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
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Archived
 
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
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.
PilarSomohano
Community Member

50% of the students use Apple devices, and they have a default HEIC format. Most people don't know how to change the default to JPG or similar.

The lack of HEIC support is a big issue when we try to grade work.

elisabeth_green
Community Participant

I spoke to our mobile folks yesterday, and if students use the App then the heic files will be converted to jpeg (someone please correct me if I misunderstood). It's our hope that faculty and student communications can at least partially mitigate this.

dahollingsworth
Community Member
I think there's a bit of a disconnect between support and the average user. Asking students to process files/export/do additional steps isn't really reasonable. Asking students to make a global change with how their phones save pictures is not reasonable—and would mean lower quality pictures otherwise. 
 
Uploading within the app from the camera or library option is reasonable. At the same time, I'm not sure that this is always happening the way Canvas thinks it is. My students sometimes do have HEIC files show up in the grade book and yet are using their phone cameras. 
 

 

twalther
Community Participant

I kind of feel like this is an Apple thing, not a Canvas thing. But I am still bummed that it cannot be implemented. Does the licensing cost so much?

steelea
Community Explorer

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. I'd say half of my students use iPhones to do all their work.

mossant
Community Member

This should be added to Canvas. However, I'll point out that for the time being you can tell your students to change the format of their images to jpg. They go to Settings/Camera/Format and select 'compatible' format which is jpg, and that works just fine. But the .heic format should be added, to save everyone additional effort.  

mbrandon1
Community Explorer

Going to give this old thread another post.  This is no longer only related to Apple products, Samsung is now using HEIC for its default image format on its higher-end devices meaning that this issue continues to grow.  We need the ability to preview this file type in SpeedGrader.

WendyGraham
Community Novice

I agree we need a fix for the HEIC problem.  We can't expect students to take pictures and then convert them to jpg and then upload - it isn't going to happen!  I downloaded the app to my iphone and I still can't see the HEIC files.

c_waterbury
Community Explorer

Right now, .heic file types are not supported in image preview in Speedgrader. Heic is now the default image file type on iPhones and I think it should be supported for image preview on the Speedgrader (both on the browser and Teacher app). 

As a workaround, faculty can limit assignment submission types.

ironman
Community Member

My institution will also benefit from this feature; please, add this feature to Canvas as soon as possible.

floresr
Community Champion

In case anyone still needs a solution. Students can change a single setting on their iPhones, so that images are saved as JPG instead of HEIC.

 

Fast forward to 00:45:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj-gWi4t8QM 

palmarinich
Community Contributor

Just a friendly reminder that assignment submissions in the Canvas Student app are automatically converted from HEIC to JPG.  

allyn_leon
Community Member

I have seen multiple threads regarding this in the community. As far as I know, it's been at least 4 or 5 years, and this is still an issue. I use the mobile teacher app on my iPad and my Samsung phone, and use Speed Grader in the web browser on a Chromebook, an HP Laptop, an HP Desktop, and Lenovo Laptop. HEIC files do not preview in ANY of these. This is a significant stumbling block to the workflow for MANY of us who use Speed Grader. Please bump this up. I read that they preview fine on a Mac, but how many of us have a Mac? Thank you!

James
Community Champion

How would you like to see Canvas to support it when the browsers do not support it? Microsoft Windows 10 requires an extension to load HEIC files, but reviews are poor and comments suggest it requires the $0.99 version to work well. Windows 11 is similar, you need the $0.99 codec to make it work.

Apple supposedly converts the images to JPG when sent to a different operating system, which is good because few of the rest of us can view them.

deirdre_rowley
Community Member

Yes, this is amazingly frustrating. Students submit in good faith, and I am unable to see their work.  This means the student must submit again, and often they have difficulties changing the file to something I can view. This holds up the now worried student, it holds up my grading, and in a discussion only some of the class can see the image so the student gets no comments.

lhernandez111
Community Novice

This is a frustrating issue when grading. I use a MacBook Pro and I'm pretty sure I still encounter this problem. 

christiansenli
Community Explorer

Thanks Chris P. for the reminder on this issue that the files are converted in the canvas app.  I should have scrolled up before posting. 🙂

turnerml
Community Member

The official reply is really not satisfactory. Perhaps rendering HEIC files in the web browser is not possible, but if Canvas is running on a Unix-like system, doing a backend conversion of files to a .jpg with something like heif-convert should be possible, at which point they could be rendered as normal. Saying "we're not interested in finding ways to fix key functionality" is the sort of thing that makes entire institutions move to a competitor's course management system.