ARGH! Mac vs Windows file format BS again!

[GH85Carrera]

Back in the early days Mac and Windows had real issues sharing files. That was mostly resolved long ago. Now it is back, thanks to Apple's new photo format of HEIC.

If you have an iPhone or iPad and take a photo the default now (with iOS 11 and later) is to store it in a HEIC format. With a Windows 10 computer it is pretty much impossible to open it much less edit it. You can go into the camera settings and change it to be the compatable mode and not default of HEIC, but Apple does not make that easy or intuitive.

I am on Windows 10 Version 20H2 build 19042.804 and Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0 and I believe it is the latest and greatest most up to date.

I own and use Photoshop Version 22.2 again latest and most updated.

I can't open an HEIC image or even view it on my computer.

Between Adobe, Apple and Microsoft one would think it is easy to make it work.

If I dig around on the internet, there is a HEIC plug in available for Win 10. I can't get it to install. After an hour, I give up. In the year 2021 this should not happen. GRRRRR.

[dad911]

Well thank you, now I know why I have issues.

My work-around for occasional pics has been to email pics to myself.

For bulk pics I have the google photo app on my phone. It backs up pics to my gmail/google account, and view/download as a jpg from google pics to my computer.

[GH85Carrera]

I tried to email the photo from my phone, and it is still in the HEIC format. No help at all. I did reste my phone to use the jpg format, but that does not solve the issue with HEIC.

[masraum]

You can change the format on a Mac if you've got one. It's probably also possible to change it on the phone, but I haven't looked.

google says

https://www.imobie.com/support/how-to-convert-heic-photos.htm

https://www.howtogeek.com/666363/how-to-convert-heic-photos-to-jpg-on-iphone-and-ipad/

https://www.iphonehacks.com/2020/05/how-convert-heic-photos-jpeg-iphone-windows-mac.html

[GH85Carrera]

I don't have a Mac, and I don't want one. I do like my iPhone. I have changed the storage format for my devices.

I suspect it is a major case of "not invented here" syndrome on all sides. JPG files have been the standard for decades. Apple decided it can do something better, but Adobe and Microsoft refuse to follow suit just because Apple invented it.

I just want to be able to load the dang thing into Photoshop. THE standard image editing program for professionals.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I don't have a Mac, and I don't want one. I do like my iPhone. I have changed the storage format for my devices.

I suspect it is a major case of "not invented here" syndrome on all sides. JPG files have been the standard for decades. Apple decided it can do something better, but Adobe and Microsoft refuse to follow suit just because Apple invented it.

I just want to be able to load the dang thing into Photoshop. THE standard image editing program for professionals.

The links that I posted should enable you to make the conversion on your phone.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I tried to email the photo from my phone, and it is still in the HEIC format. No help at all. I did reste my phone to use the jpg format, but that does not solve the issue with HEIC.

Perhaps my gmail account changes the format?

I just emailed this pic from my phone:

[deanp]

Have you tried converting through Camera Raw?

Take a look at some of the suggestions here, if you haven't already:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/kb/heic-files-support.html

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by masraum

The links that I posted should enable you to make the conversion on your phone.

My phone is a iPhone 11 Pro. It is a little toy device when compared to my computer with twin 27 inch 4K (3840x2160 PPI) displays driven by two high end video cards, and an i9-9960 CPU @ 3.10 GHz with 16 cores and 32 logical processors and 256 Gig of Ram and over 18 TB of drive space, Windows 10 Professional 64 bit and the full Photoshop version 22.2 and a Gigabit internet connection.

I did change my phone to use jpg format for photos. That does not help if someone else sends me a HEIC file in an email. Jumping through hoops to use my phone to do the work of a computer is silly. It should be possible and in fact easy to do it with my computer.

I am sure that soon in some update Adobe will figure out how to open a HEIC in Photoshop or Windows will make it a regular image format. Until then, Apple can kiss my butt. They once again decided they know best and go off in non industry standard file formats and screw the rest of the world, they go their own way.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My phone is a iPhone 11 Pro. It is a little toy device when compared to my computer

I did change my phone to use jpg format for photos. That does not help if someone else sends me a HEIC file in an email. Jumping through hoops to use my phone to do the work of a computer is silly. It should be possible and in fact easy to do it with my computer.

Yep, I'm well aware of your business and computer and image processing and am duly impressed (seriously).

It sounded to me like you were concerned with photos from your phone which what I sent would help with if you had a few from before you changed the default to jpg. But yes, if you're concerned with photos coming from other folks, or random future photos that don't get routed through your phone, then those won't help.

what about
https://heic.imobie.com/how-to/convert-heic-to-jpg-on-windows-10.htm

https://www.howtogeek.com/345504/how-to-open-heic-files-on-windows-or-convert-them-to-jpeg/

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/heic-to-jpeg-free/9ntvcmpjm5v3

[GH85Carrera]

I figured the Windows help site was the easy answer. All I get is an endless loop.



When I try to install the Microsoft app I get the error above. So trying to install the converter app I get an error that the app can't install because there is no association. It will not install.

