How to make your iPhone take JPG instead of HEIC
Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos in the HEIC format to save space. It's efficient, but many websites, Windows apps and upload forms don't accept it. You can switch your iPhone back to JPG in a few seconds.
Switch the camera to JPG
- Open Settings.
- Tap Camera, then Formats.
- Choose Most Compatible.
From now on, new photos are saved as JPG. They take roughly twice the storage of HEIC, so keep an eye on free space if your phone is nearly full.
Keep HEIC on the phone, get JPG on your computer
If you'd rather keep the space savings of HEIC, you can have photos converted only when you copy them over a cable:
- Open Settings → Photos.
- Under Transfer to Mac or PC, choose Automatic.
What about photos you already took?
Changing the setting doesn't convert existing photos. To turn those into JPG, use the HEIC to JPG converter. Drop in as many photos as you like and download them as JPG, one by one or as a ZIP. Nothing is uploaded, and location data is removed from the converted copies.
Should I switch to JPG at all?
If you mostly share photos with friends on iPhone, keeping HEIC is fine and saves space. If you often upload photos to websites, send them to Windows users or print them, Most Compatible saves you a conversion step every time.