Appleinsider: iPhone Photo Formats

System IOS

Submitted by: Tari Weaver

Tip Have you ever wondered what the actual format is for all those photos you take on your iPhone? Your Mac computer shows you the extension name but that information is not shown on your iPhone. Did you know that Apple changed the iPhone photograph format some time ago and the default is no longer a JPEG but HEIC? Have you noticed issues on a photo that you AirDrop to your Mac from your iPhone? Have you realized that the HEIC (Apple format name) default format is still not fully compatible with many programs? Did you know that the Mac Mail program automatically changes the format to JPEG when you email a photograph? Here is an Apple Insider article that explains this HEIC format that has been the default on all iPhones since iOS 11.

Currently, it is possible to change the camera capture default settings. Open “Settings" on the iPhone, go to "Camera” choose “Formats" and select which format you want: "High Efficiency” for HEIC or “Most Compatible" for JPEG. Or you could keep the default of HEIC (for compact storage) and use a different format (JPEG) when you transfer to a computer. Open “Settings” and go to “Photos”. Under the "Transfer to Mac or PC" section choose “Automatic” to automatically check for photo & video format compatibility on the computer. It then converts the HEIC files to JPEG upon file transfer.