Convert HEIC to JPG

Why iPhone photos are HEIC

iPhones running iOS 11 or later save camera photos as HEIC by default. HEIC is the file extension for HEIF images, a format that stores the same picture in roughly half the space of an equivalent JPG. That is useful on a phone with limited storage, but it causes friction elsewhere: older Windows versions, some Android apps, certain web forms and a number of editing programs cannot open HEIC at all. Converting to JPG removes that barrier because JPG is read by essentially every browser, phone, printer and photo service.

What the conversion does

This page reads each HEIC file, decodes the image, and re-encodes it as a JPG. Because the tool runs in your browser, the files are not sent to a server. Nothing is stored, there is no account, and no watermark is added. Once the page has loaded, it also works without an internet connection.

JPG is a lossy format, so the re-encode changes pixel data slightly. At high quality settings the difference is usually hard to see on screen, but it is not a byte-for-byte copy of the original. Keep your HEIC originals if you may need them later.

Choosing a quality setting

A phone photo is often 2–5 MB as HEIC. At quality 80, a typical 12 MP shot lands somewhere around 1.5–3 MB as JPG, though the exact figure depends on how much detail is in the frame. Busy scenes with foliage or crowds compress less efficiently than smooth ones.

Converting several photos at once

Drop a whole batch onto the page rather than working one file at a time. The tool processes each image in turn and keeps the original file names, only swapping the extension to .jpg. When the batch finishes, download the results individually or grab them all in one zip. If you are converting a large set, expect the browser to use a fair amount of memory; a few dozen photos at a time is a comfortable working size on most machines.

Making the iPhone save JPG in future

You can stop the problem at the source. On the iPhone, open Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and select Most Compatible. From then on the camera writes JPG files instead of HEIC, and they will transfer and open without conversion. The trade-off is larger files on the device, so you may fill storage sooner. If you would rather keep HEIC on the phone and convert only when needed, leave the setting on High Efficiency and use this page for the occasional export.

Note that Most Compatible affects new photos only. Existing HEIC files stay HEIC, so you still need a converter for anything already in your library. Also check the transfer setting: when you plug an iPhone into a Mac or PC, some import tools convert automatically and some copy the original HEIC. If your imports keep arriving as HEIC, the conversion step here handles them.

After converting

JPG files open in Windows Photos, macOS Preview, Android galleries, browsers and most editing software. They upload cleanly to web forms, email clients and print services that reject HEIC. Rename or sort the converted files as needed; the tool does not alter metadata beyond what the encoder writes, so check dates and locations in your file manager if those matter for your workflow.

Questions