P: (Windows only): HEIC Files not supported with active subscription

[Shelley_A]

I am seeing a warning on LR desktop all HEIC files saying HEIC files are not supported without a subscription. However I do have an active subscription, and I am able to edit those files on LR mobile, and on a second PC. I have tried restarting LR, logging out and back in, reinstalling LR and doing a full preferences reset. Also did double/triple check that my account is up to date and I am logged in correctly.

I can view, organise & caption all my images, but I cannot edit them. I can edit jpg files, just not HEIC. This only started a few days ago. 

I contacted Adobe support. After about 2 hours they ended by saying "We have never seen this issue before" .

Image is not available

They said they will get their engineering team to have a look at it, but I have not heard back.

[Shelley_A]

This is the error message I get:

Here is the system info:

Lightroom version: 4.2 x64 [ 20210301-0713-6cdd6a3 ] (Mar  2 2021)
NGL Version: 1.24.0.5
WF Version: 3.2 88d676d
Operating system: Windows 10
OS Version: Windows 10 Home (2009)
Application architecture: x64
System architecture: x64
Computer model: HP HP Spectre x360 Convertible 15-df0xxx / Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz
Logical processor count: 12
Processor speed: 2.2 GHz
Built-in memory: 16085.9 MB
Real memory available to Lightroom: 16085.9 MB
Real memory used by Lightroom: 1984.2 MB (12.3%)
Virtual memory used by Lightroom: 2761.0 MB
Memory cache size: 3764.9 MB
Internal Camera Raw version: 13.2 [ 738 ]
Maximum thread count used by Camera Raw: 7
Camera Raw SIMD optimization: SSE2,AVX,AVX2
Camera Raw virtual memory: 0MB / 8042MB (0%)
Camera Raw real memory: 0MB / 16085MB (0%)
System DPI setting: 216 DPI (high DPI mode)
Desktop composition enabled: Yes
Displays: 1) 3840x2160
Input types: Multitouch: Yes, Integrated touch: Yes, Integrated pen: Yes, External touch: No, External pen: No, Keyboard: Yes

Graphics Processor Info: DirectX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with Max-Q Design (27.21.14.5763) - 4 GB
Graphics Processor Detail: loaded: Yes, supported: Yes, compute: Yes, init: I4_GPU3, hard: success, soft: success, wl: Yes, bl: No
OS Media Capability: true

Application Folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom CC
Settings Folder: C:\Users\ShelleyA\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom CC
Library Folder: C:\Users\ShelleyA\AppData\Local\Adobe\Lightroom CC\Data

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Shelly, 

I've verified your subscription on this end.  As support says, I've not ever seen this either on an active subscription. If you've verified you are logged in with the correct Adobe ID then a Preference Reset is a good next step.

Reset Procedure:

1. Close Lightroom.

2. Hold down [Alt/Opt]+[Shift] while restarting Lightroom.

3. Overwrite the Preferences when prompted by the dialog.

4. Close Lightroom.

5. Restart Lightroom.

[Shelley_A]

Thanks Rikk, I did that a couple of times already.  

I posted the same question earlier on the Lightroom Queen forum, and there was a comment from one other user who said he is having the same problem. 

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Thanks.

I did find that we do have a bug logged for this (Windows Users Only) that should be fixed in the next update.  I am sorry but I do not have an ETA to share. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hi - I am getting the same warning and it is extremely frustrated. I DO have an active subscription, yet I cannot export my HEIC photos that I have spent hours editing.

Please suggest what the next step is?

I have reset all warnings as mentioned above.

Thanks

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Thanks for verifying @Rikk 

In that case @shelley_alexander, you could roll back a version for now: https://www.lightroomqueen.com/roll-back-update-previous/

[Shelley_A]

Thank you Victoria for the suggestion. The Adobe support person did that while he had control of my computer but it didn't seem to help. Meanwhile I am OK to wait for a fix - I can edit on my iPad or my other laptop so it's not critical (yet). It's odd that my 2nd laptop has the same version of LR and Windows 10 and yet I'm not having the same issue there. 

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hello,

I've bought the video HEIC extentions on windows 10, and already have installed the image extensions via the microsoft store, but I still get this error. Is it all of you or just me? The files are being synced via my iphone 8, through the lightroom IoS app, to the standard lightroom. All devices are latest version/fully patched. I'm technical so can gather any specific data and selectively test individual patches & procedures to aid someone who might wish to assist.

The exact error text is:

HEIC files are only supported with an active subscription (1)
    IMG_5269.HEIC

The process I follow is:

Open lightroom cloud

right click image in primary view area of screen

click export

click original & settings

click desktop

click select folder

-get 'export results: some export operations were not performed.'

