You copy photos off an iPhone onto a Windows laptop, attach them to an email, or try to upload them to a website, and the files end in .heic. Half the programs you try cannot open them. Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved pictures in this High Efficiency format by default because it takes roughly half the space of a JPG at similar quality. The catch is compatibility: outside Apple's own apps, support is patchy.
This converter turns HEIC and HEIF files into standard JPGs inside your browser. Add one photo or a whole camera-roll export, pick a quality and download the JPGs singly or as a ZIP. Your pictures, which often include family members, documents or your home, are never sent to a server.
HEIC, HEIF and why browsers struggle with them
HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) is a container standard from the MPEG group. HEIC is the variant Apple uses, in which the pictures inside the container are compressed with HEVC, the same codec as H.265 video. That is why the files are small, and also why support is limited: HEVC carries patent licensing, so many programs and most browsers do not decode it natively. Windows, for example, typically needs extra extensions from the Microsoft Store before it can show HEIC thumbnails.
Because no browser can paint a HEIC on a canvas by itself, this page uses a dedicated decoder library. It is about 350 KB and is downloaded only the first time you convert a HEIC file, then reused while the page stays open. The decoder turns each photo into pixels on your device, and the browser's JPEG encoder writes the final file.
When HEIC to JPG comes in handy
Moving iPhone photos to a Windows PC or Android phone
Photos copied over a USB cable, from iCloud downloads or from a shared album often arrive as HEIC. JPG copies open in the Windows Photos app, on Android, in Google Photos uploads and in any editor, with no codec to install.
Uploading to websites and forms
Job portals, rental sites, marketplaces and government services usually accept JPG and PNG only. A photo of a receipt, an ID card or an item for sale taken on an iPhone needs to become a JPG before it will upload.
Sending pictures to people on other platforms
Not every email client, chat app or office suite previews HEIC. Converting first means the person receiving your holiday photos or site inspection pictures can open them straight away, whatever device they use.
What happens during conversion
On the first conversion the decoder loads, and each HEIC is decoded to a lossless image in memory. A background Web Worker then draws that image on a canvas and encodes it as JPEG at the quality you selected, default 82, adjustable from 10 to 100. The JPG keeps the photo's name, so IMG_4021.heic becomes IMG_4021.jpg. Decoding HEVC is demanding, so each photo can take a moment, especially on older phones.
Some HEIC files hold more than one image, for example burst shots or image sequences. In that case the first image in the file is converted. If a file has a .heic name but is really a JPEG or PNG inside, which happens with some exports, it is passed through and converted normally. EXIF metadata is not kept, so the date taken, camera details and GPS location are absent from the JPG. That is a plus for privacy, but sort or back up your originals first if you rely on capture dates.
Cómo usar esta herramienta
- Drop your .heic or .heif photos onto the box above, or click it to choose them.
- Set the Quality slider; 82 suits most photos, while 90 keeps fine detail for printing.
- Press Convert. The first time, the decoder downloads before the files are processed.
- Download each JPG, or press Download all (.zip) to save the whole set at once.
Limitations
- Only the first image of a multi-image HEIC (bursts, image sequences) is converted.
- Depth maps and other auxiliary images stored in the file are not carried over; you get one still JPG.
- EXIF data, including the capture date and location, is not copied into the JPG.
- Files can be up to 50 MB each; very large batches decode more slowly on phones and older computers.