Possible iPhone photo format change from JPEG to HEIC

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Level 1

4 points

Possible iPhone photo format change from JPEG to HEIC

I helped someone to resolve an issue with transferring photos from their iPhone to a Windows PC (Now resolved). The person previously noted they transferred photos from their phone to their Windows PC in JPEG format but I can see all the photos on the phone are in HEIC format. I'm not sure if they updated their phone at any stage or if anything else on the phone was changed but they believe the format was changed by the phone. I'm just wondering if this is possible at all for the phone to change the format of photos on the phone by itself (Eg. For photos already taken and saved to the phone as JPEG to be changed to HEIC format).

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iPhone 15

Posted on Jan 26, 2025 11:04 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

201,823 points

Jan 27, 2025 1:56 AM in response to mfraser95

Have you seen this knowledge base article? Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices - Apple Support

It explains the the Settings on the iPhone that control the handling of HEIF / HEIC.

There is an undocumented change in the handling of HEIC images on the iPhone, when we import to a Mac or PC. Previously, the Settings > Apps > Photos > Automatic in the section "Transfer to Mac or PC" would ensure that the Photos would be automatically converted to JPEGs, when we downloaded them on a computer. Now the HEIC files will no longer be converted and transferred as HEIC, if the computer can handle HEIC.

The system upgrade may have changed the Settings > Camera > Formats to High Efficiency, if all new items are now in the HEIC format. In that case you may want to change this back to "Most Compatible".

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