HEIC to JPG

Because it's technically superior: HEIC (the container for HEIF images) compresses about twice as efficiently as JPEG at equivalent quality, supports 10-bit color, and stores bursts and Live Photos in one file. Apple adopted it in 2017 to halve camera-roll storage. The catch is ecosystem lag — Windows needs paid codecs, many websites, forms, and older apps simply reject it.

Converting to JPG re-encodes with lossy compression — at the default 90% quality the difference is invisible in normal viewing, and it's the right choice for sharing and uploads. PNG is mathematically lossless but produces files several times larger, worth it only for images you'll edit further. Either way the original HEIC keeps full quality; conversions are copies.

Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible switches the camera to JPEG permanently (at the cost of roughly double the storage per photo). A lighter-touch fix: Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic converts on transfer while keeping HEIC's storage savings on the phone. Sharing via Messages or Mail also auto-converts.

A few HEIC variants use features the decoder doesn't cover — most commonly image sequences from bursts or Live Photos, and occasionally files renamed .heic that aren't actually HEIC. For a stubborn Live Photo, open it on the iPhone and share it as a still, which exports a standard file. Regular single photos convert reliably.