Why iPhone photos sometimes don't open in email
iPhones save photos in HEIC format by default. The Mail app on iPhone usually transcodes HEIC to JPG when you attach a photo, but third-party email clients, the Files app, and certain workflows (cloud upload, then email link) preserve the original .heic. If your recipient is on Windows, Android, or older Mac software, they get a generic "unsupported format" error.
Option 1 — Convert to JPG before emailing (recommended)
The most reliable approach is to convert your photos to JPG yourself. Open Converter.Plus in Safari on your iPhone, tap the drop zone, select your photos from the camera roll, choose JPG output, and download the converted files. They land in your Files app where you can attach them to any email. This works for any recipient on any platform — JPG is universally supported.
Option 2 — Use the Mail app with auto-conversion
Apple's built-in Mail app converts HEIC to JPG automatically when you compose a new message and attach photos. The downside is the conversion uses Apple's quality preset, which is fine for casual sharing but produces larger files than necessary. For batches of photos, prefer the Converter.Plus approach above so you can compress them at the same time.
Option 3 — Switch your camera to "Most Compatible"
Settings → Camera → Formats → "Most Compatible" tells iOS to capture JPG instead of HEIC for every new photo. This avoids the conversion step entirely but doubles the storage cost of every photo. Reserve this for accounts where you frequently email photos to non-Apple users.
Bonus — strip GPS and metadata before sending
Every iPhone photo embeds the GPS coordinates of where you took it. If you're emailing photos to anyone outside your immediate trust circle, run them through Converter.Plus's EXIF Cleaner first to remove location data, timestamps, and device serial numbers — without changing how the photo looks.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the Mail app sometimes still send HEIC?
If you forward an existing email with attached HEIC files, or if you attach files via the Files app, Mail preserves the original format. Composing a new email and using the photo picker is what triggers the auto-conversion to JPG.
How big can email attachments be?
Most providers cap attachments at 25 MB total. Use Converter.Plus's image optimizer to compress photos to WebP or JPG at 80% quality before attaching — typical iPhone photos shrink to 200–400 KB each, so you can email 50+ photos in one message.