How to convert HEIC to JPG (and stop your iPhone from making them)

What is a HEIC file and why does nothing open it?

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. It is the format an iPhone has used for photos by default since iOS 11 in 2017. The picture inside is compressed with HEVC, the same technology that shrinks 4K video, so a HEIC photo takes about half the space of the same photo as a JPG. It also stores extras a JPG cannot: 16-bit color, depth data for Portrait mode, and the video clip behind a Live Photo.

The downside is that HEVC is patented, and every maker of software that opens it has to pay for a license. Apple pays for all of its devices, so HEIC works everywhere in the Apple world. Windows does not include the decoder by default, and many websites, upload forms, printing kiosks and work systems only accept JPG and PNG, which are free to implement and have been standard for decades.

So the typical failure looks like this: you copy photos from your iPhone to a PC and Windows shows a blank icon, or a job portal says the file type is not supported. Nothing is wrong with the photo. It is simply in a container most of the world outside Apple does not read.

Stop the problem at the source: make your iPhone shoot JPEG

If you regularly send photos to Windows PCs, websites or non-Apple phones, the simplest fix is to tell the camera to save JPEG from now on. You trade a little storage space for files that open everywhere. Photos already on the phone stay HEIC, so the conversion steps below still apply to those.

1. Open Settings on the iPhone and tap Camera.
2. Tap Formats.
3. Under Camera Capture, choose Most Compatible. High Efficiency is the HEIC setting.
4. Take a photo. New pictures are now saved as JPEG, and video switches to the more compatible H.264 as well.

Keep HEIC on the phone but transfer as JPEG

A second setting that most people miss leaves the camera on the space-saving HEIC format but converts photos to JPEG whenever you copy them to a computer over a cable. Small files on the phone, compatible files on the PC.

This only applies to cable transfers through Windows Explorer, the Windows Photos import, or Image Capture on a Mac. iCloud Photos, AirDrop and Google Photos still move the original HEIC. Mail and Messages usually convert to JPEG on their own when you attach a photo.

1. Open Settings and tap Photos.
2. Scroll down to Transfer to Mac or PC.
3. Choose Automatic. The Keep Originals option sends HEIC unchanged.
4. Plug the phone into the computer and import as usual. The files arrive as .jpg.

How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac

Every Mac since macOS High Sierra opens HEIC natively, so you have three built-in ways to convert. The Finder route is the fastest for a batch, Preview gives you a quality slider, and the Photos app is the right choice if the pictures live in your library.

In the Finder, select one or many HEIC files, right-click, and choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image. Pick JPEG, choose a size (Actual Size keeps the full resolution) and decide whether to keep the metadata. This Quick Action exists on macOS Monterey and later.

In Preview, open the HEIC, choose File, then Export. Set Format to JPEG, move the Quality slider (80 percent or more looks identical on screen) and click Save. For several at once, open them all in one Preview window, select every thumbnail in the sidebar and use File, then Export Selected Images.

In the Photos app, select the pictures, choose File, Export, then Export Photos. Set Photo Kind to JPEG and the JPEG Quality to High or Maximum. Avoid Export Unmodified Original, which gives you the HEIC file back.

How to convert HEIC to JPG on Windows

Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC once the free HEIF Image Extensions package from the Microsoft Store is installed. Some PCs also need the HEVC Video Extensions codec, which Microsoft sometimes charges about a dollar for, though many PC makers include a free version. Double-click a HEIC file and Windows will offer to fetch what it needs. After that, thumbnails show up in Explorer and both routes below work.

With the Photos app, open the HEIC, click the three dots in the top bar, and choose Save as. Set the file type to JPG and save. On some versions the option is under Edit, then Save as copy. The original stays untouched.

Paint works too. Open Paint, drag the HEIC in, then choose File, Save as, and JPEG picture. Paint has no quality slider, so for a photo you care about the Photos app or an online converter gives more control.

If the extensions will not install, for example on a locked-down work PC, share the photo from the iPhone to Mail and send it to yourself, which turns it into a JPEG, or use the online route below, which does the work on a server rather than on your PC.

How to convert HEIC to JPG online in batches

When you have a vacation folder with 300 photos, saving them one at a time is not realistic, and Windows has no built-in batch option. An online converter handles that in one go and works the same on a PC, a Mac, a Chromebook or the phone itself.

HEIC to JPG on DocGopher is free, needs no sign-up and adds no watermark. Drop up to 50 photos per batch, up to 300 MB in total, convert, and download the JPGs. Files are processed in memory and deleted after 30 minutes. If you need a lossless copy instead, HEIC to PNG does that, and the general image converter also handles WEBP, TIFF, BMP and GIF.

With any online converter, each photo has to upload, so a few hundred large files take a while on a slow connection.

1. Open the HEIC to JPG page in any browser, on your computer or on the iPhone itself.
2. Select the HEIC files, or drag them from a folder onto the page. On the iPhone, pick straight from the camera roll.
3. Click convert and wait for the batch to finish.
4. Download the JPGs. Several files come down as a single ZIP, so unzip it before you attach or upload them.

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

A little, in theory. HEIC and JPG are both lossy formats, so each conversion re-encodes the pixels. At a JPG quality of 85 percent or higher that loss is invisible on a screen and in a normal print. What you will notice is file size: the JPG will be roughly twice the size of the HEIC, because JPG is a less efficient format. That is normal.

What you do lose outright are the HEIC-only features. The video part of a Live Photo is dropped and only the still frame survives. Portrait mode depth data goes, so you can no longer change the blur afterwards. HDR and wide color are flattened to standard 8-bit color, so a bright sunset can look slightly duller than it did on the iPhone screen. Keep the HEIC originals if any of that matters to you.

Metadata usually survives. Preview, Photos, the Finder Quick Action and most converters keep the EXIF block, which holds the date taken, the camera model and, if location was on, the GPS coordinates of where you stood. Before you post a converted photo publicly, consider stripping that block with a tool such as Remove EXIF. If the date and location matter, for example for an insurance claim, check that your converter kept them.

How to turn HEIC photos into a PDF

Sometimes the real goal is not a JPG at all. A landlord wants your signed lease as a PDF, or you want ten photos of a damaged car in one file. You can skip the JPG step.

On a Mac, select the HEIC files in the Finder, right-click, choose Quick Actions, then Create PDF. On an iPhone, select the photos, tap Share, then Print, and pinch out on the preview to get a PDF you can save or share. On Windows, once the HEIF extension is installed, open the photos in the Photos app and print them to Microsoft Print to PDF.

Online, HEIC to PDF takes a batch of iPhone photos and lays each one on its own page in a single PDF. It accepts HEIC directly, so there is no conversion to JPG first and no second round of quality loss.