It makes no sense. I can't install the app because I don't have the app installed. I spent over an hour trying the different options. My real goal is to be able to use Photoshop since I have used that since it was called PhotoStyler and I loaded it from 5.25 inch floppies.

It is just really annoying.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I figured the Windows help site was the easy answer. All I get is an endless loop.



When I try to install the Microsoft app I get the error above. So trying to install the converter app I get an error that the app can't install because there is no association. It will not install.

It makes no sense. I can't install the app because I don't have the app installed. I spent over an hour trying the different options. My real goal is to be able to use Photoshop since I have used that since it was called PhotoStyler and I loaded it from 5.25 inch floppies.

It is just really annoying.

Yeah, that really sucks. I haven't had any version of Win since 7.

I think the error is referencing the fact that the URL is not exactly a web page, but is actually trying to open in a Microsoft Store App. If you have Win 10, do you have an app for Microsoft App Store or something like that? (there's something very similar for Mac). If so, then crank that app up and search for HEIC.

If you don't, maybe try one of these.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-apps
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows
Then search for "heic" without the quotes. It looks like there should be several apps available.



You may also try using a different browser if this doesn't work.

[GH85Carrera]

I tried it with Firefox and Edge. Edge is of course the Microsoft browser. Same results, just the error.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by masraum

I think the error is referencing the fact that the URL is not exactly a web page, but is actually trying to open in a Microsoft Store App. If you have Win 10, do you have an app for Microsoft App Store or something like that? (there's something very similar for Mac). If so, then crank that app up and search for HEIC.

Correct, 2nd app in that screens list installed from Windows store solves the issue.

It's just a codec.

I've installed it on at least 4 PC's and is all you need.

And point of order, there never was a file incompatibility issue between the platforms.

Windows files only had a data fork while Mac files had a data and resource fork.

The resource fork is what told the OS which program to use.

You didn't need the .xxx file extension and Mac users were not accustomed to appending it so when the file got to a PC Windows didn't know what to do with it.

All that was ever needed on either end was adding .doc .jpg .xls etc.....

So Macs started adding it by default as well and problem was solved.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I tried it with Firefox and Edge. Edge is of course the Microsoft browser. Same results, just the error.

Do you have the Microsoft Store App? I think Win 10 should.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Correct, 2nd app in that screens list installed from Windows store solves the issue.

It's just a codec.

I've installed it on at least 4 PC's and is all you need.

And point of order, there never was a file incompatibility issue between the platforms.

Windows files only had a data fork while Mac files had a data and resource fork.

The resource fork is what told the OS which program to use.

You didn't need the .xxx file extension and Mac users were not accustomed to appending it so when the file got to a PC Windows didn't know what to do with it.

All that was ever needed on either end was adding .doc .jpg .xls etc.....

So Macs started adding it by default as well and problem was solved.

That is partially true. But in Tiff files and many others the data is arranged differently. To this day when I save a Tiff file I can tell it Mac or Windows order. Apple has always played in their own little playground and never cared about how to play well with others.

The little conversion apps seems to be as useless as possible. Those will get deleted. I still can't get the file to load into Photoshop.

[stomachmonkey]

This is the one you want.

Use windows store on your PC.

You don't want to convert the file, you want your apps to be able to parse it with the proper codec.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/heif-image-extensions/9pmmsr1cgpwg?

Along with this

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/hevc-video-extensions/9nmzlz57r3t7?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

That is partially true. But in Tiff files and many others the data is arranged differently. To this day when I save a Tiff file I can tell it Mac or Windows order. Apple has always played in their own little playground and never cared about how to play well with others.

Byte order, endianes, is determined by hardware, CPU, not OS, so yes, when Macs ran on PPC which is big endian the byte order was different than x86 which is little endian.

Had nothing to do with Apple playing in their own playground.

NT Server used to run on PPC and was big endian.

[id10t]

I don't have a test file but a quick duckduckgo shows that the Oct 2020 release of The GIMP supports HEIC for import/export.

https://www.gimp.org/news/2020/10/07/gimp-2-10-22-released/

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

This is the one you want.

Use windows store on your PC.

You don't want to convert the file, you want your apps to be able to parse it with the proper codec.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/heif-image-extensions/9pmmsr1cgpwg?

Along with this

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/hevc-video-extensions/9nmzlz57r3t7?

The top link is installed on my system, and if I run it, it opens up every image in my images folder. Photoshop still refuses to open the HEIC format. The bottom link is for video and they want me to spend 99 cents. I don't mind the buck, but I don't want to give them a link to my credit card or email address or create another username and password.

No doubt the Linux community figured it out long ago, but I am not using Gimp, I use Photoshop. It is much like saying use Wordperfect to open a document and Word can't be used.

It is just annoying that Apple invents a new file format and Adobe and Microsoft can't figure it out. I imagine it is 100% the "not invented here syndrome" or a licensing issue and Apple want a fee for using it. Screw it, when Photoshop 22.2 or later will open it I will accept it. Until then it is like a MR. Sid file format (yea that is a real file format) I will not pay to play that game.