Melt guide

Photo too big to upload on Mac? Try this

Upload limits vary wildly — 5 MB, 10 MB, 25 MB. Here's how to fit any photo under any limit on macOS.

4 min read

You hit Upload and the site sighs and says “File too large. Maximum 5 MB.” Or 10 MB. Or 2 MB. Every form has its own opinion, and your iPhone photo is bigger than most of them.

Why this happens

Modern iPhones produce 12-MP and 48-MP photos. The latter, exported to JPEG, frequently ranges from 5 MB to 12 MB per shot. AirDropped, the same photo can land even bigger because it’s transferred uncompressed. Most web forms cap at 5 MB or 10 MB. Some old portals cap at 2 MB.

The size that actually matters is on disk, not what shows in Photos.app. Once you export, you’re working with the disk file.

The native way

Preview is the fastest path for one photo:

  1. Open it in Preview.
  2. Tools → Adjust Size. Drop the longest edge to 2000 or 2400px.
  3. File → Export. Pick JPEG. Drag Quality to 80%.
  4. Save. The dialog shows the file size estimate live.

sips from Terminal handles one file in one line:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 -Z 2000 IMG_1234.heic —out upload.jpg

Bonus: this also converts HEIC to JPEG in the same step, which a lot of older upload forms quietly require.

The faster way

When you have several photos or you’re going to do this regularly, Download Melt. It handles the whole “convert HEIC, resize, compress, strip EXIF” pipeline in one drag.

  1. Download Melt and open it.
  2. Drag the photos in.
  3. Set output to JPEG (broadest compatibility), quality 80.
  4. Enable Resize, longest edge 2000-2400px.
  5. Click Compress. EXIF strips automatically.

How much smaller will it really get?

A typical iPhone photo, original size 8-12 MB:

That comfortably clears every common upload limit, including the strict 2 MB ones.

A note on the source

If you’re uploading from a phone via AirDrop, double-check what Photos sends. By default, AirDrop sends the “most compatible” format (JPEG) — but if the source is HEIC and the receiver is Mac, it may transfer the HEIC original. Run it through Melt to JPEG before uploading.

The real reason photos are too big for upload is almost never the compression — it’s the resolution. A 4032px-wide photo is more than enough for any web form, and most forms will reject it before they even look at quality. Resize first, compress second.

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