You can force your iPhone to save photos as standard JPEG files instead of HEIC. This removes compatibility headaches, though you should understand exactly what your camera stops doing when you flip that switch in settings.
HEIC is the default format for a reason. Apple uses High Efficiency Image Container to store photos at lower file sizes while maintaining 10-bit colour depth, which is superior to the 8-bit limit of standard JPEG.
Changing to Most Compatible forces JPG. By selecting this mode in your iPhone settings, you instruct the camera hardware to encode images as 8-bit JPEGs, ensuring they open instantly on any older computer or web form.
You lose depth and efficiency. Switching to JPEG discards the wider colour range captured by modern iPhone sensors and results in larger file sizes for the same amount of visual detail.
The setting is hidden in the Camera sub-menu, not in the general storage settings. Follow these steps to stop your phone from using HEIC for new photos:
Once enabled, your iPhone will capture new images directly in the JPEG format.
When you choose Most Compatible, your iPhone stops saving 10-bit files and reverts to 8-bit JPEG. This is why the files become more compatible. You will also notice a few technical shifts in how your device handles image data:
The main benefit of HEIC is the smaller footprint on your device storage. Because it uses more modern compression, a HEIC file can look identical to a JPEG while taking up significantly less space. If you share photos via email attachments frequently, HEIC is usually the better choice to avoid hitting server limits.
If you primarily use your iPhone to upload photos to legacy websites or older Windows versions, you will find that Most Compatible saves you a lot of manual work. You won't have to convert your files before uploading them to older forms that don't support the HEIC container.
Changing this setting only affects photos you take after the switch. Your existing library will remain in the HEIC format. If you find yourself with a pile of old photos that you still need to share, you don't need to change your camera settings permanently.
If you have HEIC files sitting on your device or computer, you can process them one by one without changing your camera settings. Use our free converter to turn your existing HEIC images into standard JPEGs instantly, right in your browser, without any uploads.
Your photos are decoded in your own browser — open the converter and see.
First published: 1 November 2026