Hi,

We're using the file upload question to get certain pictures from mystery shoppers.
Most of them are using iPhones, which currently is using the HEIC format for pictures.
So when we try to upload pictures from the camera roll, LS won't allow it because it's .heic and not .jpg or .png.

Someone knows a way to fix this?
In the advanced options of the question we add heic but it only changes a text rather than the actual settings.

Please help!

Sounds like a bug. What version/build of LimeSurvey is used? Perhaps the bug is already fixed. If not, you can open a bugticket here.

www.limesurvey.org/community/bug-tracker

Doublecheck the filetype options. I sometimes overlook a mistype too.

Thanks for the reply Jelo. We're using version 2.73.0+171219 and the formats are correct.
Maybe is something we need to check in the php configuration?

What does "LS won't allow it because it's .heic" exactly mean when you're are respondent in the survey?

Where exactly does it stuck? Did you try the same e.g on a PC with a browser and a heic-file?

Currently it could be a bug in LS which misses the heic suffix during the file selection.
If the file can be selected, it might be a issue when uploading (what size are the heic-files?).
It depends on where exactly the whole process stops. PHP and Apache configuration issues are mostly related to filesize (if e.g. upload of jpeg-files are working).

You might directly open a bugticket and post survey, heic-file and screenshots there.
But to me it looks they will no longer release bugfixes for 2.7X. They moved to LS 3. (which I cannot recommend for productive work at the moment).

Can you provide a heic-file and a survey with just the uploadquestion, which didn't work in your environment and attach it to this thread?

I don't see expecting respondents to change their device settings or convert images as a solution.

I agree with tpartner. I personally would also prefer to receive the files all as JPEG, but I highly doubt that the Iphone users will switch to JPEG or do the conversion before the upload.

Mystery shoppers are usually not interviewers from your team, but rather real consumers recruited to do certain tasks / evaluations. So you don't really have much control over them, they are almost like normal research respondents, filling in a questionnaire.

HEIC support is an active asset for us in LS3.
As jelo said we dropped support for all other versions starting this month.
The file upload is currently being remastered and I will hopefully have time to add also the reasons why Apple was moving towards HEIC. (animated images).
But since HEIC is just a container format and the containing files can never be sure to follow all rules this may be integrated later this quarter.

PS: Thank you for your trust in LS 3

I'm a bit confused about Markus post. The upload-question in a survey isn't needing a special HEIC-support, right? The issue of the threadstarter seem to be, that HEIC files cannot be selected and uploaded during a survey (even though the suffix is added in the options and shown as supported suffix in the upload question infotext). Looks to me more like a bugreport than a feature request.

There are also useful free online tools to help apart from paid heic converter software

jelo wrote: I'm a bit confused about Markus post. The upload-question in a survey isn't needing a special HEIC-support, right? The issue of the threadstarter seem to be, that HEIC files cannot be selected and uploaded during a survey (even though the suffix is added in the options and shown as supported suffix in the upload question infotext). Looks to me more like a bugreport than a feature request.

supporting privative technologies is a feature request.
it's an iPhone bug, not a LS bug.

btw, I'm not even sure this is compatible with GPL licence:

github.com/nokiatech/heif/blob/master/LICENSE.TXT
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14489987

Maybe I am getting this problem wrong, but it is not about "supporting" an technology. It is just about being able to upload it during a survey. So I don't see why the GPL would come into play here?

Isn't it just about being able to choose HEIC images and upload it into a survey?