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Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

(www.theverge.com)
669 points danso | 2 comments | 20 May 20 19:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.466s | source
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crazygringo ◴[21 May 20 16:55 UTC] No.23260987[source]▶
I thought iOS was supposed to convert HEIC images to JPEG automatically behind-the-scenes in any file transfer situation where HEIC isn't supported. The article itself even says:

> iPhones convert HEICs to JPEGs automatically when they’re attached to emails in the Mail app

I'm just curious technically why the same didn't happen with the testing portal? If you have a webpage that accepts image uploads, is iOS Safari not smart enough to do the same conversion?

Or was the portal programmed badly or in a non-standard way that that couldn't happen? Or is there a way to do it that the developers ignored?

Just curious for the technical details of who's more to blame here -- Apple not providing enough backwards compatibility, or the testing portal being designed poorly.

Because blaming students for not following obscure instructions to change their phone's overall configuration is not the right path. A national testing portal ought to support the default image format taken by the world's most popular phone, period.

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wlesieutre ◴[21 May 20 18:18 UTC] No.23262549[source]▶
The article reads to me like the people who had problems sent the images from the phone to their computer, which may not trigger the automatic conversion? One air dropped it to the computer and renamed it PNG, another renamed it JPEG, but they were probably HEIC files with the wrong file extension.
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1. hundchenkatze ◴[21 May 20 18:29 UTC] No.23262735[source]▶
I believe those students had received noticed to use png/jpeg, and their solution was to change the file extensions. The website accepted them without issue, but these students later received emails telling that their photo was corrupt. The other, unaware students tried to upload the HEIC directly from their phones and the website stopped responding causing their test time to expire.
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2. wlesieutre ◴[21 May 20 18:41 UTC] No.23262958[source]▶
Ah gotcha, I think you're right. Sheesh.