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Shebbe
Community Expert
ShebbeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 7, 2024

.heic orientation metadata not honored on Windows

  • August 7, 2024
  • 8 replies
  • 835 views

After receiving feedback on our assets we noticed that .heic files were unexpectedly rotated. I immediately checked the handling on Win vs Mac and it seems that Premiere on Windows (and/or Win itself) ignores this metadata. Therefore it is currently impossible to work with these files in teams with Win+Mac based workstations.

 

Our current workaround is to pre-convert the images to a new format but this isn't ideal. Any chance this can be addressed in Premiere/AE?

    8 replies

    M
    Community Manager
    mayjain7130546Community Manager
    Community Manager
    October 18, 2025

    Thanks, @Stan Jones, for the detailed report. I'm glad to hear the fix is working well on your end. Please feel free to reach out if you encounter any issues in the future.

    Best regards,
    Mayjain

    Stan Jones
    Community Expert
    Stan JonesCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 16, 2025

    @mayjain7130546,

     

    I concur this is fixed. I tested in Beta 25.6.0.102.

     

    I tested my old HEIC/HEVC files, and they are now import correctly. I also created a new set with more variation. iPhone 15 ProMax set for "High Efficiency," ProRes off. Portrait and Landscape, Video UHD and HD 30fps, stills 4:3 and 16:9. I also created 2 shots that started as portrait and then landscape, and rotated during the shot to the other orientation.

     

    I dragged to the PR Project Panel for import and opened each in the Source Monitor as the only test. All oriented correctly. Note that, as expected, if a shot is started in one orientation and then changed, it keeps the original orientation.

     

    I'm PC desktop, so I'm always dealing with oddities of transferring files. I use a "save files" onto a USB attached to the USB-C connector on the iPhone. When shooting stills 16:9, the iPhone creates a 4:3 image and a 16:9, then exports the 16:9 with "-edited" appended to the filename. Orientation is correct on import to PR.

     

    Note that, as expected, where I used exiftool to manipulate the rotation flags previously, those images are no longer correct. 

     

    Stan

     

      M
      Community Manager
      mayjain7130546Community Manager
      Community Manager
      October 8, 2025

      Hi all,

      Apologies for the inconvenience. We’ve fixed this issue in the latest beta versions(25.6) of Premiere, AME, and AE.  This fix is expected to be included in the next official update of Premiere Pro, AME, and AE.Thank you all for your support and collaboration in investigating this issue. While we don’t recommend using beta versions for production work, the beta installs separately from the release versions and can be used if you'd like to test the fix. We sincerely appreciate your patience and continued support. If you try the beta version, we'd welcome your feedback on the fix.

      Thanks,Mayjain 

        N
        NttSkippy
        Participant
        September 21, 2025

        Hello! I am experiencing the same issue here. It has been 1 year since this post was created, wasn't this fixed yet?

          S
          Scott.C.
          Inspiring
          February 8, 2025

          Super annoying. 

            Stan Jones
            Community Expert
            Stan JonesCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            September 2, 2024

            @Shebbe,

             

            Upvoted. This format appears to need work for import to PR!

             

            I looked at 2 heic still photos. ExifTool reports that landscape and portrait have the same pixel dimensions - i.e. as if they are both landscape. The landscape image has Rotation = 0. The one shot in portrait orientation shows Rotation = 270 - and it appears rotated 90 degrees clockwise (270 degrees counter-clockwise) in the PR Source monitor.

             

            When reviewing orientation issues previously, an iPhone portrait .mov used a Rotation of 90 (and appeared correctly oriented in the PR Source monitor). Images with zero rotation but correct pixel dimensions (i.e. 1080x1920 for HD portrait) also appeared correctly.

             

            If I edit the heic portrait photo with exiftool and set the rotation to zero, it appears correctly. If I set it to 90, it appears rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

             

            The metadata for heic is complex. I did not attempt changing the pixel dimensions.

             

            Stan

             

            Kevin-Monahan
            Community Manager
            Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            August 26, 2024

            I hope the product team will resolve this bug soon. Sorry about the issue.

             

            Cheers
            Kevin

            Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio
            Kevin-Monahan
            Community Manager
            Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
            Community Manager
            August 7, 2024

            Hi @Shebbe,

            I appreciate you bringing up this issue. Thanks for the bug report. I hope the team will respond shortly. This sounds like one that is not too difficult to verify. I'll test this out as soon as possible (not in front of a WIN machine right now).

            Can anyone else in the community test this out and then report back?

            Thanks,
            Kevin

            Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio
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