.JFIF images cannot be opened with Preview or Photos? (How-to Fix)

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stealth

The other day I received an archive with some files that should have been JPEG images. The surprise was when I found some in the archive instead of pictures files in .JFIF format which I couldn't open them nor with the application Preview nor Photos, although on most sites tutorials these two native applications of MacOS are indicated to be safe for opening .JFIF images.

What is a JFIF file?

JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) is an image compression format, similar to the JPG / JPEG format. It was designed to bring an improved alternative, with more header details, a wider range of colors and better compression than JPEG.
However, JFIF had a rather short life, the development in time of the JPG format making its use useless. However, there are digital cameras that still capture JFIF images. An advantage of JFIF is that it keeps information about the resolution and aspect ratio of an image. As far as I know, there are also mobile phones whose cameras save in JFIF format.

How do we open a JFIF file on Mac?

As I said above, a JFIF file should be open with its Previwe applications Photos. In my case the received files could not be opened, and after many searches for tutorials I did not find anything to help me.

I don't know if the files are corrupt or if this format can no longer be opened with the native applications on macOS Big Sur, but I found one rudimentary but efficient method through which I managed to open the .JFIF files. Rename the .JFIF extension to .JPG.

Right click on file, “Rename”(Or select the file and then press Enter)

We change the file extension from .jfif to .jpg, then in the dialog we choose to save it with the new extension, "Use .JPG".

After we choose to be saved with the new extension we already start to see the effect of the change. The icons contained in the file appear and can be opened without problems in the Preview application.

In the scenario where you have several pictures and want to change their extensions at all, the above method could take a long time. An alternative is changing file extensions via the command line in the Terminal.

How to change the extensions of several files via the command line in the Terminal

1. We open the Terminal. We usually find it in "Launchpad" → "Utilities".

2. In the terminal we execute the command line "cd" to navigate to the folder where the files whose extension we want to change.

 cd /path/folder_of_files

3. Run the command line to change all .jfif extensions to .jpg.

for file in *.jfif; do mv "$file" "${file%.jfif}.jpg"; done

After executing the command line, all file extensions will be changed.

The command line is also useful in other scenarios where you have to rename extensions for multiple files. However, if you are working with important documents, it is advisable to make a backup copy of them before executing the command line.

I am happy to share my experiences in the field of computers, mobile phones and operating systems, to develop web projects and to bring the most useful tutorials and advice. I like to "play" on the iPhone, MacBook Pro, iPad, AirPort Extreme and on operating systems macOS, iOS, Android and Windows.

2 thoughts on “.JFIF images cannot be opened with Preview or Photos? (How-to Fix)"

  1. Cara que alternativa mais simples e eficaz, baixei várias apps para ler o formato .JFIF e nenhum teve essa construzione. Obrigado pela ajuda

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