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Dropbox iOS Conversion of HEIC Photos to JPG on Portrait Mode Photos not Viewable on Sierra

I have my iPhone set to capture HEIC, and Dropbox client set to Save HEIC Photos As JPG.

If you take a "Portrait Mode" photo on the iPhone in HEIC, and have Dropbox convert this to JPG, the JPG is unviewable on a Mac running Sierra.

Non "Portrait Mode" photos are viewable fine on Sierra, and Portrait Mode photos that can't be viewed on Sierra, can be viewed on High Sierra.

NOTE: Portrait Mode is not the orientation of the phone, but a special mode that tries to create fake Bokeh by blurring the background through software.

System Info:

iPhone 7+ iOS 11.0.2
Dropbox for iOS v66.2.8
macOS Sierra v10.12.6

macOS High Sierra v10.13
Dropbox for Mac v35.4.20

Please see Screenshots:

Screenshot 2017-10-03 16.01.31.png macOS Sierra v10.12.6

2017-10-03 16.01.13.png iOS v11.0.2 iPhone 7+

2017-10-03 16.00.58.png Dropbox iOS v66.2.8

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Accepted answers

JackRoger

In fact, there are many HEIC to JPG converter online and most of them are free. I also have the need to convert HEIC photos to JPG. But instead of the free tools, I selected Joyoshare HEIC Converter as it's lossless and supports many popular formats that others don't. It's easy to convert the HEIC photos to JPG or PNG or others with Joyoshare. Maybe you can have a test with its free version first.

All comments

Darren S.1

Not to hijack this thread, but I don't have the HEIC option in the Dropbox app (iPhone SE, iOS 11.0.2, latest Dropbox app). This is odd, as I also have a different (related?) problem where I can't enable background uploading and my videos aren't uploading for which I have a ticket open.

sumocomputers

Just curious if you have High Efficiency or Most Compatible selected in the iOS Native Camera option? I don't think it matters, since the Dropbox app shows the option either way I set it on the iPhone 7+.

I also noticed another option that is very interesting, under Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC:

2017-10-04 14.11.20.png

Darren S.1

I have the second option, but not the first one. Hmm...

Ah, apparently it’s only on iPhone 7 and later.

Inxcore

Same issue on Windows with Dropbox App!

sumocomputers

I created a Dropbox support ticket and directed them to this thread. Hoping they are aware of the issue and are working on it.

chelsie

You can change the format back to JPG but if you've already used the HEIC format, the only thing you can do is convert your images. There are few converters already and I found this Free HEIC Converter to JPG. This works perfectly as I was able to change the format of my images without losing the quality of my pics. It's free and does not require installing additional software as its an online tool.

Rich

At one point there was an issue where app would change the extension to JPG but not actually convert the file (or did it convert the file but not change the extension, I don't remember). Either way, I thought that had been resolved. If you still have a JPG or HEIC image that was uploaded by Dropbox and you can't open it, try changing the file's extension just as a test.

sumocomputers

So I have a file with a .jpg extension that cannot be opened Sierra but can on High Sierra.

Let's assume it is really a .heic file but has an incorrect .jpg extension.

Now I change it to .heic as you suggest.

What exactly would the next steps be? And how would those steps prove your theory?

Rich

There are no next steps. It was simply a suggestion for when you come across a JPG or HEIC file that wasn't recognized (by the file's extension) and couldn't be opened. Changing the extension may allow you to open the file because the extension would then match the file type and the operating system would then know how to handle the file.

Going back to look at it, the Dropbox iOS app was uploading HEIC files and renaming them to JPG, but not actually converting them. Changing the file's entension from JPG to HEIC allowed the file to be opened normally. No data was being lost. This issue was corrected.

sumocomputers

On High Sierra, there was no problem opening the heic file, even with the .jpg extension. So changing the extension to .heic changed nothing (it still opened on High Sierra, and still could not be opened on Sierra).

But the real problem was that Dropbox was not converting heic files to jpg when the setting was on.

Now the problem has changed a little. Under most native setting conditions, Dropbox never converts the heic to jpg, so although it correctly keeps the .heic extension, the resulting file is not easily shareable.

I have since gone back to change the native phone settings to "most compatible (JPG/MP4)" until Dropbox can get it worked out. Also, it turns out that heic photos actually are of lower quality than jpg in many cases, and since I have 256GB, I'm not really concerned about space that much. The new video file would be important to me, however.

Daraclark

Try other methods to convert HEIC to JPG format. iOS 11 can auto change HEIC format. When you transfer HEIF iPhone iPad to Photos, Image Capture, or a PC, the image can be converted to JPEG. Just go to Settings > Photos. In the "Transfer to Mac or PC" section, tap Keep Originals to prevent the media from being converted when importing. Or email these HEIC images, and they should be converted into JPG format. There are also many HEIC to JPG converters, online tools or desktop applications. Just google it.

Vamker

I don't know how you succeeded in converting HEIC to JPG , But I failed several times ,i just want to move my pictures from iOS to Mac .
>Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac > Keep originals
After i done , But these photos can't be opened,
What am I doing wrong?

Koryantii

OP, did you get it fixed? I have the same issue with you. Which converter you are using? I am following the suggestions in this conversation tutorial and I can view the JPG photos on my MBP (OS X El Capitan)

Credit: iphonetransferrecovery.com/tutorials/convert-heic-to-jpg-iphone.html

sumocomputers

I pinged Dropbox support via email on my ticket, and they said it is still open.

nakactach

open Dropbox on iPhone, tap on setting, find Camera Uploads and set “SAVE HEIC PHOTOS AS JPG (Recommended) to use dropbox convert heic to jpg.

JackRoger