SOT: iCloud

I have used an app called LocalSend to transfer files from my iPad to a PC. Not tried photos but it should work. I think the app works on iPhones too.

Irfanview (which is free) is happy to load, display and edit photos in HEIC format, and can do a bulk conversion to .jpg should you wish.

"I would like to transfer photos" "I keep getting error messages."

Tell the audience what the error messages are, for a more thorough answer to your problem.

Transferring files should not care about their content. The iCloud should be able to carry a binary blob and still download successfully.

Either the magical tool you're using for download is being excessively nosy, or something else is wrong.

If I transfer a file from another computer (a share), the process does not ask me whether I'd like to convert it. There will occasionally be files that resist typing, and we don't know what they are. Solving that problem is a separate step, from the transfer step.

It's only when you *open* them in a viewer, that the errors show up like "format not recognized". There is a difference between a transmission error and the attempt to open in the viewer, and by giving us the error messages, we'll have a better idea what you were doing at the time.

Luckily, Apple chose an image format, that requires possessing an HEVC codec. The images actually can carry multiple frames (a file can have more than one image inside it, which some people do not know about - I didn't know this at first, for the sample picture below, that there were two frames). The multiple frames of information tells you that this format is not normal, it's backed by a video CODEC.

On Windows, to examine an Apple photo properly, you could try the latest GIMP. It's free. And it will show any frames inside an Apple picture. It does not require buying an HEVC codec to make it work.

x86 <=== this means Win10 32 bit installation (unlikely, but some do this) , x86_64 <=== w10/W11 64 bit install (more common choice) ARM64 <=== Perhaps a Qualcomm equipped ARM x64 laptop for Windows

Warnings and information

Supported OS: Windows 10 1903 or newer <=== picky, W10 or W11. An older GIMP runs on W7 but then there is no HEIC

This is a previously posted picture, showing what you see when opening the Apple image.

It's worth a look first, in GIMP, to see what's in the "container". Then see what Irfanview does, and whether it just gives the first frame.

Paul

On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:57:53 +0000, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote: [snip]

Thanks for the suggestions. However, by good fortune I found an option to select all then backup to OneDrive. They can easily be moved from OneDrive to my hard drive, which fulfils my purpose.

The file type should not influence the ability to transfer the file generally. However support for HEIC files outside of Apple's eco system is patchy.

There are a number of ways to batch process them into other formats... I quite like Image Magick on the command line (or batch file) for this kind of job.

You can install in windows command line using the standard package manager:

winget install ImageMagick.Q16

then conversion is as simple as:

magick convert oldfilename.heic newfilename.jpg

(or any other format)