Microsoft is not playing well with iOS 11's new image format (Updated)

Update: Microsoft has reached out to us, clarifying that OneDrive on iOS will automatically convert HEIC files to JPEG when you back them up on your iPhone, so you will still be able to view them as regular image files in your Windows 10 device and iPhone. But if you want to keep the original file format and save some storage space, thus opting for HEIC, you won’t be able to view them on your Windows 10 device or OneDrive.com:

“The latest version of OneDrive automatically converts HEIC photos to JPEG before uploading to OneDrive. This puts a user’s photos in the most compatible format and will allow them to view their photos on OneDrive mobile apps, OneDrive.com and in Windows 10. A user can choose to turn off the feature that automatically converts by going to Settings -> Advanced and turning off the Upload Most Compatible feature.”

Original report follows below:

iOS 11 comes out today. It includes a lot of new things, including a new redesigned Control Center, Notification Center, and much, much more. iOS 11 is a truly huge upgrade for the OS, especially for iPad owners. But the new version of iOS also comes with a new format for images. With the release of iOS 11, Apple is now using the High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIC) by default for photos on iOS 11. The new file format isn’t going to be available by default on all of Apple’s iOS devices, and it’s only limited to devices that use the A9 or newer processors like the A11 Bionic.

Once you upgrade your phone to iOS 11, photos will be saved as HEIC files — which means they will save a tiny bit of storage space on your device. But if you have a Windows 10 device and use OneDrive to backup your pictures, you might have some trouble with the new iOS. Microsoft is yet to add support for HEIC to Windows 10 and OneDrive, meaning it’s impossible to view HEIC files on these services without using any third-party solutions. Windows 10’s default photo viewer (the Photos app) doesn’t support HEIC files yet, and neither does OneDrive on the web. Two of OneDrive’s major competitors — Google Photos and Dropbox — already support HEIC, notes The Verge. Google Photos is actually ahead of both OneDrive and Dropbox as its Android app also supports HEIC, but OneDrive and Dropbox are yet to add support for HEIC to their Android apps.

There’s a workaround for the issue, though — and that’s to disable HEIC completely. By going to Settings > Camera > Formats, you can set iOS 11 to store all new images as JPEG so that they are viewable on OneDrive and Windows 10. And once Microsoft adds support for the new file format, you can simply enable it once again. Or if you really want to store images as HEIC, you can just use a third-party viewer or convert them to JPEG manually.