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Newly Discovered macOS Image Capture Bug Can Fill Up Hard Drives With Empty Data
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I love how all the fanbois defend this sloppy practice by acting like "nobody uses this app". Why would Apple include a useless bloatware app on their latest version of macOS if it's no big deal? I've downloaded tens of thousands of photos off my wife's iOS devices using Image Capture--do the math.
It boggles the mind that this was happening for so long. Not sure what's worse--that Apple didn't notice or that Apple didn't care?
It boggles the mind that this was happening for so long. Not sure what's worse--that Apple didn't notice or that Apple didn't care?
I have been using Image capture so I can just import the photos I want and not have doubles. They into a folder, then to separate distinct folders, that then get imported to Photos. Much easier and done! How would I check to see if my photos have this Heif and can they be converted to save space? Or set up to only be Jpeg when taken in the phone?
Another question, how far back on macOS does this bug started to appear...?
While manage to reproduce the problem with an HEIC image, an image originally taken using JPEG after importing thru IC seems to devoid of this issue. I guess a temporary solution is to set format to Most Compatible from the iOS Camera settings.
Managed to get GC to fix the problems on some of my .jpg images. File size variance can be up to 3MB...
While manage to reproduce the problem with an HEIC image, an image originally taken using JPEG after importing thru IC seems to devoid of this issue. I guess a temporary solution is to set format to Most Compatible from the iOS Camera settings.
Managed to get GC to fix the problems on some of my .jpg images. File size variance can be up to 3MB...
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I'm not sure if there's a way for GC to identify which images are affected since I'm new to GC for less than an hour. But I'm going thru all my images that were taken from my iPhone 11 since I got that phone back in Oct last year, and my previous iPhone 6 does not support HEIC, that oughtta do it - backtrack all my images until Oct 2019.
You can identify the affected images by opening them with the app Hex Fiend, scroll all the way down, look for a bunch of 00000000 00000000 strings...
As for batch removing zeros from the affected images, select all the affected images, right-click > General Metadata > Remove Zeros at the End of JPEGs...
This will create a set of new image files retaining the same file name while adding "(original)" text onto the existing image file name.
However, one tiny problem cropped up - because fixing the problem involves creating new set of image files, hence new date of creation and modification. You may want to retain the old creation and modification date by doing the following - right click > Exif Metadata > Set Creation and Modification Date Depending on Exif...
Until Apple fixes the IC bug, temporary workaround includes using GC to replace IC, or set Camera > Format settings from High Efficiency (then inport via GC) to Most Compatible (continue importing via IC)...
Hope this helps...
iOS 11 and macOS 10.13 introduced HEIC support, so at least a couple years. It could also be a latent bug in the image frameworks that didn't manifest itself until HEIC support was added.
It's unfortunate that it primarily affects what is an accommodation for backward compatibility, but at least there are plenty of easy workarounds now that it has been revealed, though remedying the affected files will be more difficult.
Apple has long had a bad habit of not prioritizing, if not neglecting, its stable of small utility apps, and when they do turn their attention to them, disasters like the post-Yosemite versions of Disk Utility can result.
Lame comments from the peanut gallery notwithstanding, any smart user will always welcome having more tools at their disposal, not fewer.
True. Photos.app should add a checkbox when scanning or importing asking you if you want to upload the scanned/imported photo to iCloud Photo Library. Should be quite a simple implementation; when you import or scan, there'd be a checkbox saying something to the effect of: "Upload to iCloud Photo Library when done". If you uncheck it, then it can put the newly imported/scanned item in a non-iCloud folder in Photos.app, but warn you that it won't upload to iCloud. Later, down the road, if you change your mind, just drag the photo from the non-iCloud folder to the regular library that is uploaded, and it'll upload right there and then. Seems like a simple enough solution, hmm.
Also, when scanning, which might be more likely not to be wanted in iCloud Photo Library, Photos.app can offer to save the scan to a folder outside of the application instead, or upload it to iCloud.
