guides · 2026-10-30 · 2 min read
HEIC to JPG: how to open iPhone photos anywhere
since ios 11, iphones save photos as heic (high efficiency image format). the files are about half the size of a jpg with the same quality, which is great for your storage, but plenty of places still do not accept them: job and visa portals, older windows pcs, some printers and photo kiosks, and many website upload forms.
convert heic to jpg in your browser
- open heic to jpg.
- drop one photo or a whole batch on the box. heic and heif both work.
- the converter loads once (a few seconds the first time), then each photo converts on your device.
- download the jpgs one by one, or press download all to get a zip.
your photos are never uploaded. that is worth a lot with phone pictures, which often include faces, documents, your home and location data.
does converting lose quality?
a little, in theory, because jpg compresses differently. at the default quality the difference is invisible for normal viewing and printing. if you are converting for a print shop, set the quality higher; if you need small files for email, set it lower or run the result through compress image.
on windows
windows 10 and 11 can only open heic files if the "heif image extensions" (and sometimes "hevc video extensions") are installed from the microsoft store, and the hevc one is not always free. converting to jpg avoids the problem completely. see convert heic to jpg on windows.
stop your iphone from making heic files
- settings → camera → formats → most compatible makes the camera save new photos as jpg. the trade-off is that photos take about twice the space.
- settings → photos → transfer to mac or pc → automatic makes the iphone convert to jpg when you copy photos to a computer by cable.
- when you share a photo from the photos app to some apps or by mail, ios often converts it to jpg on its own.
other formats
need png instead, for example for transparent edits later? convert to jpg first, then use jpg to png. to shrink the photos further for sending, use resize image; a 4032×3024 iphone photo is far bigger than most uses need.