Convert iPhone Photos to JPG

Why iPhone photos are HEIC by default

Since iOS 11 (2017), iPhones default to saving photos as HEIC. Apple made this choice because HEIC photos are roughly half the size of JPEG at the same visual quality — letting you store twice as many photos on your iPhone without losing detail.

This works beautifully within the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, Mac, iCloud). But the moment you want to share photos outside Apple's world, you hit compatibility walls.

Common situations where HEIC causes problems

• Sharing with Android users — Android doesn't support HEIC. Photos appear as unsupported file types.
• Google Photos upload — Google Photos can display HEIC, but many Google Drive viewers and Docs/Slides can't embed them.
• Social media uploads — Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter convert HEIC on upload, but local HEIC files often fail to attach.
• Email attachments — Outlook on Windows and many webmail clients can't preview HEIC attachments.
• Photo printing — Online and in-store print services require JPEG or PNG.
• WordPress and CMSs — Most content management systems only accept JPG/PNG uploads.

Alternative: Make iPhone shoot JPG directly

You can configure your iPhone to capture in JPEG instead of HEIC:

1. Go to Settings → Camera → Formats
2. Select "Most Compatible" (instead of "High Efficiency")

This records new photos as JPG. However, this uses more storage, and you'll still have all your existing HEIC photos to convert.

Alternative: Transfer as JPG automatically

When transferring via USB to a Mac or PC, you can set iPhone to automatically convert to JPG on transfer:

1. Go to Settings → Photos
2. Scroll to "Transfer to Mac or PC"
3. Choose "Automatic"

With "Automatic" selected, iOS converts to JPG when transferring to a non-Apple device via USB. Photos stay as HEIC in your Camera Roll. Note: this only works for USB transfers, not AirDrop or iCloud.