One HEIC file not rendering in PM 6

[rcohn]

I've not had problems with HEIC files before. Today I downloaded 5 pictures via AirDrop from my iPhone 14 to my computer then opened in Photo Mechanic. Of the 5 one does not render. It looks normal in the Finder and opens normally in Photoshop. I have added a screenshot of the image opened in Photoshop showing its camera info on top of the PM window showing the thumbnail that will not render and the blank screen (note that this is only 3 of the 5 I downloaded). It will not open to the Preview window if I double click the "bad" file, but if I double click one of the files that renders I can then move to the blank file.

I tested with version 6.0, build 7212 (90865b3), 6.0, build 7239 (d308d8d), and just saw there is a new Beta build d308d8dbBeta. All are exactly the same for this issue.

Incidentally, the pictures are of problems I am having with my R5 Mark II so now I am trying to troubleshoot my troubleshooting!

[rcohn]

I downloaded the pictures again by connecting my phone to my computer and using Image Capture. Unlike with AirDrop it also downloads the 1 second .mov file that Liveview records. The HEIC file still does not show, but the .mov file does show as a thumbnail and plays when double clicked to open preview window.

I also tried to rename the files (Command-M) and received an error message as shown in the screenshot.

I hope this info is useful.

[Kirk Baker]

Could you please share the HEIC file that won't render?  Use the 'Attachments and other options' link when you're composing your reply to this message and there you'll be able to upload your file.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[rcohn]

Thank you Kirk!

Here is the HEIC file.

[rcohn]

Hi Kirk,

I'm hoping you have enough info from the original HEIC file to track down the problem. However, I want to add that PM6 will neither rename nor save to Jpeg this one file. I needed to send the images to someone so, to make sure they could view it I wanted to save as a Jpeg. I was able to open it in Preview and save it as a Jpeg (Photoshop or CaptureOne can also view the file and would have worked as well).

I hope this is helpful.

Thanks,
Ric Cohn

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

I'm hoping you have enough info from the original HEIC file to track down the problem. However, I want to add that PM6 will neither rename nor save to Jpeg this one file. I needed to send the images to someone so, to make sure they could view it I wanted to save as a Jpeg.

All of the above will be possible when I fix the problem.  The open source library (libheif) that we use in PM to decode HEIC/HEIF files is unable to decode your image.  I've sent an email and your sample file to the head developer of the library and hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

-Kirk

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

Would you mind sharing the photos surrounding (before and after) the HEIC photo that won't render?

Thanks,

-Kirk

[rcohn]

my pleasure. Here you go.

One thing I don't understand is why some downloaded as .heic and others a .HEIC. But this doesn't seem related to whether the file renders in PM or not. I checked and changing the problem file to lower case does not fix it. I checked some recent iPhone pictures and they are all lower case.

[Kirk Baker]

my pleasure. Here you go.

Thank you, Ric.

One thing I don't understand is why some downloaded as .heic and others a .HEIC. But this doesn't seem related to whether the file renders in PM or not. I checked and changing the problem file to lower case does not fix it. I checked some recent iPhone pictures and they are all lower case.

Is this problem file one of the ones that doesn't render?

-Kirk

[rcohn]

Is this problem file one of the ones that doesn't render?

-Kirk

The original file I uploaded was the problem file. It did indeed end in .HEIC, but for the two other files I just uploaded that both render fine, one ends in .heic and the other in .HEIC. Note that I renamed them before forwarding to someone which is why these files are named and the first file I uploaded was the original camera name. I had to rename the "problem" file in the finder since PM doesn't allow me to rename it.

I hope this is clear.

Ric

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

I received a response from the lead developer of the libheif library.  Unfortunately it is not good news.  The image is malformed and while some applications can render the file, it is out of specification.

this is a known issue. Some iPhones are writing broken files as confirmed by Apple:
https://github.com/strukturag/libheif/issues/1448

This requires a workaround to tolerate these broken files.
I don't know yet when I have time for this.

You can look at the URL that he referenced for all of the gory details.

You might try updating your iPhone OS to the latest version, if possible, to see if an update fixes the HEIC file generation.

The latest version of Photo Mechanic (the Universal-Binary builds) uses Apple's ImageIO library for decoding HEIC files and does render your out-of-specification HEIC file correctly.

-Kirk

[rcohn]

Kirk, thanks for trying to solve this! My iPhone is up to date, but I can't remember if the latest update happened after these pictures were taken.

Now that I know the source of the problem.... well knowledge is power.