Why your iPhone photos are HEIC, and how to open them anywhere
What HEIC is, why some computers and websites reject it, and three ways to end up with a JPG instead.
What HEIC is
HEIC is the file format your iPhone uses for photos. Since iOS 11 in 2017, the Camera app has saved pictures as HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format, and the files carry the .heic extension. Inside, each photo is compressed with HEVC, the same codec iPhones use for video, which is decades newer than the compression behind JPG.
The point is space. Apple's figure is that a HEIC photo takes about half the room of a JPG of the same quality, so the same phone holds roughly twice as many photos and iCloud backups shrink to match. HEIC can also hold things JPG cannot, such as the depth information used by Portrait mode and more than 8 bits per colour channel.
Nothing is wrong with the photo itself. A HEIC photo looks just like a JPG; it simply arrives in a container that fewer programs know how to open.
Why other devices and websites reject HEIC
Opening a HEIC file needs an HEVC decoder, and HEVC is covered by patents with licence fees, so support outside Apple's own devices is patchy. On a Mac, iPhone or iPad, HEIC opens everywhere. On Windows, the Photos app usually needs two add-ons from the Microsoft Store, HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions, and the second is a small paid download on most PCs. Android has been able to read HEIF since Android 10, but support still varies by phone and by app.
Websites are the bigger problem. Upload forms for job applications, government services, schools, marketplaces and many photo printing services accept only JPG and PNG, and browsers other than Safari cannot display a HEIC image at all. The file is fine; the software on the other end just doesn't understand it.
Stop your iPhone making HEIC files
If you never want HEIC, switch the camera back to JPG: open Settings, tap Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPG (and videos as H.264), at the cost of roughly twice the storage. Photos you have already taken stay HEIC.
There is also a middle ground. In Settings, under Photos, setting Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic makes the iPhone convert photos to JPG when you copy them to a computer with a cable. Many apps convert when you share or email a photo, and Safari on iPhone usually hands a website a JPG when you upload a photo through a web form. AirDrop between Apple devices keeps the original HEIC.
Convert HEIC to JPG, WebP or PNG in your browser
When you already have HEIC files on a computer that can't open them, converting them is the quickest fix. Smushify does it in your browser: drop the HEIC photos into the converter below, keep JPG selected, and click Convert All. It works on Windows, Android, Linux and Chromebooks as well as Apple devices, with nothing to install.
The HEIC decoder runs on your own device as WebAssembly and is downloaded only when you add a HEIC file, so your photos are never uploaded anywhere. Photos come out the right way up, because Smushify applies the rotation stored in each file. By default each photo is resized to 1280 pixels wide, which is plenty for email and upload forms; choose Original in the resize menu to keep the full resolution. You can convert a whole folder at once and download the results as a single ZIP.
JPG is the safe choice for anything that has to open everywhere. If the photos are going on a website, pick WebP or AVIF instead for much smaller files. PNG keeps every pixel exactly but produces files many times larger than the HEIC you started with, so use it only when an app insists on it.
Open the HEIC to JPG converter
What happens to the location and other details
iPhone photos usually record where they were taken as GPS coordinates, along with the phone model and the time. Converting with Smushify removes all of it: the new file is built from the image pixels alone, so it carries no location, camera or date details. That makes converted photos safer to post publicly or send to people you don't know. If you want to keep the date a photo was taken, keep the original HEIC too.
If a HEIC file won't convert
A few HEIC files are not single photos. Image sequences, and some files from cameras other than the iPhone, store several images in one file. Smushify says so on the file's card instead of producing a broken image. Ordinary iPhone photos convert without trouble, and a Live Photo gives you its still image.
Try it: HEIC to JPG
Open the HEIC to JPG converter. It runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Is HEIC better quality than JPG?
At the same file size, yes: HEIC's compression keeps more detail. At the sizes iPhones save, the difference is hard to see, so converting to JPG at a good quality setting gives a photo that looks the same in a larger file.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
Very slightly, as every JPG save does, but at Smushify's default quality of 85 the change is very hard to spot. Keep the original HEIC if you may want to edit the photo later.
Can I convert HEIC on Windows without installing anything?
Yes. Smushify runs in the browser, so Chrome, Edge or Firefox on Windows can convert HEIC to JPG with no extensions or apps installed.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. Smushify converts everything inside your browser using WebAssembly. Your files are never sent to a server, so it is safe for private photos and documents.
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