How to convert HEIC to JPG on Windows

Why your iPhone photos are HEIC

Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos in HEIF format by default, with the file extension .heic. The image inside is compressed with HEVC, the same family of compression used for modern video. The result is a photo that looks as good as a JPG but takes noticeably less space, which matters when a phone holds thousands of pictures.

The catch is compatibility. JPG works everywhere; HEIC does not. Windows can’t show HEIC photos out of the box on many PCs, and plenty of upload forms, printing services and older apps only accept JPG or PNG.

There are three sensible ways to deal with it. Pick the one that fits.

Option 1: make the iPhone shoot JPG in future

If you regularly move photos to Windows, the simplest fix is at the source:

1. On the iPhone, open Settings and go to Camera, then Formats.
2. Choose Most Compatible.

New photos are now saved as JPG (and videos as H.264). This doesn’t change photos you’ve already taken, and the new files take more space on the phone.

There’s a second setting worth knowing: Settings, Photos, then Transfer to Mac or PC. With Automatic selected, the iPhone converts photos to a compatible format when you copy them to a computer over a cable. It doesn’t help with photos you send by email, cloud storage or chat apps.

Option 2: add HEIC support to Windows

Microsoft offers HEIF Image Extensions in the Microsoft Store, and some photos also need HEVC Video Extensions to decode. Some PCs already have them installed; on others the HEVC extension may not be free. Once both are installed, the Photos app and File Explorer thumbnails can show HEIC files.

To turn a HEIC into a JPG after that, open it in Paint and use File, Save as, JPEG picture. That works well for a handful of photos, but it is slow for a whole holiday album, and it only helps on the PC where you installed the extensions.

Option 3: convert in your browser

If you just need JPGs now, on any PC, a browser converter is the quickest route. The problem with most of them is that they upload your photos to a server first. Family pictures, screenshots of documents and photos of IDs all end up on someone else’s computer.

InTheTab’s HEIC to JPG converter does the work inside the browser tab instead:

1. Open HEIC to JPG in Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
2. Pick one HEIC photo or many. You can set the JPG quality; 90% is the default.
3. Click convert and download each JPG, or use Download all.

Chrome, Edge and Firefox can’t read HEIC themselves, so the first time you convert one, the page loads the open-source libheif decoder from InTheTab itself. Browsers that can already read HEIC use their own decoder. No extension and no installer are needed.

Things to know before you convert

• Photo details are not copied. The converter draws each JPG fresh from the pixels, so camera details and GPS location from the original are left out. That is useful before sharing; keep the originals if you need them.
• Live Photos become still photos. The HEIC file holds the still image, and that is what you get.
• JPG files are bigger. A JPG usually takes more space than the HEIC it came from. Lower the quality slider if size matters.
• Other formats. For PNG, WebP or other images, Convert to JPG does the same job.
• Need a PDF instead? Forms that ask for one document can take photos joined with JPG to PDF, which also reads HEIC directly.