Community Call for iPhone Live Photo Test Cases — Help Validate the .heic Data Loss Bug

[abraunegg]

Hi everyone 👋

As many of you may know, there is a long-standing issue with .heic files uploaded to Microsoft OneDrive via the iOS OneDrive app — see:

• API Bug: File download size and hash mis-match with iOS .heic files #2471
• Live photos from the iPhone have a different size in listings compared to when downloaded OneDrive/onedrive-api-docs#1532
• ODP | ODB: Live photos (.heic files) from the iPhone have a different size in listings compared to when downloaded (API CAUSES DATA LOSS) OneDrive/onedrive-api-docs#1723

This Microsoft bug involves iPhone Live Photos uploaded using the iOS OneDrive app, where the reported file size and the actual content size differ. The result can be silent stripping of live image data — a real risk for data loss.

With the major rewrite between v2.4.25 and the current v2.5.x client, the code now has explicit detection and warning for this condition.
But we need fresh, real-world test cases to validate the new detection logic and ensure users are properly protected.

📱 What We Need From iPhone Users

If you have access to an iPhone with Live Photos enabled:

1. Take 3 to 5 new Live Photos (ensure Live Photos is on in the Camera app).
2. Upload them to OneDrive using the official iOS OneDrive app, ensuring:
   • Original format (.heic) is uploaded.
   • No edits are made after taking the photo.
3. Place them in a folder named:

LivePhoto-Test/<your_github_handle>/set-YYYYMMDD

4. Share that folder (read-only) with the following OneDrive test account that I will use for this testing:
   📧 NTgoFiJZEVMCgdFv@outlook.com

🧪 What Will Be Done With These Files

• The latest OneDrive Client for Linux (v2.5.x) will download the shared files.
• The client will:
  • Compare driveItem.size vs Content-Length vs actual downloaded size.
  • Log any mismatch as a DATA-LOSS warning.
  • Save metadata for analysis.
• No edits, modifications, or re-uploads will be performed on your content.

What I will do post analysis:

• Publish anonymised findings.
• Report any fresh repros to Microsoft with timestamps and size deltas.
• Verify whether the v2.5.x detection works consistently.
• Look at methods to determine if the Live Photo / Movie can also be downloaded so that there at least it has been captured somewhere

🛡️ Privacy Notes

• Only the .heic file and its metadata (size, hash, timestamps) will be inspected and looked at via the application debug logging.
• Your personal info (Apple ID, OneDrive account name, etc.) will not be collected or shared.
• If you prefer, you can use a throwaway test account to share the files.

🙌 Why Your Help Matters

• This issue is two years old, but still unresolved upstream. If we can collect a clean set of repro cases across iOS versions, OneDrive app versions, and account types (Personal vs Business), we can build pressure on Microsoft to fix this properly — and ensure the Linux client continues to protect users, and potentially have the Live portion of the file saved.

If you can help, just reply below with:

• ✅ Confirmed upload completed
• 📱 iOS version
• ☁️ OneDrive iOS app version
• 👤 OneDrive Account type (Personal / Business)

👉 Even just 2–3 volunteers will give me enough data to validate the current client logic and potentially close this long standing open bug.

Thank you to anyone who can contribute a few test photos to help make the client safer for everyone.

[abraunegg]

As no shared elements with .heic files + iOS Live Images have been provided I am closing #2471 as unresolved