How to Convert iPhone Photos (HEIC) to JPG on Any Device

Before the platform-specific tricks, here's the one method that works on literally any device with a browser — Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, Chromebook — with nothing to install:

1. 1

   Open FileMorf's HEIC to JPG converter

   It's free and needs no account. The conversion runs inside your browser using your device's own processor.

2. 2

   Add your HEIC photos

   Drag and drop or tap to select. Batches work — convert a whole album's worth at once.

3. 3

   Download your JPGs

   Individually or as a single ZIP. Because processing is client-side, your photos are never uploaded to a server — worth caring about when the files are personal photos.

Your iPhone can hand over JPGs without any app at all — Apple just scattered the options across Settings:

• Stop shooting HEIC: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible switches the camera to JPEG permanently. Files roughly double in size, but nothing you shoot will ever need converting again.
• Auto-convert on transfer: Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic keeps HEIC on the phone but sends JPEG over USB. Best of both worlds — small files on device, compatible files off it.
• The Files-app trick: select photos in the Photos app, tap Share → Copy Photos, then open the Files app and paste into any folder. iOS converts the pasted copies to JPEG.
• Share via Mail: photos attached through the Mail app are converted to JPEG automatically.

macOS has read HEIC natively since High Sierra, so viewing is never a problem — conversion is built in too:

• Preview: open the HEIC (or select several), then File → Export and choose JPEG with a quality slider.
• Quick Action: in Finder, right-click selected photos → Quick Actions → Convert Image → JPEG. Fastest batch method on a Mac, available since Monterey.
• Photos app: select images and File → Export → Export Photos, picking JPEG as the format.

Windows is where HEIC hurts most, because out of the box it can't even display the files. Your options:

• Install the Microsoft Store extensions: 'HEIF Image Extensions' (free) plus 'HEVC Video Extensions' ($0.99). After that, the Photos app opens HEIC and can save a copy as JPG.
• Free desktop tools: CopyTrans HEIC adds a right-click 'Convert to JPEG' to Explorer and is free for personal use; IrfanView and XnView MP also read HEIC.
• Browser conversion: no install, no admin rights, works on locked-down work machines — see the universal method above.

We cover the Windows situation in much more depth — including why Microsoft charges for the codec — in our dedicated guide to opening HEIC files on Windows.

Android has supported viewing HEIC since Android 9 on most devices, but sharing apps and older phones are inconsistent, and few gallery apps convert. The browser method works on any Android phone, and Google Photos will export a JPEG copy of anything it has synced.

On Linux, install libheif's tools and run heif-convert photo.heic photo.jpg, or use ImageMagick 7+ (magick photo.heic photo.jpg) if it was built with HEIF support. For a folder: for f in *.heic; do heif-convert "$f" "${f%.heic}.jpg"; done. If you'd rather not touch a terminal, the browser converter works in Firefox and Chromium on Linux too.

A little, technically — HEIC and JPEG are both lossy, so re-encoding involves some loss. In practice, converting at JPEG quality 85–95 is visually indistinguishable for normal photos. Two honest caveats:

• HDR and 10-bit photos: recent iPhones capture 10-bit HDR data that JPEG (8-bit) can't fully represent. Converted photos of sunsets and high-contrast scenes may look slightly flatter than they do on the iPhone's screen. That's a limitation of JPEG itself, not of any particular converter.
• Live Photos: the still frame converts fine; the motion component is video and is simply dropped.

Always convert from the original HEIC rather than from an already-converted copy, and keep the originals if the photos matter — storage is cheap, re-shooting a moment isn't.