Have you got photos from an iPhone that end in .HEIC, and the computer, the website or the person you are sending them to cannot open them?
Don’t worry, the photos are fine. HEIC is simply the format iPhones save in, and plenty of software still does not read it. This heic to jpg converter turns them into ordinary JPG files that open everywhere. Add them below, as many as you like, and nothing is uploaded: every photo is read and converted inside your browser.
Your photos never leave this computer. They are converted in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Photos keep their full size and are turned the right way up. Nothing is cropped.
Why the photo comes out sideways elsewhere
An iPhone does not turn a portrait photo round when it saves it. It stores the picture the way the sensor saw it, lying on its side, with a note attached that says turn this a quarter to the right before showing it.
A converter that ignores the note hands you a sideways JPG. One that turns the picture and also copies the note into the JPG is no better, because every viewer then turns it a second time and the photo lands on its side again.
Here the picture is turned once, the way the phone meant, and the note in the copy is changed to say it is already upright. So it looks right in Windows, on a Mac, in a browser and on any website you upload it to.
Your location is taken out
A phone photo usually records where it was taken, often close enough to find the house. That is handy in your own photo library and not something most people mean to send to a stranger along with a picture.
So the location is removed from every JPG unless you tick the box to keep it. It is blanked out of the file rather than just hidden, so nobody can dig it back out later.
The date the photo was taken and the camera details stay, because photo apps use them to sort your pictures into the right order. Untick that box too if you want a JPG that carries no details at all.
What it needs from your computer
A HEIC photo is compressed the same way as modern video, with a method called HEVC. Safari on a Mac or an iPhone opens HEIC by itself. Chrome and Edge do not, but they can use the video decoder built into your computer’s graphics chip, and that is what this page asks them to do.
Most computers and phones made in the last several years have one. Keep in mind that this will not help on a computer that does not, which includes some older machines and most virtual machines. The page tells you so plainly rather than handing you a broken file, and the same page on your phone usually works.
JPG or PNG
JPG is the right choice for photos almost every time. It opens on every computer, phone and website, and the file stays a sensible size.
I recommend leaving the quality at 90. Lower than about 80 and blotches start to show in skies and skin, and higher than 95 makes a much bigger file for a difference nobody can see. PNG keeps every pixel exactly and comes out several times the size of the JPG, so choose it only when something asks for PNG by name.
The JPG will be bigger than the HEIC
This surprises people and it is expected. HEIC was made to replace JPG, and it packs the same photo into a smaller file, so the JPG of the same photo is bigger. The tool shows the size of every file once it is done.
If you need smaller files for an email or a website, our image resizer shrinks the JPG afterwards. Most websites show photos far smaller than a phone takes them, so a photo resized to 2000 pixels wide still looks sharp and weighs a fraction as much.
Stop the iPhone making HEIC in the first place
If you would rather have JPG from now on, open Settings on the iPhone, then Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPG from then on, and the ones already taken stay HEIC.
Be careful if the phone is nearly full, because the same photos take more room as JPG. If you only need JPG when copying to a computer with a cable, set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic at the bottom of Settings, then Photos, and the phone converts them on the way. Our guide to what a HEIC file is covers the other ways to open one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is anything uploaded?
No. The photos are read and converted inside your browser, on your own computer or phone, and they never leave it.
Can I convert a lot of photos at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like. They are converted one after another, and when there is more than one you can download them all together in a single ZIP.
Does converting lose quality?
A little, as every JPG does, and at quality 90 you would have to zoom right in to find it. The size of the photo stays exactly the same, and nothing is cropped.
Will it work on my phone?
On an iPhone, yes, in Safari. When you pick photos on an iPhone, the phone sometimes turns them into JPG itself before the page even sees them, and those are saved as they are. On Android it works in Chrome whenever the phone has an HEVC decoder.
What about Live Photos?
The still photo is converted. The short video that plays when you press on a Live Photo is a separate file, and it is left alone.
Why does it say my computer has no HEVC decoder?
Because the graphics chip in it cannot decode this kind of picture, or the browser is not allowed to use it, which happens on some older computers and inside virtual machines. Try the same page on your phone or on another computer.
If you have any issues, you can ask me via comment, and I will love to help you out.