Photo setting is most compatible but HEIC won't convert to jpg

There is a "Most Compatible" setting in "Camera > Formats". Are you referring to this? This will just ensure, that the new photos will be taken as JPEGs and not HEIC.

To convert the photos automatically to JPEGs, when you transfer them to your PC, change "Settings > Photos: Transfer to Mac or PC > Automatic". This will automatically convert the downloaded photos, if your PC cannot handle HEIC. See: Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

Agree with so many here. It's a pain.

Here's one thing that seems to help:

• If I text a photo to my imessage and drag it onto my desktop, it's in heic. But,
• If I connect my phone to my macbook with a cord and import into Photos (formerly iPhoto), and then drag the photos from Photos onto the desktop or into a folder, they're JPGs.

Yes, the conversion is only applied when downloading photos directly from the device, and only, when the system on the PC cannot handle HEIF. The Setting does not ensure that Photos will be converted, when you share them in other ways.

It says this in the camera settings; "Most compatible will always use JPEG/H.264. Cinematic video, 4K at 60 fps, 1080p at 240 fps, and HDR video require High Efficiency." It never mattered whether you had High Efficiency or Most Compatible selected, the phone would convert HE to a different format when sharing. This is broken in iOS17. Just clarifying for the confused.

Hi leonie.... just pointing out that on Aug 10, 2023 you said that if the compatible setting is on, all pics will be stored in jpg. Then on Jan 20,2024 you said the conversion only takes place if pics are being sent to a PC device that does not recognize HEIC. So you might want to clarify which format setting your in with regards to your Jan 20 remark. This whole situation reminds me of the movie 'Raising Arizona' during the bank robbery scene when John Godman says "Freeze!" then says "Lie Down!" and one of the older customers asks which is it....I can't lie down if I freeze? That being said, as we have found out, with iOS versions prior to 17.3, even with the compatibility setting on, our phones still stored pics in HEIC. Since I upgraded to 17.3, I can verify on my iPhone that three pictures I have taken after the upgrade and with the compatibility setting on, the three pics were all stored as jpg! So it would seem Apple has made progress here. My issue now is with the downloading to my PC.... I find it to be intermittent: sometimes not finding/downloading all my new pics; sometimes it will down load the pics in jpg but the PC says it can't recognize the format!? Yes, this could be an issue with the 'Photo' app that comes with windows (which I am still investigating) Note: it also happens on my wife's PC computer when she connects her iPhone. Therefore it takes us 5+ times of connecting and disconnecting the iPhone (via USB) to get all the pictures in. I still suspect this could be on Apple's end (with the 'new improved' iOS upgrades) since my previous iPhone and older iOS always performed 'rock solid' jpg pic & video transfers without a glitch. I hope Apple is aware that we are spending way too much time on this....where is their QA?? So it goes.....

You really have to force the iPhone to take the images and videos as JPEGs and H.264 and refrain from using HEIF at all on the iPhone or iPad, if you want to to be able to download them to other devices as JPEGs.

Apple seems to have changed the meaning of "Automatic" in the Settings > Photos > Download to Mac and PC on iOS17. Not just when downloading to Windows PCs, but also when downloading to a Mac. If the device we download to can handle HEIC, a HEIF file will not be converted when downloading it from the iPhone or iPad. It has the advantage, that the duplicate detection will no longer be disabled, as the converted JPEG versions could not be recognised as duplicates when downloading them. On previous system versions it could happen that the same images would be downloaded over and over again as new photos, because the converted file has not been an exact duplicate of the previously downloaded version. And we do not lose unnecessary quality by the conversion because of additional JPEG artefacts. We can be sure to download the photos in the original quality.

Exactly as you wrote. Set the Camera to take the photos as JEPGs, with ‘Most Compatible’ and not with "High Efficiency". Once a photo has been taken as HEIC, Photos offers no tool to convert ti to JPEG while in Photos.

What about v17.3 that came out a couple days ago?

