How to air drop with JPG instead of HEIC?

HEIF/HEIC or High-efficiency image format is a more modern file format for images. It provides more quality at the same or less file size. Think H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and H.265 (HEVC) for video. Without these compression standards high quality 1080p and especially 4k would not be possible especially for those with slow internet connections. HEVC will makes it possible to get reasonable sizes for 10-bit 4K HDR all the way up to 8K and also use the much wider Rec. 2020. The best TVs today can only show about 75-80% of the 2020 color space. Rec 2020 is also much wider than the P3 displays on iPhone 7 and newer and MacBook Pro 2016 and newer.

Well this new HEIF format was launched with iOS 11 and High Sierra. Now if your phone was set to “High efficiency” under the camera settings, the iPhone 7/7 Plus or newer will use HEIF. If you set it to “Most compatible” it will use JPEG.

Now here’s the story. Under photos settings in iOS, when transfer photos is set to automatic if will send HEIF if you’re using macOS High Sierra or newer and JPEG if you’re using anything else. If the other phone is on iOS 11 or newer then it will also get HEIF.

If you want to save in JPEG and always JPEG do this:

Open “camera settings” and choose Camera settings/Formats/MOST COMPATIBLE and then go to Photos settings and choose “KEEP ORIGINALS.” That’s it.

Now, it’s possible that photos saved originally in HEIF will not be able to be transferred as a JPEG on Mojave.

If this is the case then you have to convert these images back to JPEG using whatever software you want for that purpose.

Please keep in mind that sooner or later we will start seeing more and more support for HEIF. It is an official standard and not just some crazy format that Apple is backing. The reason why many places on the web don’t support it is because not everyone has it. JPEG is still the most common standard. Think USB-C vs. USB Type A. USB-C will completely replace type A but it takes a while.

Once most dSLRs and other camera support HEIF, JPEG will be history. People will either shoot RAW or HEIF. The thing is changes have to be forced otherwise people will stick to using what they know.

Hope this post is useful!

Iphone Settings -> Camera -> Formats -> Most Compatible

I saw this the other day. I was used to seeing AirDrop always sending a jpeg version of the images.

I am not sure but I think this may be an iOS 12 change. I will try later with my iPhone and an iMac that ir running High Sierra to see what happens.

I actually think that this is working CORRECTLY with iOS 12 and Mojave.

If you want to get a jpeg, select “most compatible”; if you want heif, select “keep original”. Makes total sense to me.

AND this is NOT just for future images. Just try sending an old one with the “most compatible” setting.

In previous versions I would have to connect with a cable to get the full quality file. I think it is far better the way it is now.

When you set it to “most compatible” in the camera settings, that applies going forward. That doesn’t mean photos that were saved in HEIF now become JPEG on your phone.

To get JPEG and JPEG only in camera settings/formats choose most compatible and then in photos settings choose keep originals.

In camera settings change the format in camera capture to “most compatible” and in photos change the upload to “keep original”

i am also plagued by this, as of today, after upgrading to mojave. i sell on ebay and take the photos with my iphone, and it wasn't the ios12 update, it was guaranteed the mojave update.

until this is solved, the workaround is:

select all HEIC files, ctrl-click, and open

ctrl-A or edit/select all

then file/export

change dir and extension to jpeg, and preview will make fairly quick work out of it.

it's FAR less than ideal, considering a perfectly working system is now broken.

don't get me started on Messages app not having "capture selection from screen" any more...

In iOS go to settings/camera/formats and select most compatible. However this will be only for new shots going forward. Stuff that was saved as HEIF will only be airdropped as JPEG on macs with operating systems that don’t support HEIF.

select all of your HEIC files, right click (or ctrl-click) and open. if preview isn't your default, open with preview instead

press ctrl-a to select all of the photos within preview. then right (or ctrl)-click and select export as...

press the options button on the bottom, and then select JPEG from the format list.

now all of your HEIC files will be converted to JPEG and dumped in the folder you specified.

Hey,

So i've been investigating this due to it causing an issue for our customers when uploading images. The issue is with air drop and High efficiency images.

So if you take your high efficiency photos and upload them direct to Ebay or whichever site you need to via your phone, and not your Mac (so don't airdrop) then they are converted and will work. You potentially could email the images to your mac to upload from there and they would be fine too. Its only Airdrop that causes the problem as it doesn't do the convert.

So to replicated I take photos with my phone using the high efficiency settings, the navigate to the website where I want to upload my images too (still on the phone) select to upload images and select the images I've just taken, and the images will upload fine.

You just can't airdrop them to your mac and upload from there. Hopefully there will be an update soon from apple that will sort the Air drop.

That’s strange. It may be a bug or Mojave won’t import jpeg anymore if the photo was captured in heif but setting it to most compatible should resolve it going forward. New photos will take up more space but not so much that’s it a big deal.

Definitely just started for me too. I'm taking the same approach and turning off HEIC for future pix. Annoying because Airdrop def used to be jpg format....

Sorry if this came up already, but you can export all the pix on your phone to Photos on your computer, then export the whole lot as jpg -- you don't have to do it one by one in Preview or go thru any big hoops. But still annoying and a bad change.

Also annoyed by how screenshots now linger in the corner and take a minute to show up on the desktop. I haven't found this to be useful a single time... Hoping there's a way to turn this off too! (I like the concept but just not helpful for what I generally need to do, which is open in Photoshop and crop / covert.)

that was my point in the previous message. Your older photos will still transfer as HEIC. Only photos taken AFTER you have changed the setting to ignore HEIC will transfer as jpg's