How to AirDrop photos as JPG, not HEIC, files.

It’s fast and easy to share photos when you AirDrop from your phone. But not all phones can use the default HEIC format. Learn how to convert photos to JPG files instead.

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Coding and is a proprietary image file format. Some phones can’t accept pictures of that type. Images stored in this format take less room on your phone and display as a high-quality image, but they’re not as universal as JPG images so it’s handy to know how to AirDrop them as JPGs when you need to.

Two ways to AirDrop photos as a JPG file.

There are two easy methods for how to AirDrop photos as JPG, not HEIC, files. We’ll explain both ways.

If you don’t want to save photos on your phone using the more efficient HEIC format, you can change the default setting. If you choose this method, all your photos will be saved as JPG files and can be shared easily. But remember, they will take up more storage space on your phone.

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap the Camera settings, then tap Formats.
  3. In the Camera Capture section, you can choose the Most Compatible option.
  4. Now all your photos will save as JPGs.

If you want to save only a certain photo as a JPG so you can AirDrop it, use these steps to make a JPG copy of the file.

  1. Start the Camera app and find the image you want to AirDrop.
  2. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Choose Copy.
  4. Open the File app and select or create a folder.
  5. Tap and hold in the folder, then select Paste. You have saved the photo as a JPG.
  6. Tap the pasted image, choose the share icon, and AirDrop it.

You can also save your image to a PDF file. Converting to the PDF format makes it easy to share with anyone. You can work with PDFs using Adobe Acrobat online tools or with other software on your computer.

Explore other ways you can use Acrobat to share photos and documents.