How to Convert HEIC to JPG (iPhone, Windows & Mac)

You transfer photos from your iPhone to a Windows PC — and suddenly nothing opens. The culprit is HEIC, the photo format Apple has used by default since iOS 11. It stores photos at roughly half the size of JPG at the same quality, which is great for your phone storage and terrible for compatibility: many Windows programs, older software, upload forms and printing services simply reject HEIC files.

The fastest way: convert HEIC to JPG online

If you just need a handful of photos in a universal format, an online converter is the quickest route: open our HEIC to JPG converter, drop the photos in, download the JPGs — individually or bundled as a ZIP. It works on any device with a browser, nothing needs to be installed, and files are deleted automatically after conversion. Need transparency or lossless quality instead? Use HEIC to PNG.

Converting directly on your iPhone

iOS has a hidden built-in trick: open the Files app, select your HEIC photos, then copy and paste them into a different folder — iOS converts them to JPG in the process. Alternatively, share photos via Mail or upload them through Safari: iOS often converts them to JPG automatically when apps request maximum compatibility.

On Windows

Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC after installing the free “HEIF Image Extensions” from the Microsoft Store (sometimes the accompanying HEVC video extension costs about a euro). That makes photos visible — but many programs still can’t process them, so for editing, printing or uploading, converting to JPG remains the reliable path.

On a Mac

macOS handles HEIC natively. To convert: open the photo in Preview, choose File → Export, and pick JPEG. For many photos at once, select them in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions → Convert Image.

Stop your iPhone from shooting HEIC

If you keep running into this problem, change the capture format: Settings → Camera → Formats → select “Most Compatible”. Your iPhone will then shoot JPG directly. The trade-off: photos take up roughly twice the storage.

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

Marginally, yes — JPG is a lossy format. In practice, at a quality setting of 90% or above the difference is invisible to the naked eye. If every pixel matters (for archiving or editing), convert to PNG instead, which is lossless but produces larger files.