How to Open and Convert HEIC Photos on Windows, Mac and Android

You copy photos from an iPhone to a Windows laptop, or someone sends you pictures, and instead of a JPG you find files ending in .HEIC that won’t open, won’t upload and won’t attach. You’re not doing anything wrong: HEIC is simply Apple’s default photo format, and the rest of the world has been slow to catch up. Here’s why it happens and every practical way to deal with it.

What is HEIC, and why does my iPhone use it?

HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple’s implementation of the HEIF image standard, introduced with iOS 11 in 2017. It uses the same compression technology as modern HD video, which lets it store a photo at roughly half the size of a JPG with the same visible quality. On a phone full of photos, that’s a big storage saving, and HEIC can also hold extras like depth information for portrait mode and the still image of a Live Photo.

On iPhones, iPads and Macs, HEIC is completely seamless. The friction appears when photos leave Apple’s ecosystem: on Windows PCs, some Android phones and apps, websites, online forms and printing services.

The quickest fix on any device

If you just need JPGs right now, the fastest route that works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook and Android alike is a browser-based converter. Open our HEIC to JPG converter, drop in your photos (as many as you like), and download the JPGs individually or as a ZIP. Nothing is installed, and because the conversion happens inside your browser, your photos aren’t uploaded anywhere. The rest of this guide covers built-in options if you’d rather set up your devices to handle HEIC directly.

Opening HEIC photos on Windows

Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC photos in the Photos app, but usually only after you add two extensions from the Microsoft Store:

• HEIF Image Extensions, which is free, and
• HEVC Video Extensions, which provides the actual decoder. Microsoft has charged a small fee for it in many regions (around one US dollar), and some PCs come with it preinstalled by the manufacturer.

Once installed, HEIC files open in Photos and show thumbnails in File Explorer on most setups. Store names and availability change from time to time, so search the Microsoft Store for “HEIF” and “HEVC” if the exact names differ. Note that viewing isn’t the same as converting: many other programs and websites still won’t accept the files, so you may still want JPG copies for sharing.

Opening and converting HEIC on a Mac

Macs open HEIC natively in Preview and Photos. To convert one or a few files in Preview, open the photo and choose File → Export, then pick JPEG as the format. To convert a batch, select several images in Preview’s sidebar and export them together. In the Photos app, select the pictures and use File → Export → Export Photos, choosing JPEG. Recent versions of macOS also offer a Convert Image quick action when you right-click files in Finder. Menu names vary slightly between macOS versions.

On Android

Android 10 and later can decode HEIF images, so Google Photos and many gallery apps display HEIC files without help, although support varies by manufacturer and app. Problems usually appear when you try to edit, upload or share the file elsewhere. In that case, open our converter in Chrome on your phone, select the photos and download JPG copies to your device.

Make your iPhone send JPGs instead

You can avoid HEIC files altogether, or only when transferring to a computer:

• Shoot in JPG: go to Settings → Camera → Formats and select Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPG. The trade-off is that each photo takes up roughly twice the storage.
• Convert on transfer: in Settings → Photos, under “Transfer to Mac or PC”, choose Automatic. Photos copied to a computer with a cable are converted to JPG on the way, while your phone keeps the space-saving HEIC originals.
• Share smartly: when you share photos by email or through many apps, iOS often converts them to JPG automatically. AirDrop to another Apple device keeps them as HEIC.

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

A little, technically, because JPG is a lossy format and the photo is compressed again. In practice, at a high quality setting (our converter defaults to 90%) the JPG is visually indistinguishable from the HEIC. The JPG file will usually be larger than the HEIC, often noticeably so, because JPG compression is less efficient. If the size matters, for a form with a limit for example, compress the JPG afterwards with Compress to a target size.

Live Photos, portraits and other extras

A Live Photo is stored as a HEIC still image plus a short video file. Converting the HEIC gives you the still photo; the motion part is a separate file. Portrait mode photos contain depth data used for the blur effect; the converted JPG shows the photo as it appears on your phone, with the blur applied, but not the editable depth information. If you need to keep these extras, keep the HEIC originals alongside your JPGs.

A note on privacy

iPhone photos often include the exact GPS location where they were taken. Converting to JPG with our tool drops that metadata from the new file. If you want to see what your photos contain, or clean files without converting them, use Remove EXIF Data, and see our guide on removing location data from photos.