How and Why Would I Change the File Type for My Photos?

Why it’s important to learn the ABCs of JPEGs and HEIFs

Edward C. Baig,

AARP

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Published April 28, 2026

a person taking a picture on a smartphone next to floating heic and jpeg icons

AARP (Getty Images)

Key takeaways

High Efficiency Image Format, or HEIF, files save space and preserve quality, but they don’t always open easily on some PCs, apps or older devices.
iPhone users can change their camera settings to capture JPEGs, or convert photos when sharing them from the Photos app.
Some Android phones let you choose HEIF instead of JPEG, but settings and options vary by model.

AARP members and readers are invited to  submit  pressing technology questions  they’d  like me to tackle in my Tech Guru column, including issues around devices, security, social media and how all the puzzle pieces fit together. This week’s question addresses some of the confusion around displaying the pictures you take with your phone on other devices.

How do I change HEIC/HEIF photos to a JPG format? I want to view the pictures on my computer. —Catherine W.

It’s often said that the best camera is the one you always have with you, and for most of us, that’s the phone in our pockets.

If that phone is an iPhone, but sometimes an Android, too, you’re likely saving pictures with the HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) file extension. That’s the default on Apple’s handsets anyway, meaning that it, rather than the more traditional Joint Photographic Experts Group format, which many of us know way better as JPGs or JPEGs, is the applied standard.

Save space, maintain quality

I wouldn’t normally make readers geek out on standard media formats, and I won’t be offended if some people gloss over this stuff. But it gets at the question you asked, Catherine, and explains Apple’s reasoning for why it may matter to the rest of us.

Apple began supporting the HEIF file type, as well as HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container), which you can think of as a digital wrapper or envelope for these files, when iOS 11 debuted in 2017. The image quality on these is generally stellar and superior to JPEGs, and the files themselves are compressed, thus reducing their size and providing more storage space than JPEGs. Indeed, HEIC files take up roughly half the space.

This HEIC container can hold multiple images in a single file, preserving data about each image. Thus, if you make edits that you’re ultimately unhappy with, you can revert to the original.

All that sounds good, but there’s an important downside: compatibility. Not every app, browser and website plays nice with HEIF/HEIC, while JPEGs are universally accepted.

Ask the Tech Guru

You can obviously open HEIF/HEIC picture files on other iPhones, not to mention Apple’s own Macs and iPads. And the files are becoming more common outside Apple’s ecosystem; support for HEIF/HEIC on Android dates to the launch of Android 10 in 2019. Google Photos also supports the format.

In fact, many Android smartphones these days also let you capture pictures in the format, though not necessarily as the default.                  

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Still, you can’t always open HEIC/HEIF files on every Windows PC or older Android phones, at least without dedicated software or online tools to convert them to JPEG or other formats.

On Windows PCs, search the Microsoft Store for an HEIC-to-JPEG converter; some are free, others modestly priced.

Changing the default camera mode on iPhone

If you have an iPhone and want to shoot JPEGs instead of HEIFs, go to Settings | Camera | Formats. Under Camera Capture, notice the check mark next to High Efficiency, which indicates that’s the current default. Tap Most Compatible to move the check mark there and switch to JPEG.

You have more options once a photo has been snapped. Open the Photos app, choose a picture and tap the Share icon, which resembles an up-facing arrow at the top of a rectangle. Tap Options and under Format, tap Automatic. This automatically selects the format best suited to the destination where you are sharing the image, which might be JPEG or another format such as PNG (Portable Network Graphic). If you choose Current instead, the iPhone will keep the format as is. And if you choose Most Compatible, the image will also likely be converted to a JPEG or a PNG.

I’ll quickly mention that while the focus here is on choosing picture formats, tapping Most Compatible in Camera Settings on iPhone also lets you shoot videos in a more widely accepted format. However, High Efficiency is required for certain shooting modes, including the so-called Cinematic video mode on high-end models.

Changing photo options on Android

If you have an Android phone, including some Samsung Galaxy models, you may want to do the opposite: Choose HEIF over the default JPEG.

On a Galaxy S24 Ultra like the one I used for testing, launch the Camera app and tap the circled four dots | gear icon for Settings | Advanced picture options | High Efficiency Pictures.

You can toggle that switch to change formats or revert to the default.

But keep in mind that all Android phones, and the options available on them, differ.

Pro modes

Let me give a brief nod to shooters with a more technical background and point out that some premium Androids and iPhones can capture RAW images.

Professional photographers often work with and edit RAW files because they are, well, raw or unprocessed, and provide greater detail and editing flexibility. Just be aware that the files are uncompressed and thus relatively enormous.

For most readers of this column, I doubt you’d go back and forth among formats very often, though you could if you wanted to. The good news is once you’ve aced the ABCs of photo formats, you can concentrate on the main mission here: taking the very best pictures.

Bonus tip: Ask Google if a product is in stock

A buzz term in the tech world these days is “agentic AI,” an artificial intelligence agent that can perform tasks on your behalf. And one of these new tasks from Google is an agent that can call local shops to check whether a product you want to buy, or perhaps need in a hurry, is in stock.

It works this way: When you search for certain products “near me” in Google, you may see an option to Let Google Call. Tap get started, and Google will prompt you for more details about the item you have in mind before dialing merchants to see if they have it. The automated voice that is calling stores will ask about prices and any special promotions.

You’ll receive an email or text from Google with the results of the search, including the skinny on inventories at other nearby stores.

If there’s a match, you’ll still have to buy it yourself, since the agent, at least at this stage, cannot complete the purchase on your behalf.

At the outset, these new AI-assisted searches are in the U.S. only, with product categories such as health and beauty, toys and electronics.

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The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

Edward C. Baig covers technology and other consumer topics. He previously worked for USA Today, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report and Fortune. He is the author of Macs for Dummies and coauthor of iPhone for Dummies and iPad for Dummies. Follow him on LinkedIn, Threads and X (formerly known as Twitter).                   