Why do photos exported from my Photos app have .mov & .HEIC?

[Howard Brazee]

If I want to share a photo with someone, say on Facebook, I take a snapshot with my iPhone, go to my Mac (where I do all of my apps), export it to my download folder, delete it from photos, and then drag the .HEIC to Facebook.

In past years, I didn't have those file formats for my photos. Is there any advantage to them? I'm not a photographer.

 

[MacInWin]

Here is an article about HEIC format.

HEIC File - What is a .heic file and how do I open it?

Learn about .HEIC files and view a list of programs that open them.

fileinfo.com

As for your process, if it's working for you, no reason to change it. If you want to change it to something else, open the HEIC file in Preview and do a "Save As..." to save it with a different format.

If you never want HEIC, there are settings on your phone to change the default.

 

[lclev]

.mov indicates a movie file. I am assuming when you export from photos you are exporting a video file.

As for .HEIC it is an iPhone photo container format the allows for high quality compression of pictures that save space. Also photos taken using the HEIC format takes multiple shots in what is called Live mode. So basically you can look at all the series of photos on your phone and pick the best one. Not all apps will open a HEIC file container. I imagine when you drag a photo into Facebook in HEIC format I am guessing but I bet it gets converted to a jpeg - but that is a guess.

Lisa

 

[Howard Brazee]

.mov indicates a movie file. I am assuming when you export from photos you are exporting a video file.

As for .HEIC it is an iPhone photo container format the allows for high quality compression of pictures that save space. Also photos taken using the HEIC format takes multiple shots in what is called Live mode. So basically you can look at all the series of photos on your phone and pick the best one. Not all apps will open a HEIC file container. I imagine when you drag a photo into Facebook in HEIC format I am guessing but I bet it gets converted to a jpeg - but that is a guess.

Lisa

I didn't mean to take movies. I just tried to take snapshots.

 

[RadDave]

I didn't mean to take movies. I just tried to take snapshots.

Hi Howard - well, you already received great advice from Jake & Lisa w/ a link - below a snippet from that link followed by a pic of the setting on my iPhone 14 - I upload many pics taken by my iPhone to forums that don't accept HEIC so I simply changed to 'Most Compatible' and saved as JPEG. As to .mov just check your settings before shooting, likely your error. Dave
.

 

[MacInWin]

Ah, if you are trying to take photos and get .mov files, you may have "Live" photos turned on. That captures a few seconds of video and shows one frame to you. But when you export, you get a .mov and a .HEIC file with the same name. One is the few seconds video, the other is the selecte image. It's turned on when the camera is open and you tap the upper right corner. There is an icon of several circles. If it's not on, there will be a slash. If it's on the slash is not there. I think default is "ON" but I'm not sure.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Hi Howard - well, you already received great advice from Jake & Lisa w/ a link - below a snippet from that link followed by a pic of the setting on my iPhone 14 - I upload many pics taken by my iPhone to forums that don't accept HEIC so I simply changed to 'Most Compatible' and saved as JPEG. As to .mov just check your settings before shooting, likely your error. Dave
.

View attachment 39145 View attachment 39146

I changed my setting. I would think that this should be a setting you can change from the camera for people who occasionally want the best quality photos. I see I can select "live" or not from my phone,

 

[ferrarr]

Also, you can use the Share button on the iPhone to send the image files to your Mac. I believe this automatically converts the images to a supported format. I mostly get .png files, but some have come over as .jpeg files as well.

 

[IWT]

There's a great show of excellent advice in all the above Posts, @Howard Brazee.

One additional thing to note - and in fairness it's there in Rad Dave's Post #5 - but I want to emphasise it:

You will require HEIF/HEVC if you intend to use Video in any of the following: "Cinematic Mode", "4K at 60 fps", "1080 at 24 fps", and "HDR Video".

Moreover, if you choose HEIF/HEVC, probably best to go into Settings > Photos and scroll down to "Transfer to Mac or PC" and Tick "Keep Originals". This is NOT compulsory, but this setting preserves your choice of photos & videos, as above. "Automatic" nearly often does the same, but not always. But this is a trivial issue, I guess.

Ian

 

[Jimmysb]

Some forums I use will not accept the heic format, so I cannot drag them straight to the forum, however I have found just dragging to the desktop, converts the format to jpeg, and then can be used, no changes to settings or additional software required.

 

[rbpeirce]

This may be wrong, but I've simply changed the extension from .heic to .jpg or .jpeg. This has always worked for me.