HEIC to JPG
The iPhone photo that looks fine on your phone and refuses to open anywhere else. One conversion fixes it, and the photos never leave your device.
Runs on your device — images are never uploadedDrop your images here
or click to browse — as many as you like
HEIC · HEIF
Opens anywhere. No transparency, and each save loses a little.
90 is the sensible default. Below about 70 the edges of text and flat colour start to show it.
Converting is not compressing. Going to PNG makes most photographs larger, and no conversion can put back detail an earlier JPG already discarded.
How it works
Three steps, no account, and the images never leave your computer.
Drop the HEIC files in
As many as you like. Anything your browser can open is accepted, so a mixed folder is fine too.
JPG is already selected
Change it if you want something else, and adjust the quality if the format has one. The panel warns you if transparency is about to be lost.
Convert and save
One file downloads on its own; several come down as a ZIP. Each shows whether it ended up smaller or larger than it started.
Why people do this conversion
Sending photos to somebody on Windows
The most common reason by far. Windows needs an extension from the Store that almost nobody has installed, so the photo simply will not open.
An upload form that rejects the file
Job applications, insurance claims and government portals list JPG and PNG. Very few of them have heard of HEIC.
Printing at a photo shop
Print workflows are conservative and built on JPG. A HEIC on a USB stick is a wasted trip.
Editing in older software
Photo editors more than a few years old cannot open HEIC at all, and some newer ones only manage it with a plugin.
Why your iPhone photos will not open
You send a photo to somebody on Windows. It looked perfectly normal on your phone, it arrives, and it will not open. Nothing is broken — the file is simply in a format the receiving computer was never taught to read.
What HEIC actually is
HEIC is High Efficiency Image Container, and iPhones have shot it by default since iOS 11 in 2017. It stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPG at the same quality, which is a genuine achievement and the reason Apple switched.
The catch is that it is built on HEVC, a video codec with patent licensing attached. That licensing is why support never spread the way JPG's did: Windows needs an extension from the Microsoft Store, older Android phones cannot read it, and a great many websites and upload forms simply reject the file.
So you have a format that is better in every technical respect and worse in the only one that matters when you are sending a photo to another person.
Converting does not lose anything visible
HEIC is already a lossy format, and so is JPG, so this is technically a second compression. At the quality this page uses, the difference is not something you can see on a photograph — and the alternative is a file the other person cannot open at all.
If you are going to edit the photo rather than send it, convert to PNG instead: it is lossless from that point on, at the cost of a much larger file.
Stopping the problem at the source
If this keeps happening, your iPhone can stop producing HEIC entirely:
Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible.
From then on it shoots JPG. You lose the space saving — photos will be roughly twice the size — and you gain never having this conversation again. Photos already on the phone stay as HEIC and still need converting.
Live Photos and bursts
A Live Photo is a still image plus a short video, stored together. Converting keeps the still and drops the moving part, which is almost always what people want when they are sending a photo somewhere. If you wanted the movement, export it as a video from the Photos app instead.
The date and the location do not survive
The picture is decoded and drawn fresh, so the EXIF metadata — the date taken, the camera model, the GPS coordinates — does not carry across to the JPG.
For a photo you are about to publish or send to a stranger, that is usually an advantage: GPS coordinates in a holiday photo are a house address. If you need that data kept, hold on to the original HEIC files as well; they are the copy that has it.
Nothing is uploaded
The decoder runs in your browser. It is about 2.9 MB and downloads the first time you add a file, then stays cached — after that the page works with no connection at all.
This matters more for phone photos than for most files. A camera roll is the most personal thing on a device, and the usual way to convert it is to hand every picture to a website you have never heard of. Here there is no server, which is also why there is no limit on how many you convert at once.
Common questions
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. The decoder runs in your browser and the photos never leave your device. That is also why there is no limit on how many you can convert at once.
What is a HEIC file?
The photo format iPhones have used by default since iOS 11 in 2017. It stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPG, but Windows needs an extension to read it and many websites and older phones reject it outright.
Will converting reduce the quality?
Not visibly. Both formats are lossy, so this is a second compression, but at the quality used here the difference is not something you can see on a photograph. If you are going to edit it afterwards, convert to PNG instead.
How do I stop my iPhone taking HEIC photos?
Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. It shoots JPG from then on, at roughly twice the file size. Photos already on the phone stay as HEIC and still need converting.
Does it keep the date and location?
No. The image is redrawn from pixels, so EXIF data — date taken, camera, GPS coordinates — does not survive. For anything you are publishing that is usually an advantage, but keep the originals if you need that data.
How many can I convert at once?
As many as your machine will hold. There is no server enforcing a limit, so the only constraint is memory. Several hundred at once is a lot to ask of a phone; a laptop handles it comfortably.
Does this work on a phone?
Yes, on any current mobile browser, including Safari on the iPhone the photos came from. The decoder is the same one the desktop uses.
More tools
Every one of them runs on your device. No uploads, no accounts.