How to Convert HEIC to JPG on iPhone, Mac, Windows and Android
HEIC is the photo format iPhones use by default, and plenty of websites, Windows PCs and Android apps still refuse it. The good news: every platform already has a free way to turn it into a JPG, usually built in. Here is how to convert HEIC to JPG on each device, built in method first, with exact steps.
- iPhone: copy the photo in Photos and paste it into the Files app; the pasted copy is a JPG. To stop new HEIC files, set Settings > Camera > Formats to Most Compatible.
- Mac: select the files in Finder, right click, then Quick Actions > Convert Image > JPEG.
- Windows 11: open the photo in Photos or Paint and save it as JPG. For a batch, use the online converter.
- Android: on Samsung, turn on Convert HEIF images when sharing in Gallery Labs; on other phones, edit the photo in Google Photos and save a copy.
- Any device: drop the photos into a free online converter and download the JPGs.
How to convert HEIC to JPG on iPhone
The iPhone converts without any app. The quickest built in route is the Files app, because a photo pasted into Files is saved as a JPG:
- Open the photo in Photos, tap Share and choose Copy Photo. Select several photos first if you need more than one.
- Open the Files app, go to On My iPhone (or any folder), long press an empty area and tap Paste.
- The pasted files are full resolution JPGs. To put one back into your camera roll, open it in Files, tap Share and choose Save Image.
Sharing converts too: the Mail app sends HEIC attachments as JPG (choose Actual Size to keep the full resolution). If your photos reach a computer by cable, set Settings > Apps > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic (on iOS 17 and older: Settings > Photos), and the phone hands over JPGs during the transfer while keeping the HEIC originals.
To stop the problem at the source, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPG at roughly twice the file size, while the photos already in your library stay HEIC. Our guide to converting HEIC to JPG on iPhone adds Shortcuts and more, and why your iPhone saves HEIC instead of JPG explains the setting in depth.
How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac
Every Mac since macOS High Sierra reads HEIC, and since macOS Monterey Finder converts it in two clicks:
- Select one or more HEIC files in Finder.
- Right click (or Control click) the selection and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image.
- Set Format to JPEG, leave Image Size on Actual Size and click Convert to JPEG. The JPGs appear next to the originals, which stay untouched.
On an older Mac, or when you want to pick the JPEG quality, use Preview: open the files, select the thumbnails in the sidebar (Cmd+A for all), choose File > Export Selected Images, click Options and pick JPEG. The Photos app and the sips command in Terminal work as well; our Mac guide walks through every Mac method, including Photos and Terminal.
How to convert HEIC to JPG on Windows 11
Windows 11 opens HEIC once two Microsoft Store extensions are in place: HEIF Image Extensions (free, often preinstalled) and a HEVC decoder (HEVC Video Extensions, free from the device manufacturer on many PCs, otherwise about $0.99). After that, two built in apps convert one photo at a time:
- Photos: open the HEIC, click Edit image (or press Ctrl+E), then Save options > Save as copy, choose JPG as the file type and click Save. Photos keeps the EXIF data.
- Paint: right click the HEIC, choose Open with > Paint, then File > Save as > JPEG picture. Quick, but Paint drops the capture date and location.
Neither app handles batches. For a folder of photos, drop up to 60 at a time into heicjpg.online and download one ZIP: nothing to install, and it works even when the HEVC codec is missing. PowerToys Image Resizer, the usual batch tip, currently fails on HEIC files. Windows 10 steps and more options are in our guide to convert HEIC to JPG on Windows 11 with Photos, Paint and batch tools.
How to convert HEIC to JPG on Android
Most HEIC files on Android arrive from iPhone owners, and many newer phones can display them. Two built in routes then give you a JPG:
- Samsung Gallery: the switch Convert HEIF images when sharing now lives in Gallery Labs, a hidden menu. In Gallery, tap the menu (three lines) > Settings > About Gallery and tap the version number repeatedly until Labs is enabled. Back in Settings, open Gallery Labs and turn the switch on. Every HEIC you share from Gallery, to a chat, Drive or email, now leaves the phone as a JPG, and you can share several at once.
- Google Photos: open the HEIC, tap Edit, make any tiny change (open Crop and tap Done is enough), then tap Save and choose Save copy. The copy is written as a JPG. It works one photo at a time, and only if the phone can decode HEIC.
If Google Photos shows a gray thumbnail instead of the picture, the phone cannot decode HEIC and the online option below is the reliable fix. Snapseed and turning off HEIC on a Samsung camera are covered in our guide on how to change HEIC to JPG on Android.
How to convert HEIC to JPG on Linux and the command line
For hundreds of files, scripts or scheduled jobs, ImageMagick is the standard tool on Mac, Windows and Linux. After installing it, open a terminal in the folder with your photos and run:
magick mogrify -format jpg -quality 92 *.heic
That single line converts every HEIC file in the folder to a JPG at quality 92, keeping the originals in place. It is the fastest option per photo once set up, but the setup (installing ImageMagick, being comfortable in a terminal) is exactly the kind of effort most people would rather avoid.
