Trying to Export Photos to iPad Pro

[LouCrouch]

Brand new community member with a question.  Thank you for any assistance you may provide.

I have a Canon 1DX Mark II and love it.  I have taken over 30K pictures with it so far. 

In the past, I had no problem exporting RAW pictures from the camera to my Apple iPad Pro.  I hooked up the camera's cable to the camera port on one end and a USB-Lightning adapter on the iPad end.  With the camera "on" and "photos" opened on the iPad, thumbnail images of my raw pictures would automatically appear on my iPad.

I could then import selected pictures, edit them using Snapseed, and post them on Facebook.

I used this procedure when I was on the road, and my desktop was unavailable.

For some reason, the RAW pictures will no longer export to the iPad.  It is possible that I inadvertently changed a camera setting or that Apple's IOS v.11 made a change.  I have tried a number of different things but have so far been unsuccessful in recovering this capability.

Can anyone offer a solution?  Again, thank you for your time and consideration. 

[TCampbell]

RAW images aren’t supported on the iPad (and never were) unless you used some software that specifically included a RAW decoder for your camera (the native iOS doesn’t support RAW for any camera).

However... RAW files include a JPEG thumbnail preview and those WILL show up on the iPad (but they are JPEG and low resolution as they are just meant to be preview images).  The iPad does know how to view those embedded previews — it just doesn’t know how to decode the true RAW data.

[LouCrouch]

Thank you for your response.

You explained the process much better than I could.  The thumbnail views that I viewed were indeed jpegs, not RAW pictures.

What has me stumped is why the jpegs are no longer exporting to the iPad.

[Ray-uk]

Apparently IOS v11 now stores picture files in HEIC format and not jpg.

I have read somewhere that this is an option that you can turn off in v11.

Try a Google search on IOS v 11 and jpg, you should find more information

[LouCrouch]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I checked the software for both my Apple iPhone 8+ and iPad Pro.  Both are running iOS v.11.0.3.

As noted in an article I found on Google (as you suggested), this Apple software version does indeed use the heic format instead of the jpeg format.

I will have to research further because the photo export process is still incomplete even though I changed the appropriate settings.  I can now see shaded areas on my iPad where the thumbnails should be, but the images are still not coming through.

It has to be something simple.

Thanks again for your suggestion.

[LouCrouch · Accepted solution]

Wow!  Apparently Apple's decision to use the HEIC image format in lieu of the tried-and-true jpeg format is causing a bunch of problems that I was totally unaware of.

My sole reason for wanting to download pictures from camera to iPad was to be able to post a few selected pictures on Facebook while I was on the road.  Once I return home, I can then download all the pictures to my desktop and work on them using Ligtroom and Photoshop.  The finished pictures are then uploaded to my website and/or Facebook.

With the current state of format confusion, I think I will take my older iPad with me on the road.  It will allow me to transfer jpegs from camera to iPad quickly and easily. 

I welcome any further comments or suggestions, but I have a workable solution to my problem.

[kvbarkley]

iOS never really displayed Raw files, it would only display the embedded JPEG, which is why you never needed raw updates.

[LouCrouch]

Follow up --

A few minutes ago, I dug out my previous Apple iPad (3rd Gen; Model A1673). 

I hooked it up to my camera, and my test pictures automatically exported from the camera to the "photos" portion of the iPad just like they were supposed to.

I believe this tells me that my Canon 1DX is not the problem and that there is a problem with my iPad Pro (Model A1673).  The problem probably rests with Apple's iOS v.11 software.

Any comments are welcome.  Thank you.