Can’t add HEVC to Premiere Pro on Mac

Trying to add an iPhone MOV video to Adobe Premiere on Mac but errors out? Some Premiere users may find they can’t import videos from iPhone to Premiere Pro CC? This issue happens to those videos recorded using a recent iPhone iPad model that is running iOS 11 or later. As we known since iOS 11, Apple use the new codec HEVC, also known as H.265, to encode videos. Premiere claims to support HEVC H.265 media files. When you import a HEVC video to Premiere Pro, you will be prompted to install the HEVC code. You can just hit the OK button to allow Premiere Pro to download the necessary video codec for you automatically. If you can’t install the HEVC codec for Premiere this way, or get the Code missing or unavailable error, you can simply use a video converter to transcode the HEVC videos on Mac.

Method 1. Convert HEVC to H.264 using QuickTime Player

QuickTime player is the default video player on Mac with basic video editing features. To transcode H.265 videos using QuickTime Player, find the H.265 video clip in Finder, double to open it in QuickTime Player. Then go to File > Export As. In the next pop-up dialog, leave the Use HEVC option unchecked and save the HEVC video to Mac as AVC H264 video.

convert iphone hevc mov videos to AVC h264 using quicktime player on mac

Method 2. Convert HEVC to H.264 using iMovie

iMovie is our favorite video editor on Mac. It is more powerful in editing video footages compared to the QuickTime Player. It can also help us switch back to the H.264 codec.

Launch iMovie from Launchpad. Drag the HEVC video clip to the timeline in iMovie. Click File > Share > File, select output video size and save it to your Mac.

Method 3. Convert HEVC H265 video using built-in Encode service on Mac

Mac has built-in audio and video conversion feature. They are not nearly as versatile as other options like QuickTime, iMovie, but they are fast and simple. For those who are looking for an easy way to convert HEVC or H.265 video to AVC or H.264 or convert HEVC to Adobe Premiere compatible format, don’t miss out this feature.

Simply find the HEVC file in Finder that you want to edit in Adobe Premiere Pro on Mac. Click to select the file in Finder, then click Finder > Services > Encode Selected Video Files, or right click on the HEVC file in Finder, and choose Encode Selected Video Files from the context menu. The Encode Media window pops up. Choose Apple ProRes in the Settings box, and hit Continue, the HEVC video will be converted to Apple ProRes format which can be imported to Adobe Premiere Pro and other video editor software on Mac.

Encode selected video files in Finder on Mac