Slow loading and bad thumbnails with HEIC in Photos

I have started to export and transcode my full frame photos in Lightroom to the HEIC format. Mainly to save space in the Photos library. But also because I believe that this is the format for the future.


What saddens me is that the heic-tumbnails in Photos app are so poor. They look like something from the past. With color fringing and visible pixels. Also going full size with the image, Photos app uses 3-7 seconds to load the image properly. JPGs in the same resolution loads in half a second. This is really messing up the experience of the Photos library.


Photos taken with the iPhone are also in the heic-format. But the thumbnails are crisp as winter crystals. I believe that iOS photos are optimized by Apple somehow, but phone photos are also three quarter the resolution. I know that heic is a harder codec that takes more time to unpack. But still.


So my question. Are anyone else experiencing the same problems with thumbnails and loading times on heic-images that have been transcoded from high resolution jpgs?


I have the same thumbnail and loading issues with the Photos app on both my MacBook Pro and my iPhone 14 Pro. So this is an macOS and iOS universal issue.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 18, 2023 09:30 AM

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Posted on Jul 19, 2023 09:30 AM

Hello FrodeTV,


It sounds like you would like to have Apple change the way that their devices handle HEIC format photos that are taken by non-Apple devices.


The best way to do that is to provide feedback to them here: Product Feedback - Apple


Have a good day. 

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Slow loading and bad thumbnails with HEIC in Photos

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