Why HEIC photos won’t open
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple’s default photo format. It keeps iPhone photos small without visible loss, but support outside Apple devices is patchy. Windows needs an extra extension from the Microsoft Store, many Android apps, websites and upload forms reject HEIC, and most web browsers can’t display it. JPG opens everywhere.
You probably need this converter if:
- you copied photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC and they won’t open
- a website, government form or online shop refuses your .heic upload
- someone sent you iPhone photos by email or cloud link and you can’t view them
- you want to edit iPhone photos in an app that doesn’t read HEIC
How to use this converter
Choose one or more HEIC or HEIF files, or drop them on the box above. The first time, your browser downloads the decoder, which takes a moment. Then each photo is converted on your device and gets its own download button.
You can select many photos at once. They are converted one after another so your browser doesn’t run out of memory, which matters with dozens of 12- or 48-megapixel photos.
Choosing a quality setting
85% gives JPGs that look the same as the original at a sensible size. Choose 90–95% for photos you plan to print or edit. Expect the JPG to be larger than the HEIC: HEIC compresses roughly twice as efficiently, so a 2 MB HEIC often becomes a 3–5 MB JPG at high quality.
What changes in the converted photo
- Orientation is applied, so photos come out the right way up.
- Metadata such as location, date, and camera details is not copied.
- HDR and wide colour are converted to standard range sRGB, the colours every screen and app expects. Very bright highlights in HDR photos may look slightly flatter.
- Dimensions stay the same.
The HEIC decoder is libheif, used through the open-source heic-to library.
Questions
Why are my iPhone photos HEIC files?
Since iOS 11 in 2017, iPhones save photos in HEIC by default when the camera format is set to High Efficiency. HEIC files are about half the size of JPG at similar quality, which saves storage.
Why does the first conversion take a few seconds?
Most browsers can't read HEIC on their own, so the converter downloads a HEIC decoder (about 3 MB) the first time you use it. After that it is cached and conversions start straight away.
Is the photo's location and date kept?
No. The JPG is created from the image pixels only, so EXIF data, including GPS location, is not copied. That makes the JPG safer to share publicly.
What about Live Photos?
A Live Photo is a HEIC still plus a short video file. This converter turns the still image into a JPG. The video part isn't included in a HEIC file you export.
Can I stop my iPhone from saving HEIC?
Yes. Go to Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPG. Existing photos stay HEIC.
Last reviewed 30 October 2026