Import HEIC files into Photoshop Elements / Organizer

Great news: about a week ago, my PSE 2023 updated itself to a new version and it seems to me that the problem mentionned here (Windows 11 vs. PSE 2023 for HEIC files) is solved!

For videos, the situation is still no better than with PSE 9 (jumping video, interruption in sound, sometimes completely scrambled image)... but I  have learned to live with that.

@Chris22853298zhyx, have you tried updating the thumbnails with Ctrl+Shift+U as I suggested in an earlier post?

@rtd3 said: 

My best guess is that the Microsoft HEIC/HEIF/HEVC add-on that Adobe requires you to purchase to get access to these file formats does not play well together. (thus my request for direct media type access support like they do JPG/MP4)

I'm not sure that it is Adobe that requires you to purchase the HEIF extensions.  I'm guessing that there is probably some licensing fee involved, and rather than include it in the OS itself, M$FT controls the cost by charging a dollar for the video codec which only a few users actually need.  I have found that different editing programs cause conflicts when vying for control of a codec.  Do you have any other video editing programs installed?  And have they been installed after Elements?  If so, uninstalling and reinstalling Elements may help with any conflict.

@rtd3 said:  :

• When in full view mode of pictures the screen will randomly go black when paging thru pictures (see Black Screen.jpg)

I believe this may be related to the thumbnail issue.  I think I read somewhere that .heic files do not have embedded thumbnails, so when you scroll through the grid in Single Image View (SIV), Elements has to create a full size thumbnail.  That's why you may be seeing the random black screen while Elements is creating the thumbnail on-the-fly.   In your example, I'm guessing that the Face Recognition overlay display is generated by the associated .json file.  Have you tried manually refreshing the thumbnail while in SIV?  Please let us know if that fixes the issue.

@rtd3 said: 

• With new HEIC pictures I had added, PSE mistook one persons face for another and applied it.  I had to go clean up ~100 photos. (I already fixed it so don't have screen capture)

Face Recognition, while improving with each new version, is not perfect.  The problem you describe can happen with any format of image.

@rtd3 said: 

• Intermittabtly i will get a strange thumbnail on an HEIC picture.  I can fix by manually updating.  (see Strange Thumbnail.jpg)

Yes, I have seen similar issues in Elements 2023.  As you have already found, the solution is to rebuild the thumbnails.  (You can do a file search for all .heic files using the Shift+Ctrl+K keyboard shortcut.  Select them all  with Ctrl+A. Then update the thumbnails with Ctrl+Shift+U.  If you have a large number of .heic files, you may want to do this in batches.)

@rtd3 said: 

On the HEIF/HEIC -> JPG.  I use PSE Organizer as the "source of truth" in that I treat the original files (RAW/HEIC/HEVC/MP4/Whatever) as negatives and create photos from those. 

I'm not exactly sure what point you are making here.  When you develop your digital negative .heic files, I presume you are using the Photoshop Editor to do so.  As soon as you move the .heic file into the Editor, it is converted to the PSD format.  You will then have to convert the edited file to some other format because Elements cannot save the file in the .heic format.  And what ultimate use is there for .heic files?  Most display options cannot read them.  You therefore have to use the Editor's Save As function to either save the file as a PSD or choose some other type of file format such as jpeg or tiff.  The Save As function allows you to save the converted file as a Version Set with the original source of truth .heic file.  Elements will never delete the original file and it will always be available for you to edit again.

@rtd3 said: 

One other thing i did notice prior to upgrade to PSE 2023, was that PSE 2022 did not give me any issues with the newer formats.  WhenI get time, i will re-import to PSE 2022 and see if the same issues appear or these are new issues in PSE 2023.

I will be interested to hear your findings. 

@rtd3, what problems are you having with Face Recognition of .heic files?  I have not seen that problem reported by anyone else and I am not experiencing it.  If you want to attach a few of your problem photos, I will be happy to look at them to see if Elements can recognize faces on my machine.  (I'm not sure whether .heic files can be attached on the forum.  You may have to zip them to upload here.  Or if you have a file sharing site like Dropbox, give us a link to download them.)

FWIW, I only use HEIF on my phone.  They cannot be easily shared so need to be converted to jpeg or other format for most purposes.  (HEVC video is also more difficult to edit in most cases.)  Their only value is their size, and since I have virtually unlimited storage on my computer, I see no need to use this format.

@rtd3, since you haven't told us what problems you are having with Elements 2022 and 2023, we can't offer you any help.  

@Bobh123us, Elements 2018 could not handle .heic files.  Elements 2023 does without first converting them to .jpeg.  You can download a free trial of Elements 2023 to confirm this for yourself.

So, to keep the issue focused: I have a number of HEIC photos in a folder. If I upgrade to the current Elements will it import the HEIC files?

I THINK the answer is no. Apparently I need to convert the HEIC files to JPG and then I can import them. That seems odd. My Elements 2018 does not import the HEIC files.

@Podad143, the conversion to jpeg can be done automatically when you import from your iPhone into the Organizer via Import>From Camera or Card Reader.  All you need do is change the settings on your iPhone.  Go to your iPhone's Settings.  Go to the Photos app settings.  At the very bottom, there should be a setting for Transfer to Mac or PC.  You probably have it set to Keep Originals.  Change this to Automatic.  When you use the Organizer to import files, they will automatically be converted to jpegs.

It's not clear from your response whether you have tried to copy the files from your phone to your computer, e.g. using Windows File Explorer or the Windows Photo App.  You can then import into the Organizer from Files and Folders.

And do you get the message for all files or just a few?

What model iPhone are you using? Please post a copy of any error messages you are receiving.

Have you tried connecting your phone to the computer and using Import>From Files and Folders?

Frankly, I don't see the value in importing .heic files to a computer.  There are very few usages for them, and if you want to edit or save them on a Windows computer, they will have to be converted to another format anyway.  I have not seen any convincing evidence that the quality of the .heic format is noticeable, even when compared to a .jpeg compressed photo. (Apparently, Adobe may disagree with me.) So, the only advantage the format has is disk space.  This may be important when saving to an iPhone, but for most users this is not a relevant factor on a modern computer's hard drive.

For these reasons, although I shoot photos and videos using the HE formats, I convert the images to jpgs when importing to the Organizer.  This has saved me a whole lot of time since I was having all kinds of problems, particularly importing HEVC videos.