HEIC to JPG – What HEIC Is and How to Convert iPhone Photos
By the ZypCRM editorial team · · 5 min read
You copy photos from an iPhone to a Windows laptop, or try to upload them to a job portal or an online printing shop, and they appear as .HEIC files that won’t open or are rejected. Nothing is wrong with the photos. They are simply saved in a newer format that not every program understands yet. This guide explains what HEIC is, how to convert it, and how to avoid the issue in future.
What is HEIC?
HEIC is Apple’s name for images stored in the HEIF container (High Efficiency Image File Format) and compressed with HEVC (H.265), the same technology used for modern video. Since iOS 11 in 2017, iPhones save photos this way by default when the camera format is set to High Efficiency.
The advantage is size. A HEIC photo is typically around half the size of a JPG of similar visual quality, which saves a lot of storage on a phone with thousands of pictures. HEIF can also store extra information – depth maps for Portrait mode, image sequences for Live Photos and higher bit depth.
The downside is compatibility. JPG has been universal for three decades; HEIC is not:
- Windows can show HEIC only with the “HEIF Image Extensions” and “HEVC Video Extensions” from the Microsoft Store (the HEVC one may cost a small fee).
- Many websites – government portals, application forms, print shops – only accept JPG or PNG.
- Older software and some Android apps cannot open HEIC at all.
- Web browsers generally cannot display HEIC images on web pages, with Safari being the main exception.
Converting HEIC to JPG
HEIC to JPG converts photos directly in your browser:
- Select one or many HEIC photos (batch conversion is supported).
- Choose the output format and JPG quality.
- Press Convert and download the JPGs – several photos come as a single ZIP.
Because the conversion runs on your device, your personal photos are never uploaded. That matters: phone photos often contain family members, documents and location data.
Which quality setting?
JPG quality is a trade-off between size and fidelity:
- 90–95: visually indistinguishable from the original for nearly everyone, with large files. Good for printing and archiving.
- 80–88: the sweet spot for sharing, email and uploads. Files are much smaller, and differences are only visible when zoomed in on fine textures.
- Below 75: visible blockiness in skies and gradients, so use only when a strict size limit forces it.
A converted JPG is usually larger than the original HEIC, because JPG is a less efficient format. That’s expected. If a website has an upload limit, convert at around 85 and then use Compress Image to hit an exact target size.
What about PNG?
PNG is lossless, so it preserves every pixel exactly. For photos, PNG files are very large – often five to ten times the size of a good JPG – with no visible benefit. Choose PNG only if the next program in your workflow specifically needs it. For other conversions (WebP, PNG to JPG and so on), use the Image Converter.
Live Photos, Portrait mode and bursts
A HEIC file from a Live Photo contains the still image; the short video is stored as a separate .MOV file. Converting the HEIC gives you the still photo only. Depth data from Portrait mode is not carried into a JPG – the background blur that’s already applied to the photo is kept, but you can no longer adjust it later.
Metadata and location
Photos taken on a phone usually carry EXIF metadata: the date and time, camera settings and often the GPS location where the photo was taken. Before you share converted photos publicly, check what they contain with the EXIF Viewer & Remover, and strip location data if needed. Our guide on removing EXIF and location data explains the details.
Stop getting HEIC files in the first place
If you regularly need JPGs, you can change how the iPhone saves or shares photos.
Shoot in JPG. Go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPG (and videos as H.264). Photos take more storage, but every device can open them. Existing photos stay in HEIC.
Convert automatically when transferring. Go to Settings → Photos and, under Transfer to Mac or PC, choose Automatic. When you import photos over a USB cable, the iPhone converts them to JPG on the fly. (Keep Originals sends HEIC files unchanged.)
Share instead of copying. When you share a photo through Mail or many apps, iOS often converts it to JPG automatically. AirDrop to a Mac keeps HEIC, because macOS supports it.
On a Mac. The Preview app can export HEIC to JPG (File → Export), and Photos can export as JPG. For many files at once, the browser converter can be faster.
Common problems
“The file isn’t HEIC.” Some photos have a .HEIC extension but are actually JPGs (or the opposite). The converter checks the content, and the Image Converter can handle normal JPG and PNG files.
Colours look slightly different. iPhones capture in the wide Display P3 colour space. Most JPG viewers assume sRGB. Well-behaved conversion converts the colours, but some older apps display P3 images slightly less saturated.
Conversion is slow on a phone. HEVC decoding is demanding. Large batches convert faster on a laptop. Converting a few photos at a time on a phone works fine.
Summary
- HEIC is an efficient iPhone photo format that many programs and websites do not accept.
- Convert to JPG at quality 80–90 for sharing and uploads, 90–95 for printing.
- Expect JPGs to be larger than HEIC files.
- Change Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible to shoot JPG, or set transfers to Automatic.
- Check and remove location data before posting photos publicly.