P: Videos shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max with "HDR Video" ON cannot sync to LR Cloud and other devices

[SNAR]

Issue: Videos shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max with "HDR Video" ON cannot sync to LR Cloud and other synced devices with manually imported

• Lightroom Version Number: LR CC 5.1 (Build 20211204-1710-0e71941) on macOS 12.1; LR v7.1.1 on iOS and iPadOS 15.3 
• OS Version Number: See above (macOS, iOS and iPadOS)

Steps to reproduce:

1. On an iPhone 12 Pro Max, go to Phone Settings -> Camera -> Record Video.
2. Ensure "HDR Video" option is ON
3. Shoot a video using the iPhone Camera app
4. Export the video on your MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey 12.1. The file is
   exported as an MOV file
   (type: ISO Media, Apple QuickTime movie, Apple QuickTime (.MOV/QT))
5. Open LR on your Macbook Pro. Create a new album. Manually import the recently
   exported MOV file into the album
   
6. Wait for LR to sync to the Cloud. Check and confirm that the status shows "Synced and
   Backed Up" with a checkmark next to it.
7. Open LR on your iPhone (or iPad) running the latest version of iOS. Confirm that the app
   says "Synced and Backed Up"
8. Browse to the recently created album to video the video.
9. Also open lightroom.adobe.com on any browser, login with your account, navigate to the
   newly created album and attempt to play the video just uploaded.

Expected result: You are able to view the video just fine and it plays without problems.

Actual result: There is a thumbnail instead with an exclamation inside a cloud image. Tapping
on it shows an error "Cannot load video" with a red banner at the bottom. Screenshots attached.

Try the exact same steps after turning HDR Video OFF (Step 2 above). It works. Videos shot using older iPhones also work fine. This appears to be a problem with videos shot using iPhone 12 Pro Max (and possibly the newer iPhones) only when HDR Video mode is ON.

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi there, sorry for the trouble!  The problem you are describing is not expected, iPhone HDR video is supported in Lightroom.  I'm a little confused about step 4 - can you describe for me specifically what you're doing in that step?  Is the file syncing from your phone to your computer via Apple Photos, and you're then exporting the video from Apple Photos on your Mac?

Thanks,

Ben

[Benjamin Warde]

I've got a bit more information about this: if certain metadata gets stripped out of the HDR video file, it won't work correctly in the Lightroom ecosystem.  Sounds like that's probably what's happened here - whatever it is that you're doing in step 4 is stripping out needed metadata.  We plan to fix that in a future release, so that  HDR video will still work correctly even when certain metadata is missing.  In the meantime, you can avoid this problem by not doing whatever it is that you're doing in step 4.  For example, just bring the original HDR video file directly into Lightroom on your phone.  It will sync from there and everything will work fine.  Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Thanks,

Ben

[SNAR]

Ben -- thanks for the quick response.

In Step 4, I exported all files from Apple Photos on my MBP as "unmodified originals" to a local directory. I then imported them into LR on my MBP (drag and drop). Made no changes to the metadata, so I'm not sure why some of it got stripped.

I prefer not to allow LR access to my Camera Roll on my phone directly, because that I create albums on LR the way I like -- that's just my workflow preference. Hoping to see the fix for this soon.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Setting status to investigating

[SNAR]

The behavior still persists. Would the Adobe folks be able to share a timeline for the fix?

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Greetings,

Updates to the Adobe Photography Products were released on June 13. The update contains a fix for this issue.  Please download and the latest version of your application via the Adobe Creative Cloud Application or your respective device app store.

If you do not see the update (Mac and Win) you can refresh your Creative Cloud App with the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl/Cmd]+[Alt/Opt]+[ R ]. 

Note: App store availability can take several days for the update to appear and be available. 

Thank you for your patience.

[SNAR]

Hi Rikk, I just checked on the iOS App (build V. 7.4.1 730D5A/46) on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I deleted the app and reinstalled it to rebuild the albums.

The bug still exists.

Videos shot earlier with HDR enabled on my 12 Pro Max still do not load. The thumbnails view shows an alert box for the HDR video, but shows the thumbnails correctly for other (non HDR) videos. Upon clicking on the HDR video, the error "Cannot Load Video" is seen.

Screenshots below.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

I checked with the engineer and that is to be expected. New assets should work but previous assets might need help. 

A potential work around would be to edit the video which will convert it and generate new proxies

[SNAR]

The proposed workaround works. Manual work (editing) is required for already imported videos. Looking forward to an updated fix that can trigger new proxies for existing HDR assets.