only one with the same issue. 😁 Hope Apple sees this and more peps come forward so a fix can be pushed out.

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:39 PM in response to Marco Klobas

Just added two HEIC files.

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2018 1:41 PM in response to Marco Klobas

Also added an exported jpeg.

Thanks

Oct 12, 2018 1:44 PM in response to Digita1one

Thanks.

I opened them with Photoshop and both look fine. I don't see any glitch.

The third file (JPG) does have gray pixel blocks.

Oct 12, 2018 1:49 PM in response to Digita1one

I even tried to import your HEIC files in Photos and export them again: no issues at all.

Digita1one Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2018 2:03 PM in response to Marco Klobas

Strange as I open the .HEIC images in Photoshop and I get the pixelation all be it grey and somewhat hard to see.

Screen shots.

Oct 12, 2018 2:13 PM in response to Digita1one

Quite strange.

This is what I get:

The middle image is extremely saturated by me on purpose to highlight a possible pixelation. I don't see diagonal pixelated blocks.

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HEIC Issue