Save compressed photos from Safari on iPhone

Compress on iPhone without losing the download in Safari

Updated 6 September 2026

The encoder is the same Canvas pipeline as on a desktop. The part that breaks on iPhone is what iOS does with a blob URL when a site says download.

Why desktop instructions lie on a phone

Safari often opens the blob in a new tab and never puts a copy in Files. People screenshot that preview. The fix is the Share sheet, not a lower quality number. A 48MP burst can reload the tab. Five photos at a time.

What Crush can decode on iPhone

JPEG, PNG, WebP, BMP, first frame of a GIF. HEIC from Camera is a different codec. Convert that still somewhere else, then drop the JPEG here. After you have a JPEG: WhatsApp or email.

Eight steps

1. Open Crush in Safari

Not an in-app messenger browser. Tool: compressor.

2. Pick from Photos or Files

Live Photo gives the still. Burst: pick the frame in Photos first.

3. Cap width before a 48MP burst

1600 or 2048 if the destination is chat, a site, or mail.

4. JPEG 75-85 for photographs

Why: JPEG vs WebP. WebP falls back to JPEG if this Safari cannot write it.

5. Short queue

Five stills, share, then the next five. No server job to resume.

6. If Files stays empty, use Share

Save Image to Photos or Save to Files. Check the new file size so you do not attach the original.

7. Sideways stills

Rotate once in Photos if needed. Do not guess with another Crush pass.

8. Close the tab when done

Bitmaps live in this tab. There is no account and no recovery link.

What looks like a bug and is not

Blank download: Share. Do not lower quality.
Tab reload: memory. Fewer files.
Soft output: chat export. See WhatsApp.
Portal refuses 8 MB: email cap.

Related: Open the compressor · How to · FAQ · Contact.

FAQ

Is there a file-count or daily limit?

We do not meter downloads. The ceiling is this device: decoding many 20-megapixel photos at once can hit Safari or Chrome memory guards, and Crush will refuse a file that looks unsafe rather than freeze the tab. On a phone, compress in batches of a handful instead of dropping a whole camera roll. On a laptop, larger batches and ZIP are fine. If a single file fails, try lowering max dimensions first — a 2048-pixel cap is enough for almost any web use and uses far less RAM than a 48-megapixel original.

Does Crush work on iPhone and iPad?

Yes, as a web app in Safari (and other iOS browsers that use WebKit). Drag-and-drop is awkward on phones, so use the file picker. After compress, if the download does not appear in Files, use the Share sheet Crush offers and save the image to Photos. iOS may apply EXIF orientation when creating the bitmap; Crush draws the upright pixels so you do not get a sideways JPEG. Very large Live Photos are still two assets — Crush compresses the still, not the video clip.

Does Crush keep EXIF, GPS, or color profiles?

Usually no. Canvas encoding produces a fresh file. GPS coordinates, camera serial, and most metadata do not survive toBlob. That is useful if you are posting a photo and do not want a map pin attached — but it also means you should not use Crush as an archival master. Keep the original if you need IPTC captions or a print ICC profile. If your only goal is to strip location, know that Crush does that as a side effect of re-encoding, not as a dedicated redaction tool.

I tapped download on iPhone and nothing landed in Files. Where is the picture?

Safari often ignores a raw blob download. Use Share on the result and Save Image to Photos or Save to Files. Then check the new file’s size so you do not attach the original by mistake. Encode fewer 48MP stills at a time if the tab reloads. Step-by-step: the iPhone guide.