How to Turn Off HEIC on iPhone
When you take photos with your iPhone, they’re usually saved in Apple’s HEIC format instead of JPG. HEIC was first introduced with iOS 11, and it can compress image files up to 50% without compromising quality.
Although HEIC offers some great benefits, there are still compatibility issues. That’s especially true when you try to open those HEIC pictures on non-Apple devices or apps.
What is HEIC?
If you’ve ever taken a picture using an iPhone or any other Apple device, you’re likely to have noticed that your photos are stored in the HEIC file format. HEIC is a compressed image format that is half the size of JPEG files and can store multiple images in one file. This makes it ideal for capturing high-resolution images with your phone’s camera.
It’s also a great format for photos that you want to share online, as it’s compatible with most popular photo-sharing services. However, HEIC doesn’t have the same compatibility as JPG, so if you want to send a HEIC photo to someone who doesn’t use an Apple device, it may be difficult for them to open it.
You can turn off HEIC on your iPhone if you don’t want to have HEIC-stored photos. It’s easy to do and won’t affect your photo quality. To do so, head to Settings > Camera on your iPhone and tap Formats.
Once there, you’ll see two options: High Efficiency and Most Compatible. The first option will enable your iPhone to capture HEIC files, and the second option will enable your iPhone to capture JPEG files.
If you choose the Most Compatible option, your iPhone will take HEIC files and will automatically convert them to JPG when you send them to an Apple user or to someone on another platform. This can be an annoying change, but it can also save you from having to deal with incompatibility issues when sending HEIC files to people on other devices.
Why is HEIC important?
HEIC is the successor to Apple’s HEIF image format. It’s a space-saving file format that uses High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) to compress and store images on device drives, taking up half the space of JPEGs.
Despite the small size, HEIC images are still high quality, even better than JPEGs. They also support 16-bit color and transparency, so you can edit photos flexibly without losing quality.
Another key benefit of HEIC is that it can save you a lot of storage space for your iPhone photos. HEIC files are about half the size of a regular JPEG, but they’ll still produce the same quality of picture.
As you may know, JPEGs are the most common image file extension, and they offer a convenient way to save a large image into a smaller, more manageable file. However, they’re known for lossy compression, which can lead to the loss of some of your background data. This can cause your pictures to look less than their best when you’re editing and re-storage them.
But HEIC is much more efficient than JPEGs. It breaks up large images into a number of essential files that don’t lose their quality when you’re editing and re-storing them.
HEIC is also more flexible than JPEGs, meaning that you can store different kinds of metadata in it. For example, you can store your camera’s manual settings in HEIC, so you can re-edit them without losing any of the original information.
And HEIC files can also contain a sequence of images like GIFs, so you can rotate or crop them with ease. HEIC files can also support 4K and 3D, and they can be edited flexibly with a variety of effects.
How do I turn off HEIC on my iPhone?
If you have updated your iPhone to iOS 11 or later, you’ve probably noticed that it takes photos in a new format called HEIC. This new format compresses photos to free up storage space and is compatible with a wider range of devices. However, this format is not universally supported and it can lead to incompatibility problems when sending HEIC images to devices that don’t support it.
To address this issue, Apple has a way to automatically convert HEIC files to JPEG before transferring them to your Mac or PC. This feature is available in the camera settings of iPhones that have updated to iOS 11, and it will save your future photos in a more universally-compatible format.
This feature works by default, and it does not change your existing HEIC images. But it does change new pictures you take, so you need to update your iPhone’s settings if you want to continue using HEIC files.
You can also use a third-party photo converter to convert HEIC to JPG on your iPhone. There are a few options to choose from, including a free HEIC converter, which offers a wide range of features.
One of the most useful things about the converter is that it allows you to convert multiple HEIC photos at once, which can be helpful if you have a lot of them. This allows you to quickly convert them without losing any of the original quality.
How do I transfer HEIC photos to my Mac or PC?
Starting with iOS 11, Apple changed the default photo file format on iPhones and Macs to HEIC, a more efficient format that offers better compression while retaining a high image quality. It’s not compatible with every phone, device, or computer, though, and you may need to convert your HEIC photos to JPG to transfer them to Windows, Mac, or other devices.
To get around this compatibility issue, you can use a free online conversion tool that supports both iOS and Mac. These tools will convert HEIC to JPG without losing any image quality, so you can easily share them with anyone.
You can also create quick workflows using the native Mac apps like Photos and Preview, or build automations with the powerful default Mac app Automator. These can save you a ton of time and prevent the need to download third-party software.