How To Fix The macOS Image Capture Bug And Free Up Your Hard Drive

A nasty macOS bug that can seriously impact the storage space of your device has just surfaced. It affects the Image Capture app and makes the software to eat up thousands of megabytes of storage space, by adding empty data to files when the users transfers photos from an iPhone or iPad to a Mac. The glitch has been discovered by the German developers of NeoFinderNeoFinder, a media asset management app.

Details about this bug can be found in this blog post. Basically, we’re informed that the bug occurs when Apple’s Mac tool is converting the iOS HEIF photo format into standard JPG files. It’s triggered when the user disables the “Keep Originals” Image Capture setting and action that leads to the HEIF – JPG conversion. When the bug is triggered it adds 1.5MB of empty data to every single file transferred. That’s 15MB for 10 photos, 1.5GB for 1000 photos and so on. Considering that Apple still sells 128 GB entry level Macs, you can clearly see the magnitude of this problem.

Important: Macs running macOS 10.14.6 and later are affected by this bug! Also, be aware that the issue occurs only when transferring photos from iPhone, iPad and other Apple device while using Image Capture. If you’re importing pictures from digital cameras you should be OK.

How To Fix macOS Image Capture Bug
Until Apple releases a software update with a permanent fix we have three options for you:
1. Continue using Image Capture but make sure that you have the “Keep Originals” settings turned on. It’s available in the bottom-left corner of the software window.
2. This fix is only available for new photos that you snap on your iPhone or iPad. Use the iOS Settings app to change the format used for capturing the photos from HEIF to Most Compatible.
How To: Settings -> Camera -> Formats. Select Most Compatible.
3. Either you stop using the Image Capture software and use a third-party app instead. This could be Graphic ConverterGraphic Converter, for example. The beta version comes with an option that allows you to remove unwanted empty data from JPEG files.
4. The finders of this bug plan to upgrade their software with a tool that can purge unwanted data from JPG files. This will help you regain your Mac’s storage space if you’re affected by the bug. However Neofinder for Mac retails for $39.99. There is a free trial available on their website. You can check it out here.
Fact: The tool will become available on Monday, May 4th.

Are you using the Image Capture app on your Mac? Let us know in the comments section available below.

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