How to Convert HEIC Photos from iPhone to JPG on Windows

If you’ve ever AirDropped photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC, emailed them to someone with an older laptop, or tried to drag them into an app that just shrugged at you — you’ve run into HEIC. Apple uses it as the default photo format on iPhones since 2017, and most Windows apps still treat it like a UFO.

The fix is simple: convert your HEIC files to JPG (or PNG, or WebP) so anything can open them. Here’s the no-nonsense version.

What is HEIC, exactly?

HEIC is a container format Apple uses for photos. It stands for “High Efficiency Image Container,” and the actual image data inside is encoded with HEIF — High Efficiency Image File Format. Compared to JPG, HEIC files are about half the size for the same visual quality. That’s why Apple loves it: it lets iPhones fit twice as many photos on the same storage.

The catch: HEIC is patent-encumbered, and as a result, Windows, most browsers, most photo apps on non-Apple platforms, and almost every email client either don’t support it or only support it with a paid extension. So even though your iPhone photos look great, the moment they leave the Apple ecosystem they often become unviewable.

The fastest way: convert in your browser

You don’t need to install anything. Use our HEIC to JPG converter — drop the file in, get back a JPG you can use anywhere. It runs entirely in your browser, so the photo never leaves your computer.

The process:

Open the HEIC to JPG tool
Drag your .heic file (or several) onto the drop zone
The converter decodes the HEIC in your browser and re-encodes it as JPG
Click save, get the JPG back to your downloads folder

Most photos convert in under a second. You can drop multiple files at once and process them as a batch.

JPG vs PNG vs WebP — which should you pick?

If you’re not sure which format to convert to:

JPG is the safe default. Universally supported, small file size, lossy but visually indistinguishable from the original at default quality settings. Use JPG when you just want the photo to work everywhere.
PNG is lossless — every pixel preserved exactly — but file sizes are 2–5× bigger than JPG. Use PNG only when you specifically need lossless (graphic design work, sharing with a designer, archival).
WebP is more efficient than JPG (smaller files at the same quality) and most browsers support it now, but some software (older versions of Photoshop, certain email clients) still doesn’t. Use WebP when you control the destination and want smaller files.

For HEIC from an iPhone, JPG is almost always the right answer.

We have separate tools for each format if you need them: HEIC to JPG, HEIC to PNG, and HEIC to WebP.

Why not just change the iPhone setting?

You can. Open iPhone Settings → Camera → Formats → choose “Most Compatible” and your iPhone will start saving new photos as JPG instead of HEIC.

But:

It only affects new photos. Anything already in your camera roll stays HEIC.
The “Most Compatible” setting makes photos roughly twice as big, so you’ll fill up iPhone storage faster.
AirDrop and Messages already auto-convert to JPG when sending to non-Apple devices. Email and direct file transfer don’t.

For most people, leaving the iPhone in HEIC mode and converting on the way out (when needed) is the best tradeoff. You keep the storage savings, and you can convert the few photos that need to be JPG individually.

What if the converted JPG is too big?

JPG files from an iPhone are often 3–5 MB each. If you need them smaller — for email, for a website upload, for a form that caps at 2 MB — run the JPG through our Image Compressor right after converting. You can knock 5 MB down to 500 KB without any visible quality difference, because the compressor uses smarter encoding settings than what your phone defaults to.

A two-step workflow that takes 30 seconds total:

HEIC → JPG with the HEIC to JPG tool
JPG → smaller JPG with the Image Compressor

What about Live Photos and bursts?

iPhone Live Photos are stored as .heic (the still frame) plus a separate .mov video file. Our converter handles the .heic part. The .mov is just a regular video file — if you want to do anything with it, you can ignore the still and use the video, or vice versa.

Burst photos save as individual HEIC files inside a single “burst” group on the phone. When you AirDrop or export them, each shot becomes its own .heic file you can convert normally.

Common errors and what to do about them

“This image format is not supported” when you try to open an HEIC in Windows Photos. Either your Windows version is older than the HEIF Image Extensions, or the extension isn’t installed. Easier than installing it: just convert the file. The result opens in every Windows app without issues.

Email attachments getting stripped or unviewable when you forward iPhone photos. Outlook and some mobile mail apps have spotty HEIC support. Convert to JPG before sending and the recipient won’t have to deal with it.

File explorer shows a generic icon instead of a thumbnail for .heic files. This is cosmetic — the files are fine — but if it bugs you, the same conversion to JPG solves it.

Bottom line

iPhone’s HEIC format is genuinely better for phone storage, but the moment you need to share photos with the wider world, JPG is still the universal pass. Convert as needed, leave the iPhone setting alone, and you get the best of both worlds. The whole flow takes about 5 seconds per photo and runs in your browser — nothing installed, nothing uploaded.