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Forgot to mention, the images are standard photos taken with the iphone, and I use an icloud account to sync them, but in parallel, use lightroom, and it syncs independently. I think I have the ios settings to save original, and the phone has only a couple of gigs photos on it, while the lightroom sync on the iphone has 15gb+, so I assume that it's an apple HEVC file pushed or pulled into lightroom app & synced, but then unable to be exported to my PC desktop when retrieved via the PC. It's a frustrating error and does make me immediately question the value of paying for an adobe sub, so I'm hoping it can be resolved properly and within a reasonable time.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

It's a confirmed bug, Windows only, I'll merge you into the main post.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Thank you! I use so few of the adobe tools, my frustration comes through as I'm quite adept usually, with decades invested in tech software/hardware, putting more time into things that are anticipated to work that have a real & ongoing cost is now somewhat more annoying than usual 🙂

[Shelley_A]

Any news about this bug? It's been a while and it does render LR pretty much unusable. 

[Shelley_A]

I's been so long I decided I would roll back to the previous version. Just FYI - that link you provided perhaps applies to LR Classic.  For LR desktop it is done through the Creative CLoud App. 

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Apologies, that one should have been taken down when the newer one went live. For reference, the one that goes through Creative Cloud downgrades is How do I roll back to an earlier Lightroom Classic release?

[Leona_Boller]

Has there been any news on update - very frustrating being unable to edit or export 

[jeffr46255812]

I get the same error so would be great if Adobe could just fix it.

However, a (kind of) workaround I found for this was to open LR on my phone, then share the files to a Dropbox folder. It's fine if you only have a small number but would be painful for hundreds as you have to export each image individually.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm also waiting, but I've many other things to do while I wait, so no pressure on the devs 😉

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Do we know what causes this in the first place .  Can i be included when a fix is available

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

In my case it's iphone 8/ios 14.5.1 lightroom app syncing photos taken with the phone, that go into the photos app. From there, I can retrieve the photos in icloud, but I'm after the unmodified originals, not the icloud compressed versions. I'm hoping and assuming that the heic original that the phone holds temporarily is uploaded to the lightroom cloud, and that I should be able to download it from there, even thought Icloud web interface only allows me to download a compressed jpg. It's entirely possible that adobe (for various practical reasons) upload compressed photos, and so, when trying to download the heic version, it may error, as they don't actually have it, as it might not be included in the lightroom app sync. Of course, if such an issue was the case, it would be simple and practical for adobe to have a note saying 'if the adobe cloud hasn't stored the unmodified original heic, you'll receive this error, until we patch our software to prompt you with a more clear error'.

In short, I'm assuming that the HEIC IS uploaded, and can be downloaded, otherwise, my last years photos taken will have been forceably downgraded to a lossy jpg format even though I pay for two premium cloud based services, via Adobe & Apple.

Such a situation would be unfortunate for both companies, as the reason I pay for cloud services is to preserve and allow me to directly access all high quality originals in a simple, automated way, and not having the HEIC original on either the apple or adobe cloud would be great reasons to move away from both companies, as such a situation would make me very unhappy.

[ellfren]

HEIC files are not editable on my Windows 10 system. The sliders are greyed out and unusable. The buttons too. Here is what I am talking about:

This is what Edit, Crop & Rotate, Healing Brush, etc. all look like.

I have signed out and signed in. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Nothing seems to be working. PNGs and JPGs work fine, and I can edit HEIC files on my iMac. HEIF Image Extensions is installed on my PC too.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Please go to Help>System Info… and get us the exact installed version number of your software and your operating system version.

And which camera created the HEIC file?

And finally for now, do you have a current subscription?

[ellfren]

System Info:
Lightroom version: 4.2 x64 [ 20210301-0713-6cdd6a3 ] (Mar  2 2021)
NGL Version: 1.24.0.5
WF Version: 3.2 88d676d
Operating system: Windows 10
OS Version: Windows 10 Home (2009)

I used an iPhone 7 to take the photos. The images were imported to Lightroom via Lightroom Mobile.

[Victoria Bampton LR Queen]

Do you get any error message? I'm thinking it could be related to this bug: https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-desktop-cloudbased/lightroom-desktop-windows-...

[ellfren]

No error message.

I'd also like to add that all the images I'm using say they are Synced and Backed Up.

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

This thread is being merged into an existing authoritative thread for better tracking and response. Please review the official answer (if any) in the second post on the thread for more information.