A new macOS bug, reported on one blog and reproduced on another, has been found to be wasting space on Apple computers.

The flaw is rooted in Image Capture, an app used to transfer images from an external device to a local or external drive. Using this app to import photos and videos from an iPhone or iPad can add approximately 1.5 MB of empty data to each file processed.

Fortunately, Apple appears to be working on a fix for this issue. Unfortunately, there is no word yet on when this issue will be resolved.

This issue occurs when the "Keep Originals" option in Image Capture is unchecked. iPhones currently create photos and videos in a format that uses the extension .HEIC, so users typically use the cross-application/platform compatibility This is done to optimize for cross-application/platform compatibility.

The flaw was discovered by the team behind the file management app NeoFinder; MacRumors has reviewed the issue.

Ironically, .HEIC (Highly Efficient Image File Format, also known as HEIF) files are configured to reduce the amount of space a file takes up, thus avoiding exactly this type of problem.

There are ways around this problem, but hopefully Apple will come to the rescue soon; the NeoFinder team is offering a beta version of a third-party application called Graphic Converter that will allow users to convert HEIC files into HEIF files.

For now, this is probably the best option; the NeoFinder staff says, "Apple contacted us and asked for additional information and sample files. So it appears they are indeed working on a fix. Hopefully, there will be a patch/update to macOS and Image Capture soon that will resolve this issue. Third party applications would be nice, but I would prefer that Apple applications work as intended.