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HEIC vs JPEG

How can I airdrop photos from my iPhone to my MacBook pro as JPEG instead of HEIC. Whenever I airdrop or drag & drop photos from my photo app onto my laptop, it automatically saves them as HEIC. But then when I try to upload the photos to something else, it won't let me because HEIC isn't compatible and needs to be JPEG or any other format other than HEIC.


Is there something in settings that I can change that will allow me to transfer photos to my MacBook pro as JPEG?

iPhone XS, iOS 15

Posted on Apr 22, 2022 8:19 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 22, 2022 10:20 PM

If you want your photos to be always JPEGs, change the Settings on the iPhone for the Camera to take JPEGs instead of HEIC files. See:

Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

  1. Go to Settings > Camera.
  2. Tap Formats.
  3. Tap Most Compatible



You can also change the Settings > Photos > Download to Mac or PC. when you download photos from the iPhone the HEIC photos will be converted automatically to Jpegs. But this will interfere with the duplicate detection and you will have to hand-pick new photos to avoid importing duplicates.


If you mail a HEIC image file, the attached file will be sent as JPEG. When mailing, you can select one of the sizes small, medium, large, original.





2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 22, 2022 10:20 PM in response to Bvwilliams

If you want your photos to be always JPEGs, change the Settings on the iPhone for the Camera to take JPEGs instead of HEIC files. See:

Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

  1. Go to Settings > Camera.
  2. Tap Formats.
  3. Tap Most Compatible



You can also change the Settings > Photos > Download to Mac or PC. when you download photos from the iPhone the HEIC photos will be converted automatically to Jpegs. But this will interfere with the duplicate detection and you will have to hand-pick new photos to avoid importing duplicates.


If you mail a HEIC image file, the attached file will be sent as JPEG. When mailing, you can select one of the sizes small, medium, large, original.





Apr 23, 2022 12:56 AM in response to Bvwilliams

Bear in mind jpg files will take up twice as much space as HEIC.


As an alternative to storing JPG on your mac, (or making your phone take jpg images, which will halve the numebr of images it can store), you can just export the images you want to send from your photos app as jpg to a folder first, and sent them from the folder. Then delete them from the folder after they've been sent.

HEIC vs JPEG

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