You copied photos from an iPhone to a Windows PC and got files ending in .heic that nothing will open — or a Windows Store popup demanding 99 cents. HEIC is Apple’s space-saving photo format, and the mismatch it causes is one of the most common cross-platform annoyances. The good news: you can convert HEIC to JPG for free, offline, in batches — and after one settings change, your iPhone will stop producing the problem in the first place.
Quick answer: on Windows, install the free HEIF Image Extensions and open the files in the Photos app, or batch-convert with IrfanView; on Mac, open the file in Preview and export as JPEG; on Android 10 or newer, iPhone HEICs usually open in Google Photos as-is. For the future, switch your iPhone camera to Most Compatible (Settings > Camera > Formats) and new photos will be JPG automatically. Details and the batch workflows below.
What HEIC is, and why your photos are in it
Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photos in HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) instead of JPG. The format stores the same visual quality in roughly half the space — by Adobe’s own estimate, as little as half — which matters when a phone shoots 12- and 48-megapixel images by the hundred.
The catch is compatibility. JPG opens everywhere, on everything, forever. HEIC opens on modern iPhones, Macs, and (mostly) recent Android phones — but Windows needs codec software installed, older systems need a conversion, and plenty of websites, printers, and upload forms still reject it. That’s the whole story: HEIC saves space, JPG saves patience.
Windows: the free way to open and convert HEIC
1. Install the codecs (this is where the 99-cent trap lives)
Windows relies on two Microsoft Store extensions, and this is the step most guides get wrong:
- HEIF Image Extensions — free, from the Microsoft Store
- HEVC Video Extensions — this is the one that costs $0.99, from the Microsoft Store
Yes, you need the paid video codec even for photos: most iPhone HEIC files use HEVC compression inside, and without it the Photos app shows a format error even with the free extension installed. Microsoft’s own guidance for the “can’t view this file type” error says the same. Anyone advising “just install the free HEIF extension” is sending you into a wall you’ll hit at photo #2.
Avoid the shortcuts floating around older guides: the once-free “HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer” was delisted from the Store, and the remaining “fix” involves sideloading random .appx files from the internet — don’t. A 99-cent official codec is cheaper than malware.
2. Open and convert in Photos
With both extensions installed, double-click the .heic file — it opens in the Photos app. To convert, open the image, click the three-dot menu > Save as, and pick JPG as the file type. One file at a time, which is fine for a handful of photos and useless for a camera roll.
3. Batch-convert hundreds of files with IrfanView (free)
For real libraries, use IrfanView with its free plugin pack — the standard answer in every “1,000 photos stuck in HEIC” forum thread:
- Install IrfanView, then its PlugIns pack (the codecs above must still be installed — IrfanView uses them to decode HEIC).
- File > Batch Conversion (press B).
- Add all your .heic files, set the output format to JPG, and in the options set quality to 90–95.
- Under the advanced options, tick keep original date/time if you want the “date taken” preserved on the converted files.
It runs entirely on your PC — nothing uploads anywhere.
Mac: Preview does it in ten seconds
- Double-click the .heic file (opens in Preview).
- File > Export.
- Set Format to JPEG, drag quality to near-maximum, and save.
For batches, build a one-time Quick Action: open Automator > Quick Action, add the Change Type of Images action, set it to JPEG, and save. After that, select any number of files in Finder, right-click > Quick Actions > your new converter, and walk away. Terminal users can do the same one file at a time with sips -s format jpeg photo.heic --out photo.jpg.
Android: you probably don’t need to convert at all
Android has supported HEIC decoding at the system level since Android 10 (the format hooks arrived in Android 9). In practice, iPhone photos sent to a modern Android phone open in Google Photos and most stock gallery apps without ceremony. The exceptions are older phones and some vendor gallery apps that don’t route through the system decoder — and Samsung owners sometimes discover their own camera has an optional HEIF mode, which can be switched back to standard JPEG in the camera app’s format settings.
If a specific Android phone genuinely won’t open HEIC, the fastest conversion isn’t an app — it’s uploading to Google Photos and downloading the copy (it converts to JPG on export), the same trick OneDrive plays on Windows.
The setting that prevents the problem entirely
If you’ll keep moving photos to PCs, stop the problem at the source. Two iPhone settings control it:
- Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible. New photos and videos shoot in JPG/H.264 instead of HEIC. Per Apple’s format documentation, this applies to newly captured media only — existing HEIC files stay HEIC. Your storage use will climb roughly 2×, so on a 128 GB phone think twice.
- Settings > Apps > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC (Automatic) — the default, and it’s what you want. When you copy photos over USB, the iPhone converts them to JPG on the fly. Keep it on Automatic and a Windows PC gets JPEGs without any of the above.
Which raises the question every forum thread eventually asks: why did this used to just work? A Windows update in late 2023 (KB5032190) changed the answer — once Windows reports HEVC support, the iPhone skips its on-cable conversion and delivers raw HEIC instead. Microsoft documented the change in its Q&A on the update. So if HEIC files started appearing “out of nowhere,” that’s your ghost.
A word of warning about online converters
The top search results for this problem are upload-based converter websites. For a meme, fine. For your camera roll — the baby photos, the passport scan, the only copy of a wedding — uploading hundreds of private images to an anonymous site that says nothing about how long it keeps them is a terrible trade for saving one settings change.
Do sensitive conversions locally with the tools above. For everything else, the cloud route (Google Photos or OneDrive round-trip) at least keeps your files inside accounts you control.
Does converting to JPG lose quality?
Some, unavoidably — JPG is lossy and HEIC isn’t — but at quality 90–95 the difference is invisible in normal use. Two real losses to know about: converting can strip or mangle metadata like the “date taken” (tick the preserve option in IrfanView), and a converted file can double in size, which matters if you’re converting to save space rather than to gain compatibility. If compatibility isn’t the goal, converting is the wrong tool — freeing iPhone storage has better levers.
Finally, while you’re tidying the library the conversion churns up: a pass with a duplicate-photo finder usually recovers more space than the HEIC-vs-JPG difference ever cost you. And if you’re moving photos off the phone entirely, backing up an iPhone to an external disk keeps the originals — no conversion required.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert multiple HEIC files to JPG on Windows?
Install both codec extensions from the Microsoft Store, then use IrfanView’s Batch Conversion (press B in the app): add the files, choose JPG output, quality 90–95. It converts hundreds of files offline and can preserve the original date taken.
Can Android open HEIC files by default?
Android 10 and newer decode HEIC at the system level, so iPhone photos generally open in Google Photos and most modern gallery apps. Very old phones and some manufacturer gallery apps are the exceptions that need a conversion.
Is HEIC better quality than JPG?
At equal file size, yes — HEIC keeps more detail in roughly half the space. JPG wins on universal compatibility, which is why converting makes sense for sharing and archiving, and why “Most Compatible” mode exists for people who’d rather not think about formats.
Why did my iPhone stop sending JPEGs to my PC?
A Windows update in November 2023 changed the handshake: once Windows reports HEVC support, the iPhone stops converting on transfer and sends native HEIC. Install the codecs (or flip the Photos transfer setting) and the behavior reverses.
Should I convert HEIC to JPG?
Convert when something can’t read HEIC — a website form, a printer, an older computer, a recipient. Don’t convert your whole library “for safety”: you’d double its size for no visible gain, since every modern device you own already reads HEIC.
