How to Convert HEIC to JPG — Open iPhone Photos on Any Device

You take a photo on your iPhone. You email it to a colleague. They reply: "I can't open this file. What's a .heic?"

This scenario plays out thousands of times every day. Since 2017, iPhones have saved photos in HEIC format (High Efficiency Image Container) by default. It's a great format — smaller files than JPEG at the same quality, which saves storage space on your phone. But it creates a compatibility headache whenever you share photos with non-Apple devices.

Windows PCs can open HEIC files with a free codec extension, but many users don't have it installed. Android devices have mixed support. Older software and web applications often reject HEIC entirely. And if you're uploading photos to a website, printing service, or business application, JPEG is still the universal standard.

Here's how to handle the conversion — and how to prevent the problem entirely.

What Is HEIC?

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. It's based on the HEVC (H.265) video codec, applied to still images. The key advantages:

The problem is purely compatibility. HEIC was developed by the MPEG group and requires licensing, which is why adoption outside the Apple ecosystem has been slow.

Method 1: Convert Online (Fastest)

For individual photos or small batches:

The conversion is lossless from the HEIC source — you get the full quality of the original photo in universally compatible JPEG format.

Method 2: Change iPhone Settings (Prevent the Problem)

You can tell your iPhone to save photos as JPEG instead of HEIC:

This saves all future photos as JPEG. The trade-off: photos will take up roughly twice as much storage space on your phone. If storage isn't a concern, this is the simplest long-term solution.

Method 3: Automatic Conversion When Transferring

Apple thought about this problem and built a partial solution:

With this setting, your iPhone automatically converts HEIC to JPEG when you transfer photos via USB cable or AirDrop to a non-Apple device. However, this doesn't help with email attachments, cloud sharing, or messaging apps.

Method 4: Windows Built-in Support

Windows 10 and 11 can open HEIC files with a free extension:

This doesn't convert the files — it just lets Windows display them. If you need JPEG for upload or sharing, you'll still need to convert.

Method 5: macOS Preview

On a Mac, conversion is built in:

For batch conversion on Mac: select multiple HEIC files in Finder, right-click, Quick Actions → Convert Image → JPEG.

Quality Considerations

When converting HEIC to JPEG, you're going from a more efficient format to a less efficient one. Here's what to expect:

File size increase: JPEG files will be roughly 1.5–2x larger than the HEIC originals. A 3MB HEIC photo becomes a 5–6MB JPEG.

Quality: At JPEG quality 90–100%, the conversion is visually lossless. You won't see any difference. Below 80%, you'll start noticing compression artifacts, especially in areas with smooth gradients (sky, skin tones).

Metadata preserved: EXIF data (date, camera settings, GPS location) transfers from HEIC to JPEG. If you want to strip this data for privacy, that's a separate step.

HEIC vs JPEG: Should You Even Convert?

Consider whether conversion is actually necessary:

Convert when:

Keep as HEIC when:

Batch Converting Large Photo Libraries

If you have thousands of HEIC photos to convert:

For very large collections (10,000+ photos), a desktop tool is more practical than an online converter due to upload time.

The Bottom Line

HEIC is a superior image format held back by compatibility. Until the rest of the world catches up to Apple's adoption, JPEG remains the universal standard for sharing photos. Converting takes seconds with the right tool, and changing your iPhone settings can prevent the problem entirely for future photos.