Guide
Stop your iPhone from saving photos as HEIC
A one-minute setting change, with the honest trade-off explained.
The short version
Your iPhone saves new photos as HEIC by default. If you'd rather it saved them as JPEG from now on — so every photo is already in a universally compatible format the moment you take it, with nothing to convert later — there's a built-in setting for that. It takes about a minute, and only affects photos taken after you change it.
How to change it
- Open Settings
- Scroll down and tap Camera
- Tap Formats
- Select Most Compatible instead of High Efficiency
That's the whole process. From that point on, your iPhone captures photos as JPEG and video as H.264, both of which open natively on virtually anything — Windows, Android, old software, web forms, all of it.
The honest trade-off
"Most Compatible" is an accurately-named setting, not a marketing trick — you are trading something real for that compatibility. JPEG files typically run 40-50% larger than an equivalent-quality HEIC file, so if you're close to running out of iCloud or on-device storage, this setting will make that worse over time, not better. If storage headroom is tight, it's worth weighing that against how often you actually need to hand photos to a non-Apple device or service.
There's also no effect on photos already taken — this setting is forward-only. If your camera roll is already full of HEIC files from before you made this change, converting those still needs a tool like the one linked below.
Who this setting actually helps
If most of your photos stay within Apple's ecosystem — synced to a Mac, shared via AirDrop, backed up to iCloud Photos — this setting won't change your day-to-day experience much, since HEIC was never a problem there in the first place. It's most useful for people who regularly hand photos to Windows users, upload to older web forms, or work with software that's never added HEIC support, and would rather solve that at the source than convert files after the fact each time.
Common questions
Does this change affect photos I've already taken?
No. This setting only affects photos taken after you change it. Anything already in your camera roll stays exactly as it is — as HEIC files, if that's what they were saved as.
Will this make my photos take up more storage?
Yes, somewhat. JPEG files are typically 40-50% larger than an equivalent-quality HEIC file, so switching means new photos use more storage space than they would have as HEIC.
Does this affect video too?
The Formats setting in the Camera menu affects both photo and video capture format together. Switching to "Most Compatible" moves video to H.264 as well as photos to JPEG.
Can I switch back later?
Yes, any time, in the same settings screen. There's no lasting effect from switching either direction — it only governs the format of photos and video captured from that point forward.