Tried to open a sony raw file (.hif) into photoshop beta and the error message was "could not use the spot healing brush as the Photoshop does not recognize this type of file."
Tried to open a sony raw file (.hif) into photoshop beta and the error message was "could not use the spot healing brush as the Photoshop does not recognize this type of file."
@Designerdeb17 could you walk us through the steps you were doing when you were shown this message? I want to understand the steps to better understand what or where the update and change needs to happen.
Hi @Designerdeb17 I am sorry I missed what you wanted me to hear. I understand now. I agree, we should offer another message or some help when a customer encounters this issue.
I will pass this along to the team to see if we can find a better solution.
Both responses miss the entire point. I am aware that an HIF or an HEIF are raw files and can be opened by Adobe camera raw. However, when simply trying to open a file, I should not be getting a message telling me how to use the spot healing brush. It’s an irrelevant message and completely unrelated. Similar to these responses.
Hi @Designerdeb17 , as @Radwan Almsora shared, this is not a bug.
Sony .HIF files aren't currently supported in Photoshop and this actually applies across all camera brands that use the .HIF extension (Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic). Even though .HIF is the same HEIF container format, Photoshop only recognizes .heic and .heif extensions (typically from Apple devices), so .hif files are skipped entirely.
Workarounds:
Lightroom does support .HIF files, so importing there and using Edit in Photoshop is the most reliable path.
On Mac only, renaming .hif to .heif may allow Photoshop to open the file. This is unlikely to work on Windows due to codec limitations.
Adobe Camera Raw via Bridge can open .HIF files as well.
Sony Imaging Edge Desktop can convert .HIF to a format Photoshop supports.
If your camera supports it, shooting .ARW (RAW) is fully supported in Photoshop.
One caution if you're working with Sony .HIF files in the meantime: avoid enabling "Automatically write changes to XMP" for these files, as there's a known bug that can corrupt Sony .HIF metadata.
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