iPhone guide
Why iPhones Use HEIC—and How to Capture JPEG Instead
Learn why iPhones save HEIC photos, when to choose Most Compatible, and how transfer settings affect exported files.
Why Apple uses High Efficiency
Apple introduced HEIF and HEVC capture to store photos and videos more efficiently than older formats at similar visual quality. That lets more media fit in the same device or cloud storage. Apple’s compatibility guide (opens in a new tab)
HEIF is a container. An iPhone still photo commonly has a .heic extension because the image data inside that container is encoded with HEVC.
How to capture JPEG instead
On a supported iPhone or iPad, open Settings, choose Camera, then Formats. Select Most Compatible for future captures that use broadly compatible formats such as JPEG and H.264. Select High Efficiency to use HEIF and HEVC where supported.
The choice affects future captures; it does not convert photos already in your library.
Capture and transfer are separate
Camera > Formats controls how new media is captured. The Photos transfer setting controls whether the device may send a compatible version to a Mac or PC. This is why one HEIC library item can arrive as JPEG through one transfer method and remain HEIC through another.
Sources and further reading
We use primary technical documentation for the claims in this guide.
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