You copy photos off an iPhone, or someone sends them to you, and Windows or a website will not open them. The file ends in .heic. Here is what that format is, and how to turn it into a normal JPG for free without installing anything.
What a HEIC file is
HEIC is the High Efficiency Image format Apple cameras save by default. It keeps similar quality in a smaller file, which is why iPhones use it, but plenty of older software, upload forms and Windows PCs without an extra codec still expect JPG.
Key facts about HEIC photos
- iPhone and iPad use HEIF because it offers better compression than JPEG. (Apple Support)
- You can make the camera save JPG instead under Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible. (Apple Support)
Convert HEIC to JPG in three steps
- Open the free HEIC Converter on any device, Windows, Android or Mac.
- Select one HEIC photo or several at once. Each file can be up to 25MB.
- Keep JPEG as the format, leave quality around 92, and download.
The same tool can save to PNG, WebP, PDF, BMP or TIFF if you need one of those instead. Leave Preserve EXIF on to keep the date taken and the right orientation, or turn it off if you are sharing the photo publicly and do not want camera details attached.
Which format should you pick?
- JPG: for forms, email, WhatsApp, Windows and almost any website.
- PNG: when you will edit the image further and want no extra compression.
- PDF: when a form asks for a document rather than an image.
If a form also has a size limit, convert first, then use our guide to compress a photo to 20KB, 50KB or 100KB.
Stop the iPhone saving HEIC
If you send a lot of photos to Windows users or upload them to forms, switch the iPhone to Most Compatible, as above. New photos are then saved as JPG and you skip this step.
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