Lightroom Classic and CC: Please support HEVC (H.265) video support for Windows

[EGingras]

Support for this video format is needed.

[johnrellis]

You wrote "Lightroom CC" but checked two product categories -- do you mean Lightroom Classic (the LR we know and love), LR CC (the new version of LR that stores its photos in the cloud instead of catalogs), or both?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Does not seem to work with Classic 7.0.1 with Camera Raw 10.0 on Mac OS 10.13.1 High Sierra. 

[johnrellis]

iOS 11 creates HEVC (H.265) video by default.  LR CC (iOS, Web, and MacOS) handles that video properly, but LR 7.0.1 does not.  Tested on MacOS 10.12.6, Mac OS 10.13., and Windows 10.  Trying to import HEVC yields the error:

[johnrellis]

A workaround is to disable HEVC on iOS.  Check the option Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

That's not a workaround.  HEVC is a superior video format with better compression so should be supported by Lightroom Classic.

[johnrellis]

"A workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem in a system. A workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workaround

[getho]

We can now import and export from premiere (yay!), but bridge and lightroom will not thumbnail or play videos.  Having to look elsewhere for asset management.

[johnrellis]

Separating Bridge from Lightroom.

Please reference the new conversation here: please add h.265 video support.

[s_k]

That's not a helpful answer, champ. It's not a workaround. His (and my) existing videos can't be used. The workaround would be use a different product other than Lightroom Classic.

[johnrellis]

Many people are asking why they can't import their iPhone videos into LR -- it's a frequent question on the user-to-user forum. For them, it certainly is helpful to know that until LR adds support for HEVC, they can set their iPhone to record in a compatible format.   People come here for solutions that let them get their work done now, as well as to provide product feedback.

[Beany from Brooklyn]

Please support it on LR 6.14 (or 6.1x)

[johnrellis]

Unfortunately, LR 6.14 was the last release of LR 6, so HEVC won't be supported in LR 6.

[Beany from Brooklyn]

Ugg, that is simply not fair but forces us to pay for CC so Adobe wins. 
After re-reading the thread, will LR 6.14 import the HEVC videos so I can catalog them or will it skip them? If it doesn't then I have a even bigger issue on my hands.

[johnrellis]

In LR 7 imports the videos but doesn't let you play them.  I don't know about 6.14 -- you'll have to try.

[tpnotes]

Does that work with your installation of LR 7? I use LR 7, but it refuses to import HEVC videos in the catalog.

[johnrellis]

"Does that work with your installation of LR 7?" 

Sorry, I should have qualified that -- some have reported that they can import the video but it doesn't play.  (See above.) I haven't tested it personally.

[bcdavis1975]

Uhg.  Just ran into this problem and found this thread.  I have months of videos I cannot import.  Please add support Adobe!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Previously Adobe said they would not be abandoning or deprecating Lightroom Classic, yet the long wait on this issue looks to the average user as though Adobe is not keeping the support in Lightroom Classic on par with Lightroom CC. Can someone from Adobe please advise us users whether this is just a feature you are still working on but for some technical reason have had to delay to months after the Lightroom CC release, or if the company stance about continuing to update Lightroom has changed and power users should be looking for a different full featured photo manager/editor that will stay current with new file formats? Thanks.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

My Phantom 4 Pro drone captures video in H.265; however, I am unable to open the video file in Lightroom cc.  Most H.265 video files can be opened in LR, but apparently those from my P4P drone are not compatible; I get an error message.  H.264 video files from the drone open ok in LR, just not the H.265.  Please help.

[Rick Spaulding - Support]

Hi Phil,

HEVC / H.265 video is not supported at this time. I have merged your post with this thread so it gets counted as another vote for this feature.

[SwindlerCave]

Really two problems:
1. Lightroom (Classic or new CC) for Windows or Mac refuses to import these files
2. Lightroom for Mobile on iOS imports these files as JPG/H.264 (unsure if Adobe or iOS is doing the conversion, but if the latter Apple should be pushed for native import), though even if it did, see #1

Why this should be fixed:
-HEIF/HEVC is on by default on new iPhones, so the world's foremost creative company should support it
-HEIF supports many excellent features JPG doesn't, so disabling on the iPhone - although a valid option - is highly undesirable; as an example, I love the Portrait mode fake bokeh, but the iPhone's algorithm is a bit lacking and I'd like to touch up the depth maps regularly but conversion to JPEG doesn't retain them and creating them from scratch would be awful

Why I think this isn't a big ask:
-Photoshop for Mac will open HEIF files
-Premiere Pro for either platform will open either file type

One nice compromise in case HEIF file support can't be brought to all Lightroom platforms in a timely manner would be to convert to DNG or TIFF upon import.

Thank you for reading!

[Travisimo73]

Well, I just ran into this too after trying to import my photos and videos from the iPhone X that I've been using since last October.  I back up to Google Photos, so I had no need to import into Lightroom until now, but I now discovered that it won't import my photos OR videos.  Errors out on both.

So I imported them into Apple Photos on my Mac and that worked fine, but now I have to manage separate libraries and have to convert my media to a format Lightroom will read if I want them in there.  The suggestion to switch to a compatible format on my iPhone is not acceptable because 1) that does nothing to solve my problem of being unable to import the 1500 photos and videos I've taken since last October, and 2) to be able to shoot in 4k/60fps on the iPhone X, you MUST use the high efficiency codec (you can't use the compatible version).

It has now been 6 months since the iPhone X came out and iOS started using the HEIF/HEVC formats and Adobe still hasn't released an update for Lightroom Classic to support them.

If no update comes soon, I will be canceling my Photography subscription because it will be useless to me.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

This has gone on too long!  Lightroom (all versions) should work with HEIF by now.  Given the millions of cameras that use it it's inexcusable LR doesn't.

[TheShihan]

What is the status of this? I'm having issues importing mp4 files encoded with HEVC on a GoPro Hero 6 Black into LR 7.4 on newest MacOS release - tells me the video files have no frames. Videos can be imported if I convert them to H.264 with Quicktime.

[johnrellis]

LR 7.4 added support for HEIF / HEVC images (for which Apple uses the .heic extension). But LR doesn't yet support HEVC video:

https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-in-lightroom-classic-74/