How to Convert HEIC Files on Windows, Mac, Android and iPhone

HEIC is the format iPhones have saved photos in since iOS 11. It's genuinely good — roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG — and genuinely annoying the moment a photo leaves the Apple ecosystem. What you need to do about it depends on which device you're holding, so here's the answer for each, plus the one method that works identically everywhere.

The method that works on every platform

Open FileLark's HEIC to JPG converter in any browser — Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, ChromeOS, Linux — drop in one photo or a hundred, and download JPGs (individually or as a ZIP). The decoding happens in the browser itself, so no codec, app or account is needed, and your photos are never uploaded. This is the fastest route when you just need the files converted today.

Prefer a different target? HEIC to PNG is lossless (useful if you'll edit further), and HEIC to WebP keeps files small for the web while being universally supported by modern browsers.

Windows

Windows 11 and 10 can sometimes show HEIC thumbnails but usually prompt you to buy the "HEVC Video Extensions" codec from the Microsoft Store to open the files properly. You can pay for it if you handle HEICs constantly — but for occasional photos, converting is quicker and free. Note that even with the codec installed, many websites and upload forms will still reject a .heic file, so you'll often end up converting anyway.

Mac

macOS opens HEIC natively. To convert, open the photo in Preview → File → Export → set Format to JPEG → Save. For a batch: select multiple files in Finder → right-click → Quick Actions → Convert Image → choose JPEG. Both are built in and work well; the browser converter is handy when you want a specific quality setting or a ZIP of results.

Android

Recent Android versions and Google Photos display HEIC fine, but sharing to other apps — or uploading to a site that expects JPG — often fails. Android has no built-in converter, so a browser-based tool is the simplest fix: open the converter in Chrome, tap the drop zone, pick the photos from your gallery, and download the JPGs straight back to your device.

iPhone: stop the problem at the source

If you keep hitting this, change the setting: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPG. The trade-off is real — photos take roughly twice the storage — which is exactly why Apple doesn't default to it. A good middle ground is to leave HEIC on (you also keep 4K/60fps video) and enable Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic, which converts to JPG during transfer. For the photos that still slip through — AirDrop, iCloud downloads, messaging apps — convert them in the browser.

Does converting lose quality?

Slightly, in theory: HEIC and JPG are both lossy, so re-encoding introduces a small generational change. At 90% quality it's invisible in practice. If you want mathematically zero loss for an image you'll edit further, convert to PNG instead — larger files, but nothing discarded. For a deeper look at why Apple chose HEIC and what it costs you, see our HEIC vs JPG explainer.