If not, then please tell Apple: Bug Reporting - Apple Developer and Product Feedback - Apple

transfer photos to files app on cell. then copy and paste them back to your photos. they SHOULD open up then as jpg. from within your photos

So somehow Apple introduced a bug or removed the feature where HEIF and HEIC are converted to JPEG and MP4 when they are shared though apps. It would only keep the original Hxxx format if it knew it the recipient was another iPhone or Mac. I have a friend with an iPhone 15 PM who has this problem and we can not get it to automatically convert media just as my iPhone 14 PM does on 16.7.2. I'm leaning heavily towards this being a bug but there is very little information about it online and I'm afraid it's being overlooked by Apple.

Final observation as of Feb 27, 2024: The Apple iPhone 12 iOS 17.3.1 camera software is still full of bugs!

• Even with the Camera Formats Setting set to 'Most Compatible' some of the pictures I took over the past week were still stored as HEIC while some were stored as jpeg !?
• Transferring photos from your iPhone to a PC takes multiple times of plugging/unplugging the phone to get all the new pictures downloaded to the PC. The Photo Setting for Transferring (i.e. Automatic or Keep Original) does not seem to matter regarding the buggyness of the transfer program.

So I am done wasting any more time on this and will be purchasing (don't trust freeware) a HEIC conversion program for the HEIC formats that keep coming through. Thanks again Apple for an incompatible product when used outside the Apple environment.

Thanks for continually investigating this, leonie .....

It confirms my previous deductions (experience) that Apple has broken the  ‘auto conversion’ program. One question: What exactly do you mean ‘….You really have to force the iPhone to take the images and videos as JPEGs and H.264….’ ? To my knowledge, the only method available (from previous discussions on this thread) is to change the iPhone Photo settings: go to Camera ==> Format (make sure that ‘Most Compatible’ has been selected (Note: I find that with every IOS upgrade, Apple seems to default your phone to 'High Efficiency'.... so you have to be diligent after every up grade to adjust your camera format setting back to 'Most Compatible'). Do you know of any other way to force pictures etc. to be stored a jpegs? Please share if you can.

I have found that the 'most compatible' setting does not always ensure that the HEIC picture mode has been turned off when I take pictures... and this causes problems when I try to download my pictures to my PC because my PC does not recognize HEIC formats (unless I load a HEIC-to-JPG converter....thanks Apple!). I don't know which is most annoying/frustrating: I paid $1K for a phone that is full of bugs (I have other issues with this phone/latest OS); the fact that Apple has made their proprietor HEIC the default picture format on iPhones or that Apple did this with out any alert/warning that this was the new default ( had to figure this out by searching google)!? This is would be a great business school case study on how not to win over new customers....unless your a monopoly and don't care.

Per suggestion in the thread I just updated my iOS to 17.3 (turned phone off and on after upgrade to ensure it was now using the new upgraded iOS).... then I plugged the phone into my PC USB port and downloaded my pics.... the old jpg pics (i.e. that people sent me and that I took before Apple screwed up my camera) came in okay, but all the new pics I took still came in as HEIC, and I also found that I can not view the new video clips I took on my iPhone though they still have the MOV format, my PC said it can not recognized the format, so it seems that Apple's new format conversion also applies to video's as well? I ran a test to see if maybe the old photo's format might be corrupted by the "previous" buggy iOS..... I took a new photo and then tried to download it to my PC.....but the new photo was not even listed in the PC photo download as well as my other 250+ pics were also missing.....so now my download process, iPhone to PC, is not working correctly, another Apple bug? I also noticed another issue: In my photo files on my PC, I can view some of the HEIC photos but not others???? I ponder if the Apple bug has changed these photos to jpg but did not change the file extension!? Anyway, it is still a mess even when using iOS 17.3 Comment: My previous iPhone was rock solid and I never had any issues with downloading pics to my PC.....which only happened recently with these new Apple iOS 'features' (i.e. I used to work in the IT industry and we always referred to the 'bugs' that were introduced with new upgrades as added 'features' ....yes it is a sarcastic reference.) I am sure we are all asking: Why didn't Apple leave well enough alone and allow users to choose if they want the HEIC & 'new' MOV format instead of jpg. Oh by the way, I where I should send my billable hours for helping Apple debug their iOS issues?