Why iPhone photos are HEIC and not JPEG
Since iOS 11, iPhones and iPads have saved photos as HEIC rather than JPEG. HEIC is a container for images compressed with HEVC, and it produces files roughly half the size of an equivalent JPEG at the same visual quality. On a phone full of photos, that saving is substantial.
The problem is everywhere else. Windows needs a codec extension to preview HEIC. Most website upload forms reject it. Older versions of Photoshop, plenty of print shops, email clients, WordPress media libraries and virtually every Android device will refuse it or show a broken thumbnail. The format is efficient, but it is not universal, and that gap is why converting to JPEG is still a daily task for a lot of people.
How to convert HEIC to JPG in your browser
- Open the [msm_tool slug="heic-to-jpg"] and choose a HEIC or HEIF file.
- Pick an output format — JPEG, PNG or WebP.
- Set the quality if you are outputting JPEG or WebP. Higher keeps more detail and produces a larger file.
- Convert, then download the result.
The decoding happens in your browser using JavaScript. Your photo is never uploaded, which is the part that matters most here: HEIC files straight off a phone usually carry EXIF metadata including GPS coordinates, the exact capture time and the device serial. Handing that to a conversion site is handing over a map of where you were.
Which output format should you choose?
| Format |
Best for |
Trade-off |
| JPEG |
Photographs, sharing, printing, uploads |
Lossy; no transparency |
| PNG |
Screenshots, graphics, anything needing exact pixels |
Much larger files for photographs |
| WebP |
Web use where file size matters |
Not accepted by some older software |
For a photo you intend to send, print or upload, JPEG is almost always the right answer. Choose PNG only when you genuinely need lossless output, because a photograph saved as PNG can easily be four or five times the size of the JPEG.
Choosing a quality setting
JPEG quality is a trade between file size and detail. Around 80 to 90 is the sweet spot for most photographs — the loss is invisible at normal viewing sizes and the file shrinks considerably. Below about 60 you start to see blocking in smooth gradients like skies and skin.
One thing worth understanding: JPEG compression is not reversible. Converting at low quality and later deciding you needed detail back is not recoverable, so keep the HEIC original until you are certain the JPEG is good enough.
Stop your iPhone producing HEIC in the first place
If you convert constantly, change the setting at source. On an iPhone or iPad, open Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are then captured as JPEG. Existing HEIC files are unaffected.
There is also a middle path. Under Settings → Photos, the option to transfer to Mac or PC as Automatic converts HEIC to JPEG during transfer, so the phone keeps the smaller files while your computer receives compatible ones.
Keeping HEIC is genuinely worthwhile if storage is tight — you get about twice as many photos in the same space. Switching to Most Compatible costs you that, so the right choice depends on whether you hit storage limits more often than compatibility problems.