RCJets Loc: Virginia

What happened?
I have been taking photos on my cell phone (a Samsung J-21?) for quite awhile, and downloading them to my computer. Then I have processed them in Facebook and emailed them to friends. I just did this about two weeks ago with no problems. Last Sunday I went to a friends retirement party and did not take my Nikon, so my cell phone was pressed into service.
When I got home I attempted to download them for processing so I could send them to my friend. I was able to get one photo that I could process and saved it as a .jpg. My computer was trying to download all of the photos on my phone and then stopped , saying it could not download them and to reconnect my phone. What I could see was they were showing up as .heic files. I have not changed any setting in my phone or computer, so why or how did this happen. Now I cannot download any photos from my phone.
HELP!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Google is your tool - "Samsung J-21 heic"

There are both text and utube results in this search, for how to review, update and confirm your camera is capturing in JPEG, not the new HEIC (highly compressed) format. There are plenty of conversion options of HEIC to JPEG, probably some on your phone and / or computer already. Again, google will lead you to these solutions.

RCJets Loc: Virginia

Thanks for your suggestion, It seemed to happen while I was downloading about a dozen photos. The first one I could use, JPG, and the rest were heic. I'll check it our.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

There is a setting in my Galaxy to save HEIC.
Seems like yours got turned on somehow?
I don't think it was "turned on" while downloading. It already saved the image to the phone.
It's an image save function, not a transfer function.

MJPerini

I am not certain what happened in your particular case, but take a look at this link for a way to import HEIC files.
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) designed the .jpg compression scheme so that photos could be shared at the birth of the internet. They did a brilliant job and virtually every picture you have seen over the life of the internet have been ,jpg files.
HEIC uses the latest technology to improve on the .jpg standard
Jpg files use lossy compression and are limited to 8 bits of color data
HEIC achieves more compression with files of equal to better quality. It is a type of lossless compression, and can preserve 16 bits of color data. Which is a big deal. Not every device or every version of various OS's are backwards compatible, which is why you had your issue. BUT all modern OS's are capable of either reading them natively of of installing translation software. See this link
https://www.companionlink.com/blog/2022/07/heic-vs-jpg-whats-the-difference-and-which-is-better/
You do not have to use HEIC and can convert them to JPEGs but files will be bigger, and you lose 16b color

HEIC is basically the next generation of compressed image protocol and we are in the transition period

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

If your entire technology stack doesn't natively recognize and utilize this newest technology, it's really not that helpful.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I haven’t investigated other means of making the translation, because I found out quickly that the Free Software Foundation’s “gimp” can read in HEIC and {of course} write out JPEG. Since I routinely use ‘gimp’ {instead of paying for Adobe products}, I stopped looking.

MJPerini

That is certainly true. JPEGs have served incredibly well, and people will continue to use them.
The fact that JPEGs have lasted as a standard so long indicates how robust the system was.

So at this point in time it is easy to use JPEGs or to convert HEIC to JPEG. If you print the benefits of 16 it color are very real, the smaller size of HEIC is a benefit as Phone cameras go up in MPXLs

People should use whatever they choose to use, but HEIC does have advantages for many.
I am trying to learn more about the reported Lossless compression, and what exactly that means in the context of capture/ editing /printing and if it eliminates the deterioration that JPEG files have through multiple edit / save cycles. That would be huge.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I use TIFF if I have to save intermediate work, returning to JPEG only when I have final result.

MJPerini

16 bit Tiffs are a safe way to preserve everything. I use them to save final Print files.
But they are very large.
If you use an Editor like Lightroom, Capture One, DxO or others that create libraries for RAW (or DNG) files , you can export on demand in any file format, and not need the Tiffs.
If You are a JPEG shooter, those files are limited to 8 bits and have already been compressed with Lossy compression, so there is no benefit to saving as 16B Tiffs because the color data is already limited to 8b.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Check your update history. Phone updates sometimes change setting. If so, nothing to worry about...change it back.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Yes they are already 8 bits, and they’ll end up 8 bits, but while they’ll never have the data of a 14 bit raw file there are still advantages to converting them to 16 bits for processing.

Chadp Loc: Virginia Beach

My sister recently texted a bunch of HEIC pics to me that she needed converted to jpg in order for her to submit them to something online. So I ran them through Lightroom mobile on my phone and saved them as jpg. What is interesting is that when I texted the jpg files back to her, Apple converted them back to HEIC files. I have my photos settings as “most compatible”. But I guess since we both have iPhones HEIC is most compatible. So I had to email them to her to get around Apple’s automatic conversion.