Ability to View HEIC files in SpeedGrader Preview

(70)

Many of the new iPads and iPhones have HEIC files for their photos.  If a student is required to upload a file to Canvas this file isn't compatible with the speedgrader preview.  In order for a teacher to view this, he or she must download each individual document and then open them.  This is extremely cumbersome, time consuming, and takes up a lot of space.  Is there any way that the HEIC files can be added to the list of files that automatically preview in speedgrader?  The example I would use would be if a teacher gives her students a math problem to work out.  She wants to see their work, so they must take a picture of the page, then upload that picture to Canvas.  Using the new iPhones causes the picture to be in HEIC format which is not compatible for preview in speedgrader.

 


Official Response: March 15, 2021

Thanks to everyone for participating in this thread. Our support and engineering teams have determined that DocViewer is unable to render .heic files, as this file type is a part of the x265 library and our main rendering software does not currently support it due to it being patented and requiring licensing.

Since this is not functionality we will be able to implement, we have archived the idea. Our teams have compiled a list of solutions:
 
Mac users that have a .heic file can:
  • Open the .heic file in Preview
  • Click “File”
  • Click “Export”
  • Change the format to .jpeg
  • Save the file
  • Upload the .jpeg version of the file
 iPhone users that want to change their iPhones to save as .jpeg instead:
  • Go to the Settings app
  • Go to the Camera settings section
  • Click Formats
  • Select “Most Compatible”
  • New photos will be saved as .jpeg
 
iPhone users that want to keep using .heic but still upload the right file to Canvas:
  • Use the Canvas app
  • When submitting the file, select “File Upload”
  • In the page for choosing a file, use the “Camera” or the “Library” option. When using those options, the iPhone will take the picture as .heic but it will pass the Canvas app a .jpeg version automatically.
 
iPhone users that have .heic files but not in their Photos app, and instead in their Files app:
  • Go to the Files app
  • Hit the action button
  • Click “Save Image”
  • The .heic file is now available in the Photos app
  • Follow the instructions for the scenario above, where the user uploads to the Canvas mobile app.

 

82 Comments
Hildi_Pardo
Community Champion

It would be great if Canvas "converted" the HEIC file to .jpg or .png

just like google docs are convert to .docx

Nancy_Webb_CCSF
Community Champion

@Hildi_Pardo- great idea!  That would handle the situation, to "convert" the HEIC file on the fly for viewing.

dahollingsworth
Community Member

I am a bit confused as to why after what appears to be two years and five pages of requests from teachers that this is still listed as "Open for Conversation" rather than "In Development" at the least. What's the hang-up? What do we need to do as end users to move things along?

Teacher12
Community Member

I would be really appreciative if Speedgrader would allow a preview of .heic files within the app and from a laptop. I have an older windows laptop for work and it doesn't open downloaded .heic files and they haven't successfully opened on my ipad either. It would be really appreciated if this could be pursued further. Thank you so much!

rcordeiro1
Community Participant

Agree that this needs to happen. It is such a time-waster if you are working on a computer. I know I can use the teacher app to see these, but if I want to have multiple screens up on a monitor, type out detailed feedback, etc, I need this access on my computer. Is there a way to upvote this idea?

valentinescott
Community Member

Upvote and fix this please.

palmarinich
Community Contributor

Came here to complain about this not being fixed, but I tried a quick test first, and it all appeared to work just fine.

Can anyone confirm this is still an issue?  See attached screenshot.

  1. Transferred the image from phone to Mac, confirmed HEIC format.

  2. Submitted the same image on the phone to an assignment using the Student mobile app (Submit > File Upload > Library > choose image ).  Before submitting, the image file is labeled as a .jpg with a new file name.

  3. Viewed submitted image in SpeedGrader in Chrome.  Image shows filename with .jpg extension and displays correctly in SpeedGrader.

2021-01-27_11-09-54.png

 

iOS: 14.3
Student mobile app: 6.9.8

Teacher12
Community Member

This is an issue for people who do not have a Mac (like myself), thus the issue should still be addressed.

palmarinich
Community Contributor

Because the HEIC file is converted to a JPG when submitted in the Student mobile app (see previous post), the image is visible in SpeedGrader, regardless of Mac or Win.  Here is the same submission displayed in Chrome in Windows 10.  The image can be downloaded and viewed in Win because it has already been converted to a JPG.

So far, it sounds like the Student app does exactly what this thread has been requesting, although I can't find any reference in the iOS app release notes.  I'm hoping someone else can either confirm that it works correctly, or replicate the original HEIC image file problem. 

2021-01-28_15-29-08 (1).png

 

However, if a student submits an HEIC image to a File Upload assignment, the file remains as an HEIC format, and cannot be displayed in SpeedGrader (both Mac and PC).  Since students are most likely to submit an iPhone photo from their phone, this seems like less of an issue.

2021-01-28_15-46-25.png

 

Kamal_H
Community Participant

It would be nice if Canvas speedgrader can open HEIC files. 

Meantime, I have to keep asking students to change the file extension to jpg.

mo_woods
Community Explorer

+1

We need a non-hacky solution to this, considering that so many folks use screenshot/photo-based assignments!

palmarinich
Community Contributor

No hacks needed.  The Canvas Student app automatically converts HEIC photos to JPGs before the file is submitted, which is then visible in SpeedGrader.  

I'm curious to know more about the scenarios where faculty are receiving HEIC files from students, and how they are submitted.

george_franz
Community Participant

Because the app has always been kind of buggy for some things, many of the students use the browser rather than the app.  In that case they get heic files.  Also, my understanding (when I ask a student who has submitted a HEIC file) is that the app does not convert heic files.  If you take a picture WITH THE APP, then it is in jpg format, but if you take a picture with some other app (your camera app), and then upload it even in the app, then it remains in heic format. 

palmarinich
Community Contributor

Thanks @george_franz.  I tested a bit more, and found that the iOS Canvas Student app converts a photo to .jpg when it is imported from the Photos library, as well as when a new photo is taken as a submission.

I can't find any documentation of when this functionality was added to the iOS app, but it appears to work well. 

As you mentioned, submitting an HEIC image using File Upload on a mobile browser will keep the file in that format (which is not viewable in SpeedGrader).

From the comments in this thread, it sounds like a lot of students are not using the mobile app.

MrDilloughery
Community Member

Come on. This is becoming one of the most common image formats as about 45% of smartphone users have an iPhone. How in the world have you not implemented this yet?! Especially during distance learning while teachers all over the country (world?) are using SpeedGrader every day.

wallacema
Community Member

Yes, please fix this! 

jfox5
Community Member

This would be a great feature. Most of our students have iPhones and use them in Canvas as the work submission is easy for them. Our teachers love Speedgrader. I would love to see Speedgrader be able to view those native formats.

elisabeth_green
Community Participant

This is beginning to recur more regularly in our support calls from faculty- would love to have this included!

elisabeth_green
Community Participant

We need this, and it would make sense to have a system in place as new file types are emerging and we'll have to go through this process again for whatever is next in the pipeline!

aclay1
Community Member

Canvas, Please allow for the opening of HEIC files in the Speedgrader!!! @speedgrader @HEIC

@CanvasUpdates thank you~