Google Photos and the New iOS 11 HEIC Photo Format

If you upgraded your iPhone or iPad to iOS 11, you now have a new photo file format called HEIC and a new video file format called HEVC. The HE stands for High Efficiency and it is a new official format developed by the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG.) These are the same folks who developed the standard .jpg format so many years ago. This is not, therefore, an Apple thing, but Apple is the first major player to adopt it. The main purpose of the new format is to store the same photo using less file space, but it can also store multiple photos in one file, and multiple layers. I took the 2 pictures below with the same iPhone, the only difference is I changed the setting from the new format, back to the old in between taking the 2 shots. The new format takes up 3.1MB and the old takes 5.1. They both have the same number of pixels - 12.2 MegaPixels.

 

I can see both file types using Google Photos. The problem is, if I download the .HEIC file to my Windows computer, it can't open it. It just shows up as an outline of a white empty box. And, if I view it in my Android's version of Google Photos, I can see it, but I can't edit it.

Mrs Geek's Advice

If you are using all Apple devices, you're fine. But, if there are any Windows devices in your mix - or if you're sharing some of your Google Photos with others who have non-Apple devices - then you would need to be sure those photos are converted back to the old format.

My advice is to turn back the clock and change your iPhone's setting so that it uses the old format - at least until the other systems catch up.

• Settings
• Camera
• Format
• Most Compatible

What Else is New in Google Photos?

Episode #125 of What Does This Button Do explores the new features of Google Photos from the past 6 months. If you get there today (9/23/17) at 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern you can watch while we record the live presentation. Subscribe to the GeeksOnTour YouTube channel and click the little bell icon to get notifications any time we're live.

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Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Top Contributor for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos. 
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.

Save a Picture from Google Photos to your Device

I have a beautiful photo of a waterfall in Pennsylvania. It's in my Google Photos library. I took it with my Canon camera. How can I use it as the wallpaper for my iPhone (or Android) phone?

I can see it on either of my phones, but it doesn't show up when I try to select a photo for wallpaper, because the wallpaper setting is only seeing the pictures that reside on the device. So, I need to get it down from the cloud (my Google Photos account) to the camera roll (or gallery) on the device. There are lots of apps that only work with photos on your device, so even if you don't care about wallpaper, this is a good thing to learn.

Here's how to do it:

1. Open Google Photos and view the desired photo
2. tap the 3-dot menu 
3. Android: Save to Device
   
   iPhone: Download
   

Assuming you have a decent Internet connection, that photo is now on your device and it will show up as an option for Wallpaper.

This is the quick tip in Episode 124 of What Does This Button Do? Check it out to see exactly how it's done. We demonstrate on both iPhone and Android phone.

Android Bonus: Google Photos direct to wallpaper 

The purpose of this article is to show how to download a photo from Google Photos online copy to your device. I used the example of setting a wallpaper, but there are lots of other reasons: there are other apps you may use for printing photos, editing photos, making collages and those apps may only work with photos that are on your device. 

If wallpaper is your purpose - Android has an easier way! On an Android phone, you can open a photo in Google Photos, tap the 3-dot menu, and then Use As. You will see wallpaper as an option right there. So easy!

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Chris Guld is President and Teacher-in-Chief at GeeksOnTour.com. She has been in computer training and support since 1983. She is now a Top Contributor for the Google Photos Forum, owner of the LearnGooglePhotos.com blog, and author of Mrs. Geek's Guide to Google Photos. 
She loves to teach! If you want to learn, you’ve come to the right place.