If they're able to incorporate those options above, what else would be missing in Image Capture.app?
You are the 10%! 😂
Seriously though—I know people still use this app. I used it for quite a bit some time ago; there’s a reason I said 90% instead of 99%. Tends to be power users. Mac users were already a microcosm of the computing world ten years ago—things have changed, more people have MBAs, but the new “microcosm” is power users, people who use apps like Image Capture that most people look at and just think “what is that?” lmaooo. I’m in the process of teaching my aunt how to use her new MBA (they rly knocked it outta the park with that one imo, just don’t ****ing put a Touch Bar on it PLEASE) and I’ll report back when she discovers IC/what her thoughts are.
Yes, something like this exactly. Or a “staging area" of some kind.
An earlier response to my post referenced “pointers” in Photos, and I did a little quick research, and some form of what we’re talking about already exists! Not a hack, an actual function of Photos. I still think my Image Capture workflow is simpler and more direct, but that might just be because I’ve used it for years. Anyway have a look if you’re curious.
At the moment at least, this bug doesn’t affect me because I’m not doing an import from iOS. Would still like them to lock it down anyway.
When you have other intentions for your images than using Photos, Image Capture can quickly become part of your (my) regular toolset.
Haven't had this problem. Can you be more specific?
They (presumably Apple) "try" how? I certainly don't use iCloud for anything important. Apple's repeatedly demonstrated incompetence at services makes sure of that.
Probably, but Im not too fussed with that. Generally the images I'm transferring across are to go up on the web anyways, so a little quality loss is not noticeable for my intended uses!
I don't have an iOS device that supports recording in HEIC to test, but has anyone tried using ImageOptim?
So unnecessary battery drain and time... ok... you do you...
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It honestly really angers me how much little attention is given to Image Capture... we don't ALL want to use iPhoto for all our photos and internet screen grabs Apple...
Image Capture on my previous Mac would just stop importing suddenly and just never stop. Image Capture on my new Mac with Mojave doesn't even let me know of which photos are imported or not. And then there's some photos appearing on their side when you took them horizontal...
Did I mention there's no progress bar for some reason? WTH...
It's such a necessary tool, and so useful, but Apple doesn't care... it's such a mess. They just seem to care about memojis and iPhones/iPads with bare improvements these days...
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Is Image Capture the same as in going to settings, Printers & Scanners, Scan, then click the Open Scanner button? I used that method to scan documents over the network with my scanner and also scanned some documents for a friend using their scanner. I didn't download drivers but perhaps that's automatically done?
I rarely scan things so I just found out how to do it that way messing around in the settings.
Not only that, iCloud Photos messes up your metadata... I mean, if you download the photos, they'll appear with the "created" and "added" dates on the date you download them, instead of when you took them. It's a mess, I think you have to activate it on the Photos app and then download ALL the photos and THEN move them with option and you get the dates... I don't remember how I did it when I noticed iCloud Photos was activated by default on my new iphone. (or the one I reset I can't remember) But it was a headache dealing with it. Not even able to download more than 1000 photos from iCloud using Safari...
I have no care for battery whatsoever. The batteries in the newer phones last plenty long enough for most. I have chargers at home and at my workplace. The battery lasts plenty long enough for anything in between. I have honestly never been in a position where my handset is out of power. So using a little extra for airdrop makes no difference for me.
As i said, I only transfer the odd image or video when need be. How much time I would save by plugging the handset in and using Image Capture is again no cause for concern. I can wait an extra 2 seconds.
For me, Image Capture is a must for scanning documents. I don't really use it for much else TBH.
I actually just purchased a cheap 2014 Mac Mini the function as a backup/Folding@Home machine. My library is at 1.4 TB, and it got old needing to connect an external drive every time I wanted to use photos. My goal with this setup is to make constant real-time and rotating offline backups easy and almost automatic. iCloud is great in many ways, but these occasional bugs are a reminder that EVERYTHING needs a backup.