How to convert HEIC photos to JPG
Why iPhones save HEIC, why some websites reject it, and how to convert HEIC to JPG on any device without uploading your photos.
· 4 min read
iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. The files are about half the size of the equivalent JPEG at similar quality, but many websites, upload forms and older programs still do not accept them. Converting to JPG makes a photo open everywhere.
What HEIC is
HEIC is a version of the High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) that compresses photos with HEVC, the codec used for modern video. Apple made it the default camera format in iOS 11, under the name High Efficiency. It also supports features JPEG lacks, such as 10-bit colour and several images in one file.
Convert HEIC to JPG in your browser
- Open Convert.
- Drop your HEIC photos on the page. You can add many at once.
- Choose JPEG and a quality. 85 to 90 keeps photos looking the same at a sensible size.
- Select Convert to JPEG, then download the photos one by one or as a ZIP.
The photos are decoded on your device, so private pictures are not uploaded to a conversion website.
Make your iPhone save JPG instead
- For new photos: Settings, Camera, Formats, then Most Compatible.
- When copying to a computer: Settings, Photos, then under Transfer to Mac or PC choose Automatic, which converts to JPEG during transfer.
Other formats
Convert also opens AVIF, WebP, PNG, GIF and BMP, and saves JPEG, PNG, WebP or AVIF. To make a converted photo smaller still, use Compress.