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vulcan7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 16, 2020
19
21
I'm trying to import/transfer photos from my iPhone 12 Pro to my Macbook Air (running High Sierra). It allowed me only import only some of the photos from my phone, but it won't let the other half of the photos. I tried to import via Photos Mac app, via ImageCapture, via Preview, and via AirDrop. None worked. It would only import as blank files. I got an error message saying, can't read metadata to import. And when I try clicking on the supposedly imported file, it would say "can't open image, file is empty". I've no idea why it won't let me save them. I can see the photos fine on my iPhone. I can also see them on my Macbook screen when I open Photos app and connect my phone. (I should add that I have iCloud turned off in my photos on my iPhone, so they don't auto save to the iCloud.)

Please help!

Thanks!
 
can you please check on the Mac side the file size of such an image?
It was saying zero bytes. I checked on my phone and it said those images were HEIF, which was high eficiency format on my iphone. It had .heic extension. I wonder if my macbook wasn't reading them because I was on old OS, High Sierra. I just started a Big Sur OS update now. Will check to see if images can be imported after the update completes.

Thanks!
 
Just for testing purpose:please “share” the photo from your iPhone to your Mac. This normally will convert HEIF automatically. Then again I thought High Sierra introduced HEIF support...
 
Just for testing purpose:please “share” the photo from your iPhone to your Mac. This normally will convert HEIF automatically. Then again I thought High Sierra introduced HEIF support...
Thanks, I updated to Big Sur and was able to import the photos via Preview! A bit weird with organization and extra .AAE data files, but they imported! The HEIF files open now on my Mac. Hooray!

Thanks for your help!
 
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