When you shoot a picture using the camera on your smartphone, it will be saved to your device in the default file format, JPEG, PNG, TIFF or else. We found many Android phones and tablets saved photos as PNG files. The latest iPhone models, such as iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, save pictures as HEIC format. And normally we do not have the option to change the default photo file format on our mobile phones. So far, we find only the latest iPhone models are exceptional. This is because HEIC/HEIF is a very new image format introduced in iOS 11. Currently we only find it on latest iOS devices and Mac machines. Most likely you do not want to change it back to the traditional JPEG format for your iPhone photos, as Apple claims its new photos format can greatly save storage space. At the current stage, HEIC images save space, but they sacrifice cross-platform compatibility.
Even iPhone has the option to convert HEIC to JPG when you copy them over from iPhone to PC or Mac via USB. On your iPhone 8 or later, go to Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC. Here you can see two options: Automatic and Keep Originals. Select Automatic to select JPG format when transferring to Mac or PC computer. After that go to connect your iPhone to your computer via USB, copy and paste the iPhone photos to computer via USB. In this way, you can export iPhone HEIC images as JPG format onto your computer.
On an iPhone, you can convert image files from one format to another using various methods, including built-in features and third-party apps. In this article, we’d like to share with you a couple of options to convert iPhone photos, or downloaded pictures and image files to another file format, like JPEG, PNG or TIFF, with or without third-party image editors on iPhone iPad. By doing so, you save photos on iPhone in the optimized file format for much smaller file size and better image quality overall, and convert the photo to the another format if needed.
Method 1. Convert image formats in Files app
With the introduction of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 updates, Apple is enhancing the Files app on iPhone and iPad by incorporating new functionalities. These updates include the much-awaited capability to convert images directly within the Files app, along with several other features.
Open the Files app on your iPhone. Navigate to the folder where the image is located. Find the image file and tap on it to select it. Tap on the file name at the top to expand the drop-down menu. You will find the Export option at the lower section of this menu. Select it, then the File Format dialog appears where you can choose a format including JPEG, PNG and HEIF. Select the file format you need, and select a folder to save the file.
Method 2. Convert image formats using the Quick Actions
If you own a Mac as well, you may already know the useful tools in the Quick Actions in Finder. In Finder, you can right-click on a file to open the contextual menu and access the Quick Actions to find various useful tools.
The Files app in iOS also offer similar tools and functions in the Quick Actions menu. Open the Files app, browse to the directory where the photo or image is stored. Press and hold on the image file until you get the pop-up menu. Choose Quick Actions > Convert Image, then select the image size: Small, Medium, Large or Original. Finally select a directory to save the new image file.
Method 3. Convert image file format using CropSize
Get the CropSize: Precise Photo Resize app from the App Store onto your iPhone or iPad. When you open the image editor app, you can see it opens your Camera Roll so you can quickly select and add photos to the app. Once a photo loaded into the app, you can see a toolbar at the bottom of the screen. From this toolbar, you can find various tools to edit the source photo, such as resizing iPhone photos, add special effects to your picture, cropping photos to any size on iPhone, etc. You can skip the editing for now if you only need to change the file format of an image on iPhone. Select Export from the bottom toolbar.
The Export settings dialog pops up. By default the image format is set to Auto in the editor. You can tap the Format to expand the pop-up menu and find options including Auto, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, HEIC. Below the image file format, you have the option to change image quality. The final size of the file is determined by the quality of the image, with a higher quality leading to a larger file size.
If you like to convert photo to jpeg format on iPhone, choose JPEG, then touch Share button to view all available options you can share the new JPEG picture in the next step. You will be able to send the picture via email, WhatsApp, add to the Notes app, save to Files app, copy to iBooks, etc. Choose Save Image to save the picture as a new one in a different file format to your Camera Roll or the Photos app on iPhone or iPad. It is straightforward and fast. If you are searching for a way or app to convert image to jpeg, png, or tiff on iPhone or iPad, convert heic to jpg, this is undoubtedly your best choice.