Convert HEIC to JPG

What HEIC actually is

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. It wraps images compressed with HEVC — the same codec used for 4K video — and it has been the iPhone default since iOS 11 in 2017.

The reason Apple switched is straightforward: a HEIC file is roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG at comparable quality. On a phone holding thousands of photos that is a serious saving, and it is genuinely a better format than JPG on the technical merits — it also supports 16-bit colour where JPG is limited to 8-bit.

It is also more than a single picture. One HEIC file can hold a Live Photo's short video, a depth map from Portrait mode, an entire burst sequence, and edit history that lets you revert changes. JPG holds one flat image and nothing else.

Why Windows will not open it

HEVC is patent-encumbered, and the licensing costs money. Microsoft ships Windows without HEIC support by default rather than pay per-device licensing, which is why double-clicking an iPhone photo on Windows often produces nothing useful.

You have three ways out:

• Convert to JPG. Works everywhere, forever, no installation. Best when you are sending files to other people or uploading to a form.
• Install Microsoft's HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store. This makes Windows open HEIC natively. Useful if you handle iPhone photos constantly, though the video extension component has historically been a paid add-on.
• Stop it at the source. On the iPhone, Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible makes the camera capture JPG instead. Photos already taken stay HEIC, but new ones will not have the problem.

That last option costs you roughly double the storage per photo. Whether that trade is worth it depends on how often you move photos to non-Apple devices.

What you lose when you convert

This is worth knowing before you convert an album you care about, because most guides do not mention it.

• Live Photo motion disappears. The short video clip is not representable in JPG. You get the still frame only.
• Depth data is gone. Portrait mode photos keep the blurred look as baked-in pixels, but you can no longer adjust or remove the blur afterwards.
• Burst sequences flatten to whichever frame was selected.
• Edit history is lost. HEIC can store the original alongside your edits so you can revert; JPG cannot.
• Colour depth drops from 16-bit to 8-bit. Invisible in normal viewing, occasionally relevant if you plan heavy editing.

For the ordinary case — sending a photo to someone, uploading to a form, printing — none of this matters. Keep the HEIC originals on your phone and convert copies, and you lose nothing.

The part nobody mentions: your location travels with it

iPhone photos embed EXIF metadata, and that routinely includes GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken, plus the exact date and time and the device model. Converting to JPG typically carries that metadata across.

If you are sending a photo of something for sale, posting to a forum, or emailing a picture taken at home, you may be sharing your home address to within a few metres without realising it. Social platforms usually strip EXIF on upload; direct file transfers, email attachments and many forums do not.

You can check what a photo carries by right-clicking it in Windows and opening Properties → Details. If you want it gone, that same dialog has a "Remove Properties and Personal Information" option, or you can disable location capture entirely at Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera on the iPhone.

Worth noting for the same reason: converting here happens in your browser, so the photo — and its location data — is never transmitted to a server. There is more on how to verify that for any tool in are online image tools safe.

Choosing quality when you convert

HEIC is efficient, so a converted JPG will usually be larger than the original even at the same visual quality. That surprises people who expect converting to shrink the file.

Around 85% quality is the sweet spot for photographs — visually indistinguishable from the source at normal viewing sizes, with a sensible file size. Going higher mostly adds bytes; going below about 70% starts showing artefacts in smooth areas like skies.

If the result is still too large for an upload limit, resize before compressing further — reducing dimensions is far kinder to image quality than crushing the compression. Our guide to photos too large to upload covers the order to do this in.

What happens when you just send the photo

Before converting anything, it is worth knowing that some paths convert for you and some do not — which explains why HEIC seems to be a problem only sometimes.

• WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram: convert to JPG automatically and compress heavily. The recipient never sees HEIC, but the image arrives noticeably degraded.
• iMessage to another iPhone: stays HEIC. Fine, until that person forwards it to someone on Windows.
• Email from an iPhone: usually converts to JPG, though this depends on the mail app and whether you choose to resize.
• AirDrop to a Mac: stays HEIC.
• Cable transfer to a PC: depends on the Transfer to Mac or PC setting — Automatic converts, Keep Originals does not.
• Upload forms: frequently reject HEIC outright, which is where most people first hit this.

So if you want quality, avoid the messaging apps and transfer the original, then convert deliberately at a quality you choose. If you just want it to work, the messaging apps have already solved it for you.

Android and everyone else

HEIC is often described as an Apple format, which is not quite right. It is an open standard, and Android has supported HEIF capture since Android 10 on many devices — Samsung in particular offers it as a storage-saving option.

Support elsewhere remains patchy. Most modern browsers still do not display HEIC natively. Many older desktop applications, print services and upload forms do not accept it. That is the practical reason JPG remains the safe choice for anything you send to another person or system: it is the format that has worked everywhere for thirty years and will keep working.

The pattern worth adopting is simple — keep HEIC for storage, send JPG. You get the space saving on your own device and none of the compatibility problems for anyone else.

Converting a whole album

Doing this one file at a time gets old immediately. If you have a folder of holiday photos, bulk mode converts them all with the same settings and returns a single ZIP.

One practical note when transferring from an iPhone: if you AirDrop or use Automatic transfer settings, iOS sometimes converts to JPG for you during the transfer. Setting Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Keep Originals gives you the true HEIC files, which is what you want if you are archiving.