How To Disable High Efficiency Image Format in iOS 11

Who doesn’t like capturing special moments? But have you ever wondered how much space these images occupy on your phone? For those not aware, a high definition image can easily occupy a size ranging from 1 – 4 MB. Well that’s too much for a phone with just 16GB or 32GB odd space, isn’t it?

Well thankfully, with the new iOS 11 Apple has come up with a new feature that will not let images eat up the storage space. With iOS 11, a new image format is introduced and is called High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF). The intent of introducing this new format is that it saves a lot of space by compressing the images being shot from your iPhone.

Where one side this format sounds pretty useful at the first point, it has a major drawback accompanied i.e compatibility. Till date the images that are clicked using iPhone gets saved in .jpg format. However, with iOS 11, there will be a new image format and i.e..heic.jpg.

Now with the new image extension, the major problem that arises while trying to share pictures with others using different apps is a compatibility issue.

High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF)?

A new compression technique that Apple uses in its newly introduced iOS 11. HEIF compresses the shots taken on iOS, thereby saving the storage space. A normal image with a size of 6 MB can easily be reduced to 3 -4 MB when compressed using HEIF. Another best thing apart from the size reduction is that the quality of picture is not compromised. Well these may be the two reasons Apple came up with this new technique in iOS 11.

How To Disable High Efficiency In iOS 11

Note: The steps below are tested on iPhone 6s and an iPhone 7 Plus running the latest iOS 11.

1. Navigate to Settings on your iPhone. From the Settings windows scroll down and locate Camera, click on it. From Camera, look for Formats and click on it.
2. Under ‘Formats’, click on Most Compatible present under CAMERA CAPTURE. Also, select Automatic under Transfer to Mac or PC.

Well it’s that easy, you can now have all your images saved in .jpeg format instead of.heic.jpg.

being able to choose the image format certainly provides more control to users and enhances flexibility. Thanks to Apple,users have the power to decide in what format they want their pictures to be. If your priority is to save space then you can go for HEIF format. However, .jpeg format is the best when it comes to compatibility and ease of sharing.