How to convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPG on Windows

Why your iPhone photos are HEIC

Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos in HEIF, with the file extension .heic, when the camera is set to its default "High Efficiency" format. HEIC stores the same picture as a JPEG in a noticeably smaller file, and it can hold several images in one file, which is how Live Photos and bursts work.

The catch is compatibility. Apple devices open HEIC without thinking about it, but plenty of other places don't:

• Windows often shows HEIC files as icons with no preview, or asks you to install an extension from the Microsoft Store before the Photos app can open them.
• Websites and forms, such as job portals, government services, marketplace listings or a school's homework upload, frequently accept only JPG or PNG and reject a .heic file with an "unsupported format" message.
• Older software, such as photo editors, printing kiosks and some office tools, simply doesn't know the format.

You hit this most often when photos leave the iPhone by a route other than AirDrop or iCloud: copying files from a USB cable, emailing them as "Actual Size", downloading them from a shared drive, or getting them from a family member who uses an iPhone while you use Windows.

Convert HEIC to JPG, step by step

1. Open the HEIC to JPG converter.
2. If you like, set the options first: Convert to (JPG, PNG or WebP), Size and Quality. You can also leave the defaults: JPG at full resolution, quality 90.
3. Drop your .heic or .heif files onto the page, or click to choose them. You can select an entire folder's worth.
4. Each photo converts as soon as it's added, and a counter shows how many are done.
5. Download photos one at a time, or press Download all (.zip) to get everything in one archive.

Changing an option after the photos are in reconverts them with the new settings, so you can experiment freely.

Which options to choose

Convert to. JPG is the safe choice: every computer, phone, website and printer reads it. PNG is lossless, so nothing is lost in conversion, but the files are much larger; it's useful when you will edit the image further. WebP is compact and accepted by modern browsers and many websites, but not by every older program. If your browser can't save WebP, the converter tells you and saves PNG instead.

Size. "Original size" keeps every pixel. Large (2560 px), Medium (1600 px) and Small (1080 px) limit the long side of the photo. Pick Medium or Small for a website form with an upload limit, a chat message or an email with several photos; keep Original for printing or archiving.

Quality (for JPG and WebP, from 50 to 100, default 90) controls how strongly the photo is compressed. The default is a good balance; lower it only if you need smaller files and can accept a slight loss of detail.

Also save the extra images in bursts and Live Photos. A single HEIC file can contain more than one still image. By default you get the main photo; tick this box to get every still image stored in the file.

What happens to your photos

• They stay on your device. Decoding is done by libheif running as WebAssembly in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and the page keeps working if you go offline after it has loaded.
• Metadata is removed. GPS location, camera model, date and other EXIF data are not copied to the new file. That's usually what you want before posting a photo publicly. If you need to see what a photo contains first, the EXIF viewer and cleaner shows it.
• Orientation is fixed. The rotation the iPhone records is applied to the pixels, so photos don't appear sideways once the metadata is gone.
• Damaged or non-HEIC files are flagged with a short message instead of silently failing.

Avoid HEIC in the future

If you regularly need JPGs, you can change the iPhone itself:

• Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPEG (and videos as H.264). Files will be larger than HEIC.
• Settings > Apps > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC > Automatic. (On older iOS versions: Settings > Photos.) Photos stay HEIC on the phone, but are converted to a compatible format when copied to a computer by cable.

Neither setting converts the photos you already have, which is where the converter comes in.

After converting: common next steps

• Website says the photo is too large? Run it through the image resizer to set exact dimensions, or choose Medium or Small in the converter.
• Need to send several photos as one document? For example, scanned receipts or pages of a form photographed on your phone: combine them with image to PDF.
• Sending documents by email? If the PDF ends up too large, our guide on compressing a PDF for email explains how to shrink it.

Quick checklist

• Did every photo convert? The summary shows the count and total size.
• Is the format right for where it's going? JPG unless you have a reason otherwise.
• Is the size right? Original for print, Medium or Small for forms and messages.
• Keep the original HEIC files if you want the best-quality copy and its metadata.

Converting HEIC to JPG takes seconds per photo and nothing leaves your computer, so family photos, ID pictures and screenshots of private messages stay private.