Manatee

iPhone photos that arrive on a Mac as a HEIC and a MOV pair

· 6 min read

When iPhone photos arrive on a Mac as HEIC and MOV files with the same name, nothing went wrong. Each pair is a Live Photo: the HEIC is the picture and the MOV is the few seconds of video recorded around it. The still is complete without its video, so you can keep both, separate them or delete the MOV files, and a setting on the phone stops new pairs from being made.

What each file in the folder is

A folder copied from an iPhone can hold four kinds of file for a single shot:

  • IMG_1234.HEIC is the photo. On a phone set to Most Compatible it is a .JPG instead.
  • IMG_1234.MOV is the video half of a Live Photo, about three seconds long, with sound.
  • IMG_1234.AAE is a small text file listing edits made in Photos on the iPhone. Only Photos understands it.
  • IMG_E1234.HEIC (or .JPG) is the edited version of a photo you changed on the phone. The file without the E is the original as shot.

Inside the Photos app these are presented as one item, which is why you never see the parts on the phone. Routes that copy the underlying files show all of them: Image Capture, a cable import into a folder, the Photos command File, Export, Export Unmodified Original, and AirDrop when it sends a Live Photo with its motion.

A real video you recorded also ends in .MOV, so do not delete by extension alone. The iPhone numbers photos and videos in one sequence, so a real video has no photo with the same number. A Live Photo video always does.

Which ones you can delete

  • The MOV of a pair can go if you only want stills. The HEIC does not depend on it. You lose the motion, the sound and the chance to pick a different key frame later.
  • The AAE can go if you are not returning the files to Photos. Without it, the original simply appears unedited.
  • The IMG_E file is the one to keep if you care about your edits, since no app outside Photos applies an AAE for you.

If the photos are still on the phone or in iCloud Photos, none of this is final. If the import is your only copy, move the files into a separate folder instead of deleting them until you are sure.

Separate the pairs in a folder

Finder can sort a folder by Kind, but that mixes Live Photo clips with real videos. Terminal can tell them apart by checking for a photo with the same name. Open Terminal, type cd and a space, drag the folder into the window, and press Return. List the matches first:

for f in *.MOV; do if [ -e "${f%.*}.HEIC" ] || [ -e "${f%.*}.JPG" ]; then echo "$f"; fi; done

If the list looks right, move those files into their own folder:

mkdir -p live-videos
for f in *.MOV; do if [ -e "${f%.*}.HEIC" ] || [ -e "${f%.*}.JPG" ]; then mv "$f" live-videos/; fi; done

Nothing is deleted. Real videos stay where they were, and the live-videos folder can go to the Trash later. The commands look for capital-letter extensions, which is how an iPhone names its files; change *.MOV if yours are lowercase.

Put a pair back together

To return a Live Photo to Photos as one item, select the HEIC and its MOV together and drag both into Photos in a single import. Photos matches them by an identifier stored inside each file and shows one photo with a LIVE badge. Import them separately and you get a still and an unrelated short video.

Converting or re-saving either half can strip that identifier, so re-pair the originals, not copies that have been through another app.

Stop new pairs from being made

  • Turn Live Photos off in the Camera. Tap the Live Photo button (the concentric circles) so it shows a slash. To keep it from switching itself back on, open Settings, Camera, Preserve Settings and turn on Live Photo. On recent versions of iOS, Camera sits under Apps in Settings.
  • Send a still instead of a Live Photo. In the share sheet, a selected Live Photo carries a Live badge on its thumbnail. Tap the badge to switch the motion off before you AirDrop.
  • Turn one into a still for good. Open it in Photos on the iPhone, tap the Live badge at the top and choose Off. To keep the Live Photo as well, use Duplicate and pick Duplicate as Still Photo.
  • Export stills from Photos on the Mac. File, Export, Export Photos writes one image per photo in the format you choose, with no MOV.

Converting the pieces into files others can open

HEIC and MOV both open on a Mac, but plenty of websites, older PCs and photo kiosks want JPEG and MP4.

For a few photos, select them in Finder, right-click, and choose Quick Actions, Convert Image. For a whole import, Manatee converts files in bulk. Drop the photos onto its window or its menu bar icon, choose Convert, and pick JPEG or PNG. The MOV halves convert to MP4, or to GIF if you want the motion as a loop. Its Clean mode strips the GPS location and camera details that both halves of a Live Photo carry. Every result is a new copy written beside its original, nothing is uploaded, and every feature is free for 24 hours, then it is $9 once.

Two honest limits. Manatee converts each file as it is. It does not read the AAE, so an edit made on the phone shows up only if you convert the IMG_E version or export the edited photo from Photos. And it does not join or split Live Photos; pairing is something only Photos does.

For more on the formats, see HEIC explained and how to convert HEIC to JPEG on a Mac. If the motion is the part you want, how to turn a Live Photo into a GIF walks through it.

Questions

Will deleting the MOV damage the photo? No. The HEIC is a complete photograph by itself. Deleting the MOV only removes the motion and sound, and that cannot be recreated from the still, so keep the MOV files somewhere until you are certain.

Why are some of my pairs JPG and MOV instead of HEIC and MOV? The phone was set to Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats when those shots were taken, so the still was saved as a JPEG. The pairing works the same way.

Why is there an AAE file for a photo I never edited? The phone records some camera effects the same way it records your own edits. Portrait mode is the common example: the background blur is stored as an adjustment on top of the original, and that adjustment is what the AAE holds.

Does a slo-mo video have a matching photo too? No, but it often has an AAE beside it, and it plays at normal speed outside Photos. An iPhone slo-mo video that plays at normal speed on a Mac covers that case.