Another reason is that Google Photos for i. OS devices opens support to HEIC format to make Apple users more convenient to back up their images to Google cloud. Or, Google Photos may lose much user basis and exit the Apple application market. The HEIC photos are already high-quality compressed photos, smaller than Google’s JPEG format.
It is obvious why Google added support for the format because it wanted for Apple users to be able to store your photos on the photo storage service. While HEIC photos work just fine and you can easily view them in Google Photos, problems arise when you want to download your photos.
Download HEIC photos in JPG format When you use the download button in Google Photos to download an image, it always downloads in the original format (i. e. HEIC in your case). However, your browser’s built-in “Save image as” feature can still download the image in JPG format even if it’s stored in HEIC format.
Why are iPhone photos in HEIC format?
HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image File, Apple’s new image container format that compresses photos in order to save space. HEIC image files are available on i. Phone 7 and later models running i. OS 11 or later operating systems. Under most circumstances, you won’t even notice the file format of your photos,.
, your i Phone converts photos to a format compatible with your computer. If you use a Mac running mac. OS High Sierra or later, those photos remain in HEIC format because High Sierra can read it. That doesn’t mean all your Mac apps work with that format as well though.
Why does my iPhone save my photos as HEIC?
This is usually because Apple saves i. Phone photos as HEIC format to save space, but that format isn’t widely supported by other devices. Don’t worry, it’s easy to avoid the HEIC format when transferring photos from your i, and phone.
One source stated if you never plan to use images in HEIC format, you can tell your i. Phone to capture photos as JPEG files instead. This doesn’t convert existing photos on your i. Phone but it affects new pictures you take instead. The downside to changing the photo format is that JPEG images take up far more storage.
How to enlarge a HEIC image in Google Photos?
Here is how to do that: Open the HEIC image preview in Google Photos and press and hold the Ctrl key while pressing the + key. The previewed image will then become larger.
How to download HEIC images to JPG?
If you have many HEIC images to download in JPG format, then you can also bulk download them in HEIC format and convert them to JPG later. All you need to do is select the required photos in Google Photos and select “Download” from the top-right menu.
When you download and view the image on your computer, one thing is clearly noticeable. Your downloaded image is not of the same resolution as your original HEIC file. This is because your browser has only saved the preview copy of the image on your computer.
Why are my photos on Google Photos so low quality?
Google Photos may start converting HEIC photos to the less-efficient High Quality JPEG format during upload, which would result in an additional reduction in quality. Alternatively, Google could allow the pictures to be uploaded as-is but start counting them toward Google Drive usage.