The Complete Guide to iPhone Photo Formats
Everything about HEIC, JPG, and getting your photos to open everywhere — updated for iOS 20.
What your iPhone actually shoots
Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. It’s an excellent format — files are about half the size of JPG at the same quality.
The catch is compatibility: plenty of software outside the Apple ecosystem still can’t open it.
HEIC vs JPG
Think of HEIC as the better format and JPG as the universal one. You’ll usually want to shoot in HEIC and convert to JPG only when something refuses to open it.
Quality-wise, a single HEIC-to-JPG conversion at 85% or higher is visually lossless for photographs.
When compatibility matters
Government portals, print shops, older CMSs and Windows tools are the usual suspects. If a form rejects your photo, format is the first thing to check.
Converting without losing quality
Convert once, from the original, at 85–92% quality. Avoid converting a converted file — each lossy pass compounds.
Metadata and privacy
Photos carry EXIF data — timestamps, GPS coordinates, device details. Keep it for your archive; strip it before posting publicly.
Recommended settings
Shoot HEIC, share JPG at 85%, keep metadata for yourself and strip it for the internet. That covers 99% of situations.