Samsung Galaxy S25 - Images saved in HEIF with HEIF setting turned off

[pcbmechanic]

Hi all, I've got a Samsung Galaxy S25 and I noticed the format id saved pictures by default was some HEIF mode which no one seems to recognise. I've gone to the advanced setting and turned this made off, reset my phone and still it won't save pictures as normal JPEG.

The Samsung expert couldn't help - Does anyone on here have a clue what's going on?

Thanks 🙂

[Tom6068]

Try this, go to Settings/Apps then scroll down to the camera app and open that. Then go to the "Storage" section and open that. Now clear out both the cache and the data; that will reset the camera to it default settings. Now be sure the HEIF toggle is still off. Now press and hold both the power and the volume down buttons. You then will get to the Power off/restart etc screen. Restart the phone and as soon as the screen turns off, then press and hold both the power and the volume up buttons.

Then you will get the recovery screen. Using the volume controls, move the highlight up or down until it highlights "Wipe cache partition", then press the power button (that makes the choices), then use the volume button to choose yes, then hit the power button again. It should then default to the top selection to "Reboot system now". so hit power button to engage that. That will restart the phone and once restarted, try taking an photo again and see if that helps. 

[pcbmechanic]

Wow that's a lot of steps - thanks for the tip. I'll let you know how I get on. Thank you 🙂

[pcbmechanic]

This has not worked... Thanks for responding though 🙂

[Tom6068]

When you stated you reset the phone in the original post, is that just restarting it, or resetting the device to factory settings?

[pcbmechanic]

I just re-strted it. Not a factory reset

[Tom6068]

Well, there is a possibility resetting the phone completely may have to happen if it is stuck taking photos that remain in that HEIF file type, regardless of settings changes/choices.

Another suggestion I have is try another camera app from the Google or Galaxy stores. Then use the camera app installed and see what file type it is when looking at its details. If it is jpg, then something is more than likely wrong with the factory camera software. Look for those on Google Play that have decent rating (at least 4 and above), or in the Galaxy Store, anything above three stars would be a high rating there.

[LongHiker]

@pcbmechanic Just to be clear, changing this setting would only affect pictures taken after the setting is changed. It would not change the format of pictures taken before the setting was changed. 

[pcbmechanic]

Thank LongHiker, that's what I was expecting. 🙂