Fact or Myth: JPEG deteriorates over time

JPEG files do not deteriorate over time. This is a myth. If you open and close a JPEG file a million times, this does not degrade the image at all. So do not worry - your precious JPEG files are just fine and not deteriorating quietly in the background. However, every time you edit and save a JPEG, you will lose some image quality, though, and this is irreversible. So take photos in RAW if you can, and save in JPEG, and the problems all go away.