Stop your iPhone taking HEIC photos
Open Settings, tap Camera, tap Formats, then tap Most Compatible. From that moment the camera saves JPEG instead of HEIC and H.264 video instead of HEVC. Photos you already took stay HEIC; convert those with the tray above.
See what the quality setting does
Drag the line to compare the original with the JPEG at the quality you chose. The loupe shows a 3× crop under your pointer.
The setting
- Open Settings.
- Tap Camera.
- Tap Formats.
- Tap Most Compatible.
Apple's own support page says it plainly: after this, all new photos and videos use JPEG or H.264. To go back to the smaller files, choose High Efficiency again. The option exists on iPhone 7 and later running iOS 11 or later.
What you give up
- Storage. Apple says HEIF and HEVC use less space than JPEG and H.264 at the same visual quality, so your camera roll and iCloud fill faster.
- Video changes too. Apple says video switches from HEVC to H.264, which also takes more space. Apple also notes that older devices play HEVC most reliably at 1080p or lower and 60 fps or lower.
- Photos themselves look the same.
What doesn't change
Every photo already on the phone stays in the format it was taken in. Switching the setting does not convert them. Drop them on the tray above to get JPEGs; your phone does the work in Safari and nothing is uploaded.
A middle path: keep HEIC, share as JPEG
iOS sometimes converts on the way out. Apple says that when you share by AirDrop, Messages or email to a device that doesn't support HEIF, the photo "might automatically be shared in a more compatible format, such as JPEG". That only works when iOS can tell what the other end supports. For anything that matters, send a JPEG you made yourself.
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