How to Convert HEIF to JPG (and When You Shouldn't Bother)

You take a photo on an iPhone, send it to your laptop, and the file won't open. Or a website upload form rejects it with a vague "unsupported format" message.

The file probably ends in .heic. It is a perfectly good photo, just saved in a format that not every app or service understands yet.

This guide explains what HEIF and HEIC actually are, the quickest ways to convert HEIF to JPG on each platform, and how to stop the problem at the source if you'd rather never see the extension again.

What HEIF and HEIC actually are

HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image File Format. It is a container standard for images, and Apple adopted it as the default photo format with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra in 2017.

HEIC is the specific flavour Apple uses. The image data inside is compressed with HEVC, the same codec also known as H.265 that newer iPhones use for video.

You'll see both extensions in the wild. Most iPhone photos arrive as .heic, while some cameras and apps write .heif or .hif. For everyday purposes they behave the same way.

Why iPhones use HEIC in the first place

The main reason is storage. Apple says HEIF and HEVC offer better compression than JPEG and H.264, so photos take up less space on the device and in iCloud while keeping the same visual quality.

HEIF can also hold things JPEG can't, such as several images in one file, depth information for Portrait mode, and more than 8 bits of colour per channel.

On an Apple device, none of this causes trouble. The friction starts when the photo leaves that ecosystem: an older Windows PC, a web form, a print shop or a client's ageing design software.

Should you convert at all?

Not always. If you're only keeping photos for yourself on Apple devices, HEIC is the better format, and converting every file just costs you storage.

Conversion makes sense when someone else needs to open the file, when an upload form only accepts JPG or PNG, or when you're dropping photos into a tool or workflow that predates HEIC.

It's also worth knowing that both formats are lossy. Turning a HEIC into a JPG re-compresses the image, so convert once from the original and keep the HEIC if you might need it later.

How to convert HEIF to JPG on a Mac

Macs read HEIC natively, so you don't need any extra software.

For a single photo, open it in Preview, choose File > Export, pick JPEG from the Format menu and drag the quality slider to suit. The Photos app has the same File > Export option.

For a batch, select the files in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. You can pick JPEG, set an image size and convert the whole selection in one go. This option appeared in macOS Monterey.

How to turn HEIC to JPG on Windows

Windows needs two small add-ons from the Microsoft Store before it can read iPhone photos: HEIF Image Extensions, which is free, and HEVC Video Extensions, which Microsoft lists at $0.99. You need both, even if you never watch a video.

Once they're installed, open the photo in the Photos app, use the three-dot menu, choose Save as and set the file type to JPG. Paint works too: open the file, then use File > Save as > JPEG picture.

If you'd rather not install anything, Microsoft also suggests letting OneDrive or a cable transfer do the conversion for you, which brings us to the iPhone settings.

Get JPGs straight from your iPhone

The cleanest conversion is the one you never have to do. Two settings handle most of it.

Under Settings > Camera > Formats, choosing Most Compatible makes the camera capture new photos as JPEG and videos as H.264. You give up some storage space, but every new photo is ready to share anywhere.

If you want to keep shooting in HEIC, look for Transfer to Mac or PC in the Photos settings and set it to Automatic. When you copy photos to a computer by cable, the iPhone converts them to JPEG on the way out, while the originals on the phone stay untouched.

Apple also converts photos automatically in many sharing situations, such as attaching them to an email, when it can't be sure the recipient supports HEIC.

Using a free HEIC file converter online

When you're on a borrowed computer or just need a handful of files, a browser converter is the fastest route. Plenty of sites will convert HEIC to JPG for free, and most handle batches.

Before you pick one, check whether it uploads your photos to a server or converts them inside your browser. Phone photos often carry GPS coordinates and timestamps in their metadata, so it matters where they go.

A good converter also applies the photo's stored rotation. If your JPG comes out sideways, the tool ignored that orientation flag, and a different converter will usually fix it.

We've written more about the trade-offs of free conversion tools in our piece on when designers should use free converters, and the same logic applies here.

Quality settings that make sense

JPEG quality is a scale, and the right setting depends on where the image is going.

For photos you might print or edit further, export at high quality, around 85 to 95 percent on most sliders. The file will be larger than the HEIC, sometimes noticeably so, and that's normal.

For web pages, email and messaging, 70 to 80 percent usually looks identical on screen and keeps files small. Resizing to the dimensions you actually need saves far more space than squeezing the quality slider.

What you lose when you convert

A JPG keeps the picture, but not everything else a HEIC can carry. Portrait mode depth maps and the extra HDR information newer iPhones store alongside the image usually don't survive the trip.

Colour can shift slightly too. iPhones capture in a wide colour space, and a converter that doesn't handle colour profiles properly may produce a flatter-looking JPG. Mac's built-in tools handle this well.

Transparency is another gap. JPEG has no alpha channel, so if you need a cut-out with a see-through background, export to PNG instead. Our guide on making a transparent background image explains which formats keep transparency intact.

Common problems and quick fixes

A file that is 0 KB usually means the photo was only stored in iCloud and never fully downloaded. Open it on the phone first, wait for it to load, then copy it again.

Renaming photo.heic to photo.jpg doesn't convert anything. The data inside is still HEIC, and strict upload forms will still reject it. Windows hides file extensions by default, so turn them on in File Explorer to see what you really have.

If an app still refuses your JPG, check its size limit. A full-resolution iPhone photo saved at maximum quality can be several megabytes.

Making the JPG useful

Once your photo is in a format every tool understands, the rest of the workflow opens up. You can crop, compress and share it without worrying about who's on the other end.

If you're pulling colours from a holiday shot for a design project, drop the converted file into our colour palette extractor to pull out its main colours.

For most people, the simplest long-term fix is the Automatic transfer setting on the iPhone. You keep the space-saving originals on the phone and get ordinary JPGs wherever you need them.