Videos are uploaded to a PC without thumbnails or metadata.

It seems that after the introduction of iOS 18, iCloud for Windows has seriously deteriorated. I'm referring to the function of uploading videos to a PC that were shot on iOS 18 devices.…

After physically downloading the original video shot in the most compatible format (H. 264), the thumbnail of the video disappears. The icon of the installed player appears instead of the thumbnail. The thumbnail is saved only if you download a video shot in a high-performance format (HEVC), but only if you have the Windows HEVC extension installed (but this extension creates another problem, which I will discuss below)…

   The thumbnails may remain for a while after loading, but then they disappear anyway.… You can quickly check by copying to other folders on your PC.

(However, to solve this problem of missing thumbnails, you can use some third-party applications (for example, K-lite Codec Pack) - thumbnails are guaranteed to appear)

Something else is much worse: all original videos uploaded without conversion from iOS 18 to a PC via iCloud for Windows lose almost all metadata. There is an almost absolute void in this section of the "Properties" of files.… There is no format, no bitrate, no FPS, no date of creation of the media content... there is nothing… 

 After a lot of research, I accidentally discovered only one way to get this metadata from a video shot in iOS 18, when uploaded via iCloud for Windows! It is necessary to shoot a video only (!) in a high-performance format (HEVC) and upload it via iCloud for Windows without (!) enabling the additional option to upload this video in a "high-performance" format. Then this video will be uploaded in the "most compatible" format with a thumbnail and metadata.

   I remind you once again: videos shot in iOS 18 in the "most compatible" format will be uploaded to a PC via iCloud for Windows without thumbnails and without metadata..!

And there are two more unpleasant nuances!

   First, if you want to receive normal video downloads with thumbnails and metadata in the way I described above, remove (!) the Windows extension for HEVC. Otherwise, iCloud for Windows, having discovered this extension on your PC, will automatically enable the additional ability to download videos in a "highly efficient" format... and you will not be able to disable it.… It's absurd, but it's true!

    Secondly, when converting HEVC/HEIF videos and photos to the most compatible H.264/JPEG files, they take up noticeably more space than if they were shot immediately in these most compatible formats.…

   I described the problems of iCloud for Windows after the introduction of iOS 18.  And it seems that the problem lies precisely in iOS 18.

(Testing took place on Windows 10 and Windows 11, with iPhone SE 3 and iPhone 15, iPad 9... With different Apple accounts... The results are the same for H. 264 from iOS 18 - after downloading via iCloud for Windows - there are no thumbnails and metadata. Moreover, the iPhone SE 2 with iOS 15 and iPhone 11 with iOS 16 also participated in the test - downloading from these iOS via iCloud for Windows is full-fledged!)

But with the alternative download of videos and photos from the iCloud website to a PC via a browser, the problems with thumbnails and metadata are not only repeated, but also aggravated.. It is enough to cite just one negative fact out of several: when converting HEVC/HEIF files to MP4/JPEG, they, unlike iCloud for Windows, on the contrary, are compressed ... and several times… 

The lack of metadata in video files is a huge problem for further video processing and creation of video archives.