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How to Convert HEIC to JPEG on Any Computer, Without Uploading
HEIC is the format iPhones save photos in by default. To turn HEIC into JPEG without installing anything or uploading your photos, open them in a browser-based converter that works on your device, such as the AI Web Center image editor: open the photo and save it as JPEG, or convert a whole set at once and download them as a ZIP. On the iPhone itself, Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible makes the camera save JPEG from then on.
You email a photo from your iPhone, or try to upload it to a website, and get “file type not supported”. The culprit is the .heic at the end of the name. iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, and plenty of software still expects JPEG.
Convert one photo
- Open the image editor and click Open an image (or drop the photo on the page).
- Under Save, pick JPEG. Quality 85 to 92 is plenty for photos.
- Click Save. You get
photo.jpgnext to your other downloads.
You can crop, straighten or brighten it on the way, but you don’t have to.
Convert a whole set
Below the editor, Convert many images takes a pile of photos at once, or a ZIP of them:
- Choose the HEIC files (or drop a folder’s worth on the box).
- Set Save as to JPEG. To make them smaller for email or a website, set Longest side to 1600 or 1920 pixels.
- Click Convert. You get one ZIP with every photo as a JPEG.
Everything happens in your browser tab. The photos are never uploaded, which matters when they’re of your family, your home or your documents.
How the browser reads HEIC
Safari reads HEIC on its own. Chrome, Edge and Firefox don’t, so the page brings a decoder: libheif, an open-source HEIC library, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs inside the page. It downloads once, the first time you open a HEIC photo, and then works from your browser’s cache.
Stop the problem at the source
If you’d rather your iPhone shot JPEG to begin with: Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible. New photos are then JPEG; the ones you already have stay HEIC. The trade-off is bigger files, so your phone fills up faster.
When you share from the Photos app, iOS often converts to JPEG for you. It’s mostly files copied off the phone by cable, AirDrop or a cloud folder that stay HEIC.
Key takeaways
- HEIC is the iPhone’s default photo format; many sites and Windows PCs don’t take it.
- Convert one photo or a batch to JPEG in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
- Converted JPEGs leave out the location and other hidden data.
- Most Compatible in the Camera settings makes the iPhone shoot JPEG.
Your customers upload iPhone photos to your site? We’ll make your upload form take HEIC and turn it into web-ready JPEG or WebP in the browser, and because we work with AI-assisted development, it costs far less than you might expect. Let’s talk.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my iPhone save photos as HEIC?
HEIC (High Efficiency Image File Format with HEVC compression) stores a photo of the same quality in a smaller file than JPEG, so more photos fit on the phone. Apple made it the default with iOS 11 in 2017; the Most Compatible setting switches the camera back to JPEG.
Does converting HEIC to JPEG lose quality?
A little, as every JPEG save does. At quality 85 to 92 the difference is very hard to see, and the file is usually somewhat larger than the HEIC. Keep the HEIC originals if you want the best copy.
Does the converted JPEG keep the location and date?
No. The converter writes a new file with only the pixels, so the GPS position, date, camera and other hidden data are left out. That's usually what you want before sharing; keep the originals if you want that data in your own library.
Can Windows open HEIC files?
Only with extra codecs: Microsoft offers HEIF and HEVC extensions in the Microsoft Store. Without them, Photos can't show the files, which is when converting to JPEG is the quick fix.