How to stop iPhone from taking photos in HEIC

How to stop iPhone from taking photos in HEIC

With iOS 11, Apple introduced the HEIC/HEIF image format to compress the file size up to 50% without compromising quality. Compared to JPEG, HEIF is more efficient and offers an ideal way to manage photo storage.

The only catch with a high-efficiency format is that it’s not yet universally supported. However, you can prevent your iPhone from capturing photos in HEIC. Read on to know how.

How to turn off HEIC on my iPhone and save photos in JPEG

  1. Launch Settings on your iOS device.
  2. Now, tap Camera.
  3. Next, tap Formats.
  4. Next up, select Most Compatible.

    Tap on Camera and Formats and Select Most Compatible on iPhone

Now, your iPhone will shoot pics in JPEG format and videos in H.264 format. However, you will have to switch to High Efficiency whenever you want to shoot 4K at 60 fps and 1080p at 240 fps.

Automatically convert iPhone photos to JPEG when transferring to Mac or Windows PC

The latest versions of iOS allow you to automatically convert HEIC images to JPEG when transferring to Mac or PC.

  1. Open Settings on your iOS device → Photos.
  2. Now, scroll down and select Automatic.

    Tap on Photos and Select Automatic on iPhone

That’s pretty much it!

YouTube video

Your take?

Though “Heek” may not be widely supported as yet, it’s the future. Therefore, I would suggest you go for JPEG only when you have to deal with the incompatibility issue. Have any questions? Let us know that down below in the comments.

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2 comments

  1. Thank you, this has caused me so much undo frustration for years.

    The more I use iPhone, the more I notice the need for a tutorial for trivial tasks. Taking something so simple as taking photos and making it a complex tech problem is ridiculous. The average user does not care to understand file formats and the development of new technologies.

    As a tech person I understand the push for higher quality and efficiency, but still do not agree with this as the default setting.

    Article is appreciated.

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