HEIC vs JPEG: which format should your phone save

What each format actually is

JPEG was standardised in 1992 and is the most widely supported image format ever made. It is lossy, it stores eight bits per colour channel, and its compression is well understood, well optimised and long out of patent. Every camera, every browser, every printer, every operating system and every piece of software written in the last three decades opens it without being asked.

HEIC is a container, HEIF, holding an image compressed with HEVC, the same codec used for modern video. Apple adopted it as the iPhone default with iOS 11 in 2017 under the setting name High Efficiency. It stores up to ten bits per channel, supports transparency, supports depth maps and multiple images in one file, and compresses roughly twice as efficiently as JPEG for a given perceived quality.

That last point is the whole argument. The same photo library in HEIC takes about half the space, and on a phone where you never delete anything that is the difference between running out of storage this year and next.

The catch is also structural. HEVC is patent-encumbered, licensing it costs money, and that single fact explains almost every compatibility problem HEIC has outside the Apple ecosystem.

Side by side

Read the bottom half of that table before deciding. HEIC wins every technical row and loses every compatibility row, and for most people compatibility is the one that produces actual friction.

Where HEIC still breaks

Nine years after Apple adopted it, HEIC is still not a format you can assume. The pattern is consistent: platforms that already licence HEVC for video support it, and those that do not, do not.

Windows does not include HEIC support out of the box. The HEIF Image Extensions are free in the Microsoft Store, but viewing iPhone HEIC files also needs the HEVC Video Extensions, which is a separate and in most regions paid item. Plenty of people meet HEIC for the first time as a file their PC will not open.

Browsers are the clearest split. Safari displays HEIC because macOS and iOS already carry a licensed HEVC decoder. Chrome and Edge fall back on the operating system's codecs, so behaviour varies by machine. Firefox has no HEIC support at all, and Mozilla has pointed to HEVC patent licensing costs as the reason.

Upload forms and web applications are the practical pain point. A site that accepts JPEG and PNG will often silently refuse an HEIC or show a broken thumbnail, and print services and job application portals are common offenders.

Older software and anything in a corporate environment that has not been updated will not know what the file is. If you are emailing a photo to somebody at work, JPEG is simply the safer choice.

Should you switch your iPhone to Most Compatible

For most people, no. iOS handles the conversion for you in most situations: AirDrop to a Mac, share to an app that asks for JPEG, and the Transfer to Mac or PC setting under Photos all convert on the way out when the destination needs it. You get the storage saving and rarely meet the compatibility problem.

Switch to Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible if any of these apply:

• You regularly move photos to a Windows PC by cable or memory card, where no conversion step happens.
• You upload through web forms often, for work, for print orders or for listings.
• Your editing software or workflow does not read HEIC reliably.
• You share photos with people who consistently report that they cannot open them.

What you give up is storage, and a small amount of tonal latitude in editing. What you gain is never thinking about it again. If you shoot a great deal of video, note that Most Compatible also switches video to H.264, which is considerably larger than HEVC for the same footage.

There is also a middle position that most people should consider first: leave the camera on High Efficiency and export a JPEG on the occasions you need one. That is one extra step a few times a year rather than a permanent storage cost.

How to convert HEIC to JPEG

Several routes, none of which need a download or an upload to a stranger's website.

On iPhone, use the share sheet. Most apps that want a JPEG will receive one automatically. To force it, open the photo, tap share, choose Copy Photo and paste into Files, or use the Files app to duplicate and export. A Shortcut with the Convert Image action does it in bulk and is the cleanest option if you do this often.

On iPhone, change how you transfer. In Settings, Photos, set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic and the phone converts on the way out. Setting it to Keep Originals sends the HEIC untouched, which is what you want for archiving and not what you want for handing files to a PC.

On a Mac. Open in Preview and use File, Export, choosing JPEG. For a folder, select all the files in Finder, right click, Quick Actions, Convert Image.

On Windows. Install the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store, then open the file in Photos or Paint and save as JPEG. If images still do not open, the HEVC component is the missing piece.

Avoid browser-based converters that upload your photos to an unknown server. There is no reason to send a personal photo to a third party for a conversion your own device can do.

Does converting cost quality

Yes, a little, and the amount is usually irrelevant. Both formats are lossy, so decoding an HEIC and re-encoding it as a JPEG means one extra generation of compression. At a high JPEG quality setting the visible difference on a normal photograph is very hard to find.

Where it does matter:

Heavy editing after conversion. HEIC's ten bit depth gives smoother gradients when you push exposure or recover a sky. Convert first and then edit hard, and you are more likely to see banding. Edit first, convert last.

Repeated round trips. Converting, editing, saving, converting again compounds the loss. Keep one master file and export copies from it.

Low quality export settings. If a converter defaults to 80 percent quality to save space, that is where the visible loss comes from, not from the format change itself. Choose maximum quality.

Live Photos and depth data. These are not quality losses so much as feature losses. A JPEG cannot hold the extra frames or the depth map, so a converted Live Photo becomes a single still and a portrait loses its ability to be re-edited.

For a photo going to a print lab, a web form or a friend's PC, convert without hesitation. For your archive, keep the HEIC.