HEIC Photos From Your iPhone: Why They Won't Open and How to Convert Them to JPG

What HEIC is and why the iPhone uses it

HEIC is a picture stored in HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format, with HEVC (H.265) compression, the same technology used in modern video. Apple made it the default camera format with iOS 11 in 2017. The reason is size: at a similar visible quality, a HEIC photo needs roughly half the space of a JPG. On a phone with thousands of photos that saves gigabytes.

HEIF can also hold more than one picture per file, which iPhones use for features such as Live Photos (a still picture plus a short video stored next to it), depth information for portrait mode and HDR data. Many Android phones can save HEIF as well, usually as an option in the camera settings.

Why HEIC files often won't open

JPG has been supported by every device and program for decades. HEIC has not. Apple's own systems and Safari open it, recent versions of many photo programs do too, but Windows needs extra codec extensions from the Microsoft Store, older programs know nothing of it, and many web forms only accept JPG and PNG because their server software checks the file type.

There is also a licensing side: HEVC compression is covered by patents, which is one reason why support outside Apple's world has spread slowly. For anything you want to share widely, JPG remains the safest choice, and WebP or AVIF are good options for websites.

Settings on the iPhone

If you regularly need JPG, you can change the camera format. Under Settings, Camera, Formats, choose Most Compatible instead of High Efficiency. New photos are then saved as JPG and videos as H.264. The disadvantage is that they take more space; existing photos are not converted.

For copying to a computer there is a second setting: under Settings, Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC, Automatic converts photos to a compatible format when they are transferred via cable, while Keep Originals keeps HEIC. When you send a photo via Mail or some messengers, iOS often converts it to JPG automatically anyway. Files exported via cloud storage or the Files app usually stay HEIC.

Converting HEIC to JPG step by step

The HEIC files are decoded in your browser with a WebAssembly build of the open-source libheif library; Safari, which opens HEIC itself, uses its own decoder. Nothing is uploaded, which matters for photos of documents, children or your home. The same tool also reads TIFF and camera RAW files and converts in both directions between JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF.

• Open Convert Images and drop the HEIC photos, a single one or a whole folder.
• Under Output, choose JPG, or PNG, WebP or AVIF if you need them.
• Set the quality: 85 to 90 percent keeps JPG photos practically indistinguishable from the original.
• Leave Strip image metadata on unless you need the location and camera data.
• Click Process all and download the files individually or as a ZIP.

Which output format to choose

JPG is the right choice for upload forms, email and anyone whose device you don't know. A converted JPG is larger than the HEIC original, often considerably so, because JPG compresses less efficiently. PNG is lossless and makes photos very large; use it only when a form specifically asks for it. WebP and AVIF are smaller and suit websites, but some older programs and forms do not accept them either.

If a form also limits the file size, for example to 500 KB per photo, use Compress Images instead: it accepts HEIC directly and lets you set a target size, so conversion and compression happen in one step.

What gets lost in conversion

A HEIC file can contain more than a JPG can hold. Depth maps for portrait mode, the motion part of a Live Photo and HDR information are not carried into a standard JPG; the picture you see is converted, the extras are not. For archiving keep the HEIC originals, and convert copies for sharing.

Metadata is a deliberate choice. With Strip image metadata on, the GPS position, the date and the device model are removed, which is usually what you want for photos you share. If you need the date for sorting in a photo program, switch it off for that batch. The guide Remove Metadata Before Sharing explains what these fields reveal.

Why renaming the file doesn't help

A tempting shortcut is to rename photo.heic to photo.jpg. The name changes, the content doesn't: inside, the file is still a HEIC picture. Some programs then refuse to open it, upload forms that check the content reject it anyway, and others show an error. Only a real conversion writes a new JPG.

The same applies to forms that accept the file but then show a broken image: the server stored it, but cannot display it. When a portal is picky, convert to JPG at a sensible quality, check the file size against the portal's limit and keep the file name simple, without spaces or special characters.

For many photos at once, drop the whole selection or folder. Convert Images processes them as a batch, shows the new size of each file and offers a single ZIP download, which is easier to pass on than dozens of separate files. Multi-page TIFF files become one picture per page, and camera RAW files are converted from the full-colour preview the camera stores inside them.

Videos from the iPhone

The same issue exists for videos. With High Efficiency selected, iPhones record videos in HEVC (H.265), stored as .mov files. Recent devices play them, but older Windows computers, some TVs and many video editing and upload services cannot, or show only sound.

Video Converter turns such a clip into an MP4 that plays almost everywhere. Switch on Maximum compatibility: it re-encodes only what is needed so the file uses H.264 and AAC, the combination every player supports. Where the streams are already compatible, they are copied unchanged, without any loss of quality. Like the photo conversion, the video is processed on your device, and location, device and recording time are removed from the file unless you choose to keep them.

Frequently asked questions