How to Open a HEIC File on Windows

You received some photos from an iPhone user. You try to open them on Windows. Either nothing happens, or Windows says it doesn’t know how to display this file. The files end in .heic, which Windows doesn’t natively recognize.

Three working solutions, from quickest to most permanent.

The quickest fix: convert in your browser

If you just need to view or use the photos once, convert HEIC to JPG and you’re done.

Open HEIC to JPG
Drag in your HEIC files (one or many)
Click convert
Download the resulting JPGs

JPGs open natively on Windows, in every photo viewer, every browser, every editor. No installation, no settings changes, no waiting.

This is the right fix when:

You just need to view the photos once
You’ll send them somewhere else (email, web, document) where JPG is more compatible anyway
You don’t want to install anything on Windows
The HEIC files contain anything you’d rather not upload to a third-party service (the conversion runs in your browser, nothing uploads)

For PNG output (lossless, larger files): HEIC to PNG works the same way.

The “I keep getting HEIC files” fix: install HEIF extensions

If you regularly receive HEIC files and want Windows to handle them natively, install Microsoft’s HEIF Image Extensions:

Open Microsoft Store on your Windows PC
Search for “HEIF Image Extensions”
Click “Get” or “Install” (it’s free)
You’ll also need “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer” — this one is $0.99. There’s a free version called “HEVC Video Extensions” but Microsoft sometimes restricts who can install it.

Why two extensions? HEIC is a still-image format, but it’s based on the HEVC (also called H.265) video codec. To decode HEIC, Windows needs both the image format support and the underlying video codec.

After installation:

HEIC files will display thumbnails in File Explorer
Double-clicking a HEIC opens in Photos app, Paint, etc., like any other image
You can copy-paste, drag-drop, share through Windows’ built-in tools

The $0.99 isn’t ideal but it’s a one-time purchase that handles every HEIC you’ll ever receive on that Windows machine.

The free workaround for the paid extension

If the $0.99 HEVC video extension price annoys you, there’s a free alternative path:

Install HEIF Image Extensions (free) from Microsoft Store
Install CopyTrans HEIC for Windows (free, from copytrans.net)
Together, these handle HEIC display without the paid HEVC extension

CopyTrans HEIC is a free third-party tool that adds HEIC support to Windows Photo Viewer, File Explorer, and right-click “Open with…” options. It’s been around for years and is widely trusted.

Note: free alternatives like this come with mild ads/promotions in their installer — choose “Custom installation” and decline extras you don’t want.

The permanent fix on the iPhone side

If you’re regularly receiving HEIC files from a specific person, ask them to change their iPhone’s photo format:

On their iPhone, open Settings
Tap Camera
Tap Formats
Select Most Compatible (instead of High Efficiency)

After this change, new photos save as JPG instead of HEIC. Existing photos stay HEIC, but anything taken from then on is JPG.

This is a tradeoff:

HEIC uses about half the storage space of JPG at similar quality (it’s a more modern codec)
JPG works on everything

The default on modern iPhones is HEIC because Apple cares about storage efficiency. Setting “Most Compatible” prioritizes universal compatibility instead.

When iPhone-to-Windows photo transfer goes wrong

A common scenario: you AirDrop or email photos from iPhone to Windows. Some arrive as JPG (good) and some as HEIC (problematic). Why the inconsistency?

iPhone’s behavior depends on:

Camera format setting (HEIC vs JPG, as above)
Sharing method: AirDrop preserves original format; email and message sometimes auto-convert to JPG; iCloud Drive preserves original
Whether the iPhone “thinks” the destination supports HEIC — when sharing via “AirDrop to PC” mode, the iPhone may convert to JPG automatically; via “AirDrop to Mac” it sends HEIC

Most reliable cross-platform: have the iPhone user share via email (auto-converts to JPG most of the time) or via a service like Google Photos (which serves JPG to non-iOS clients).

What HEIC actually is

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. It’s a wrapper format that stores images compressed with the HEIF / HEVC codec. The format was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG, the same people behind MP3 and MP4) and adopted by Apple as the iPhone default in 2017.

Compared to JPG, HEIC:

Files are about 50% smaller at the same visual quality
Supports transparency (like PNG)
Supports 10-bit color (more colors than JPG’s 8-bit)
Can store multiple images in one file (used for iPhone’s “Live Photos”)
Uses more advanced compression with no visible quality difference

The downside: it’s newer than JPG and Windows didn’t support it until late in the Windows 10 cycle. Even now, support is via extensions you have to install separately rather than being built-in.

Comparison: HEIC vs JPG vs PNG

Format	Compression	Transparency	File size	Cross-platform support
JPG	Lossy, older	No	Medium	Universal
PNG	Lossless	Yes	Large	Universal
HEIC	Lossy, newer	Yes	Small	Apple ecosystem + Win 10/11 with extensions
WebP	Both available	Yes	Small	All modern browsers, mixed elsewhere

For “I need this to work everywhere,” JPG remains the safest bet. For “I want efficient storage on my own devices,” HEIC and WebP are better.

Batch conversion for large libraries

If you’ve got an iPhone backup of thousands of HEIC photos to convert all at once:

For occasional conversion: HEIC to JPG handles batches of ~50-100 files at a time. Browser memory is the limit.

For massive bulk conversion (thousands of photos): use a desktop tool — imagemagick (free, cross-platform, command-line) or HEIC Converter from various authors. These handle large batches without browser memory limits.

Privacy

The browser-based HEIC converter runs entirely on your machine:

HEIC files are decoded with the libheif library (compiled to WebAssembly)
Re-encoded as JPG or PNG in JavaScript
Output is built in browser memory

Nothing uploads. For personal photos (often the contents of HEIC files), this matters.

TL;DR

One-time conversion: HEIC to JPG or HEIC to PNG in your browser
Permanent Windows fix: Install HEIF Image Extensions + HEVC Video Extensions ($0.99) from Microsoft Store
Free Windows fix: HEIF Image Extensions + CopyTrans HEIC for Windows
iPhone side fix: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible
Why HEIC exists: better compression than JPG, default on iPhones since 2017