On Linux there is a lighter route than ImageMagick. Install the libheif tools (the package is called libheif-examples on Debian and Ubuntu and libheif-tools on Fedora), then convert a photo with heif-dec photo.heic photo.jpg; older releases call the same command heif-convert. For a whole folder, loop over it: for f in *.heic; do heif-dec -q 92 "$f" "${f%.*}.jpg"; done. GIMP 2.10.2 and newer also open HEIC and export JPG through File, Export As, which suits a handful of photos when you prefer a window to a terminal.
On any device: the online option
When the built in tools are missing, blocked on a work computer or too slow for a batch, use our free HEIC to JPG converter in any browser. Drop up to 60 photos (40 MB each), the conversion starts on its own, and you download the JPGs one by one or as a single ZIP. Output is full resolution JPG at quality 92 with EXIF kept; download links stay valid for 30 days and the files are deleted after that. It is also the simplest way to convert a whole folder of HEIC photos at once.
Which method should you use?
All of these produce a normal JPG. They differ in setup and in how many photos they handle at once:
| Method | Setup | Batches | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone: paste into Files | None, built in | Yes, a dozen or so at a time | Photos already on the iPhone, offline |
| Mac: Finder Quick Actions | None, built in (Monterey or newer) | Yes, any selection | Mac users converting local folders |
| Windows 11: Photos or Paint | HEIF and HEVC extensions | No, one file at a time | Occasional single photos on a PC |
| Samsung Gallery sharing | Enable Gallery Labs once | Yes, when sharing several | Galaxy owners |
| Google Photos: save copy | None if the phone decodes HEIC | No, one file at a time | Other Android phones |
| iPhone camera setting | One time settings change | Future photos only | Stopping new HEIC files at the source |
| Online converter | None, any browser | Yes, 60 per batch, one ZIP | Batches, work PCs, phones without HEIC support |
| Command line (ImageMagick, libheif) | Install a tool, use a terminal | Yes, unlimited | Developers and huge folders |
The JPG you get back is often larger in megabytes than the HEIC it came from. That is not a bug. JPEG's compression was published in 1992, and it simply needs more bytes to store the same picture quality that HEIC's modern HEVC compression packs into roughly half the space. Same photo, older packaging, bigger box.
Quick answers to common questions
How do I convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac?
Select the HEIC files in Finder, right click, choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image, set the format to JPEG and click Convert to JPEG. It needs macOS Monterey or newer and handles one file or hundreds, writing the JPGs next to the originals. On an older Mac, open the photos in Preview and choose File, Export Selected Images with JPEG as the format. Only on a Mac where you cannot use Finder this way, such as a locked down work laptop, is an online converter the easier route.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
Both HEIC and JPG are lossy formats, so a conversion is technically a new encode. In practice, a full resolution JPG at quality 92 is visually indistinguishable from the original for viewing, sharing and printing. The one habit to avoid is repeatedly editing and saving the JPG itself, because JPG degrades slightly on each repeated save. Convert once, keep the HEIC original, and you lose nothing that matters.
Are my photos private when I convert online?
With heicjpg.online, yes by design: there is no account, no ads, no cookies and no watermarks. Converted files are stored behind unguessable links, are deleted automatically after 30 days, and IP addresses are stored only as irreversible hashes. Uploading also never touches the original on your phone; you are sending a copy.
Does EXIF data survive the conversion?
Yes. The capture date, camera model, lens data and GPS coordinates carry over to the JPG, and the orientation flag is applied correctly so nothing arrives sideways. If you upload a Live Photo, the main still frame is extracted and converted. The one practical consequence worth remembering: since EXIF survives, the JPG still contains the location data, so strip it separately if you are posting somewhere you would rather not share where the photo was taken.
Can I convert several photos at once?
Yes, on every platform. On a Mac, Finder Quick Actions converts a whole selection. On an iPhone, copy several photos in Photos and paste them into the Files app. On a Samsung phone, share several photos from Gallery with the HEIF conversion switch on. In the browser, drop up to 60 photos per batch into the online converter and Download all gives you a single ZIP. Windows Photos, Paint and Google Photos handle one photo at a time.
Is converting HEIC to JPEG the same as HEIC to JPG?
Yes. JPEG and JPG are two names for the same format, so every method in this guide gives you a JPEG. The .jpg spelling is a leftover from MS DOS and early Windows, which allowed only three letters after the dot.
Can I just rename a HEIC file to JPG?
No. Renaming changes only the name, not the data inside. The file is still HEIC, so apps that cannot read HEIC will still fail, and some will report a damaged or invalid JPG. To get a real JPG the image has to be decoded and saved again, which is exactly what every method in this guide does.
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