Why does iPhone saves normal photos in HEIC format but portrait photos in JPEG format?

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Level 1

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Why does iPhone saves normal photos in HEIC format but portrait photos in JPEG format?

I just enabled showing titles in my macOS Photos app and found all the normal photos taken by my iPhone XS Max are stored in HEIC format, which is what I set my iPhone be like. However, all the "Portrait" mode photos are stored in the legacy JPEG format, which is unreasonable as it is a lossy format.

I wonder why the situation is like this. Was it designed to behave this way?

Posted on Nov 4, 2022 6:25 PM

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Answer 1

SravanKrA

Level 10

431,314 points

Nov 5, 2022 2:18 AM in response to everwisher

This may help you --> Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices

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Answer 2

everwisher Author

Level 1

27 points

Nov 5, 2022 8:29 AM in response to SravanKrA

The article says:

"If sharing this media via iCloud Photos, the media is preserved in its original format, resolution, and frame rate".

I'm an iCloud+ subscriber, and my macOS Photos library receives photos from the cloud. But when I turned on "View -> Metadata -> Title", all portraits are reported to be stored in JPG format while all normals are in HEIC format as settings on my iPhone.

"If sharing this media using other methods, such as AirDrop, Messages, or email, the media might automatically be shared in a more compatible format, such as JPEG or H.264, depending on whether the receiving device supports the newer media format."

MacBook Pro 16 (2021) running Ventura and iPhone XS Max running iOS16.1 should both have the supports mentioned, but portraits just taken and AirDropped to my Mac are JPEGs.

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Why does iPhone saves normal photos in HEIC format but portrait photos in JPEG format?

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