How to make your iPhone save or share photos as JPG

You take a photo, try to attach it to a job application or a print order, and the site says the file type isn’t supported. The photo is fine. It’s just in HEIC, the space-saving format iPhones use by default, and the site only wants JPG. There are three ways around it, depending on whether you want to change future photos, photos you copy off the phone, or photos you already have.

Take new photos as JPG

The camera’s format is a single setting. On an iPhone running iOS 11 or later:

1. Open Settings and tap Camera.
2. Tap Formats.
3. Choose Most Compatible.

From then on, new photos are saved as JPG and new videos in the older, more widely supported video format. To switch back, choose High Efficiency on the same screen.

The cost is storage. HEIC keeps the same look in roughly half the space, so a phone full of JPG photos fills up about twice as fast. If you rarely hit upload problems, it may be easier to leave the setting alone and convert the occasional photo that needs it.

The setting appears only on models that can capture HEIC in the first place. If you don’t see Formats, your photos are probably already JPG.

Get JPGs when copying to a computer

When you connect an iPhone to a computer with a cable and import photos, the phone can convert them on the way. On recent versions of iOS:

1. Open Settings, tap Apps, then tap Photos.
2. Scroll down to the setting for transferring to a computer.
3. Choose Automatic to receive compatible copies, usually JPG. Keep Originals copies the HEIC files unchanged.

This changes only cable transfers. Photos synced through a cloud photo library keep their original format, and so do photos copied off the phone in most other ways.

Sharing from the phone

When you share a photo, the phone sometimes converts it for you. If the receiving device or app can’t handle HEIC, the phone may send a JPG instead. That’s helpful, but it isn’t something you can count on. It depends on how you share, and a website’s upload button may still receive the HEIC.

If an upload keeps failing, save a JPG copy first and attach that.

Convert photos you already have

Changing the camera setting doesn’t touch photos you’ve already taken. For those, use a converter. The HEIC to JPG tool on this site runs inside your browser, so your photos are never uploaded. Choose the photos, press Convert, and download the JPGs. It works with one photo or a whole batch, and it checks each result before offering it.

A few things to know about converted copies:

• They’re slightly larger. That’s the trade HEIC was designed to avoid.
• They lose the photo’s details, such as location, date and camera. That’s often what you want when sending a photo to a stranger, but photo apps may sort the copy by the day you converted it.
• The original stays put. Converting makes a copy. Delete the HEIC yourself if you no longer need it.

Which approach to pick

• You upload photos to forms all the time: switch the camera to Most Compatible.
• You move photos to a computer by cable: set transfers to Automatic and keep the space-saving format on the phone.
• You need one or two photos as JPG today: convert copies and change nothing.

On Android, HEIC is usually an option rather than the default. If your Android phone saves HEIC, look in the camera app’s settings for a picture format or “high efficiency” option. The names differ between makers.