Converting iPhone Photos for Any Device

iPhone photos use the HEIC format. Your iPhone, Mac, and iPad handle this fine. Everything else? Maybe not. Here's how to make your photos work anywhere.

Quick Conversion: One Photo at a Time

For the occasional photo you need to share: drop it here, get a JPG back, done. Works from any device, takes about two seconds.

Automatic Conversion When Sharing

iOS has a built-in compatibility mode. When you share a photo via email, AirDrop to a non-Apple device, or most messaging apps, iOS can convert to JPG automatically.

To check this setting:

Go to Settings → Photos
Scroll to "Transfer to Mac or PC"
Make sure "Automatic" is selected (not "Keep Originals")

With this enabled, photos shared outside Apple's ecosystem get converted on the fly. The originals stay as HEIC on your phone.

Shoot in JPG From the Start

If you constantly deal with compatibility issues, you can make your iPhone shoot JPG instead of HEIC:

Settings → Camera → Formats
Select "Most Compatible"

This changes photos to JPG and videos to H.264 (instead of HEVC). The trade-off: your files will be roughly twice as large. A phone with limited storage will fill up faster.

Most people keep HEIC on and convert when needed—the storage savings are worth the occasional extra step.

Bulk Conversion on Mac

If you have a Mac and need to convert many photos at once, you can do it in Preview:

Select all the HEIC files in Finder
Right-click → Open With → Preview
In Preview: Edit → Select All (or Cmd+A)
File → Export Selected Images
Choose Format: JPEG, pick a quality, click Choose

Not the fastest method, but it works without installing anything.

Transferring to Windows

When you plug your iPhone into a Windows PC and copy photos via File Explorer, they stay as HEIC. Windows can't read them unless you install Microsoft's free HEIF extension from the Store.

Your options:

Install the extension: Search "HEIF Image Extensions" in Microsoft Store. Free, takes 30 seconds, and Windows will open HEIC files natively.
Use iCloud for Windows: If you sync photos via iCloud, there's a setting to download JPG versions instead of HEIC.
Convert after transfer: Convert your HEIC files to JPG using our tool.

Transferring to Android

Android's HEIC support varies by manufacturer and Android version. Recent Samsung and Google phones handle it fine. Older or budget phones might not.

The safest approach: convert to JPG before transferring. You can do this on your iPhone by sharing to yourself via an app that converts (like email), or by using a cloud service that converts during sync.

What About Live Photos?

Live Photos are a still image plus a short video clip, packaged together. When you convert to JPG, you get just the still frame—the video portion is lost.

If you want to keep the motion, share the Live Photo as a video instead. In Photos, tap Share, then choose "Save as Video" to export the motion as a standalone video file.

Quality Loss When Converting?

Converting from HEIC to JPG involves re-encoding, which technically loses a tiny bit of quality. In practice, you won't notice—both formats are designed for photos and the difference is invisible at normal viewing sizes.

For archival purposes, keep your original HEIC files. For sharing, printing, or everyday use, JPG conversions are perfectly fine.

Summary

Quick fix: Convert individual photos online
Automatic sharing: Settings → Photos → Transfer: Automatic
Never deal with it: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible (but files will be larger)
Windows: Install HEIF extension from Microsoft Store