How to Convert HEIC Photos to JPG on iPhone and Android in the US

If you have ever emailed a photo from your iPhone and found the person on the other end could not open it, you have probably met HEIC. Apple made HEIC the default photo format on iPhones years ago because it keeps files smaller while holding on to detail, but many Windows PCs, older apps, and websites still expect JPG. The good news is that converting is easy, and you can stop the problem at the source by changing one setting.

What HEIC is and why your photos use it

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. Apple switched the iPhone camera to it with iOS 11 because a HEIC photo takes up roughly half the space of the same shot saved as JPG, which matters when a phone holds thousands of pictures. The trade-off is compatibility. A JPG opens almost anywhere, while a HEIC file may show up as a blank icon or an error on an older Windows PC, in some photo editors, and on websites that only accept JPG or PNG uploads.

Change your camera so new photos save as JPG

The simplest long-term fix is to tell your iPhone to save future photos as JPG. Open Settings, tap Camera, then tap Formats. You will see two choices: High Efficiency and Most Compatible. Tap Most Compatible, and your camera will save new photos as JPG from then on. Your existing photos stay in HEIC, so this only changes what comes next.

There is a catch. The Most Compatible setting also turns off some features that depend on HEIC, such as recording 4K video at 60 frames per second and 1080p slow motion at 240 frames per second on some models. If you shoot a lot of high-end video, you may prefer to keep High Efficiency on and convert photos only when you need to share them.

Convert photos on your iPhone with the Files app

You can convert a HEIC photo to JPG right on your iPhone, with no extra app. Open the Photos app and find the picture you want. Tap the Share button, then choose Save to Files, and pick a folder in On My iPhone. When a photo is copied into the Files app this way, iOS converts it to JPG in most recent versions. Open the Files app, find the copy, and you can share it from there as a JPG.

For several photos at once, select them all in the Photos app first, then share them to Files in one batch. Check the file afterward by long-pressing it in Files and tapping Get Info, which shows the format. If it still says HEIC, your iOS version may behave differently, and the email method below is a reliable fallback.

Convert by emailing the photo to yourself

Email is the easiest conversion trick because mail apps expect JPG. Open Photos, select the picture, tap Share, and choose Mail. Send it to your own email address. When the photo arrives, it will be a JPG in most cases, because the Mail app converts HEIC attachments automatically. Download the attachment and you have a JPG copy. This works well for one or two photos; for a whole album it gets tedious, so use the Files method or a computer for larger batches.

Convert on a Mac

If you use a Mac, the Preview app converts HEIC to JPG in a few clicks. Double-click the HEIC file to open it in Preview, then go to File, then Export. In the export window, choose JPEG from the format menu, pick the quality you want, and save it. For a batch, select several photos in the Photos app, choose File, then Export, then Export Photos, and pick JPEG as the format.

Convert on a Windows PC

Windows 11 can open HEIC files if the HEIF Image Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store, and in most recent versions the Photos app handles them. But if you need an actual JPG file, the transfer setting on your iPhone does the work for you. On your iPhone, go to Settings, then Photos, then scroll to Transfer to Mac or PC and choose Automatic. Now, when you plug your phone into a Windows PC and copy photos across, they arrive as JPG files.

If the photos are already on your PC as HEIC files, open one in the Photos app and use Save a copy to export it, or use a free desktop converter such as the one built into IrfanView with its plugins. Avoid uploading personal photos to a random free converter website. Those sites can keep a copy of your pictures, and a private photo is not worth the risk.

Convert on Android

Android phones usually save photos as JPG already, so this problem mostly arrives on Android as a file someone sent you. If you receive a HEIC photo on an Android phone, open it in Google Photos and share or download it, and in many cases it arrives as a JPG. If you need to convert a batch, upload the HEIC files to Google Photos from a computer, then download them again. Google Photos converts them to JPG on download in most cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HEIC better than JPG?

HEIC keeps more detail in a smaller file, which is why Apple chose it for the iPhone camera. JPG is older and larger for the same picture, but it opens almost everywhere. For storing photos on your phone, HEIC is the better format. For sharing with other people or uploading to websites, JPG is still the safer choice.

Will converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

Converting to JPG can lose a small amount of detail because JPG compresses the image, but for everyday photos shared by email or posted online, the difference is hard to spot. If you plan to edit the photo later, convert a copy and keep the original HEIC file, so you always have the best version to go back to.

Why do some of my iPhone photos arrive as JPG and others as HEIC?

It depends on how you share them. When you send a photo through an app that does not support HEIC, your iPhone often converts it automatically. When you copy the file directly, attach it to an email in some apps, or transfer it to a computer with the transfer setting on Keep Originals, the HEIC file travels unchanged. Check Settings, then Photos, then Transfer to Mac or PC to control what happens on transfer.