neha_chhibber NE

What is an HEIC file and why are my photos saved that way?

Emailed some iPhone photos to my dad and his Windows PC can't open them, they're all HEIC. What is that format, and can I make my iPhone save normal JPGs instead?
heic file
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irabyte Oct 21, 2026
neha_chhibber
It's Apple's default photo format. Same quality as JPEG at roughly half the file size, that's the whole reason. If it annoys you, Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible makes the camera shoot JPEG from then on (existing photos stay HEIC). On Windows you can open them by installing the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store.
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