Convert HEIC to JPG
iPhones save photos as HEIC, a format Windows and many apps still struggle with. Convert them to universal JPG right here — your photos stay on your device the whole time, which matters when they are personal pictures.
100% private: files are processed in your browser and never uploaded to any server.
How it works
- Drop one or more HEIC/HEIF photos into the box above.
- Each photo is decoded and converted to a high-quality JPG (large photos take a few seconds).
- Download your JPG files — they now open everywhere.
Why your iPhone photos will not open
Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photographs as HEIC by default — a container built around the HEVC video codec, which stores the same picture in roughly half the bytes of an equivalent JPEG. On Apple devices it is invisible: everything opens it. Move the file anywhere else and it stops being invisible. Windows needs a codec extension that is not installed by default, many web upload forms reject the extension outright, and plenty of professional and institutional software has never heard of it.
This is why the conversion is one of the most-searched image tasks there is. The photograph is fine; it is simply in a format the receiving system cannot read. JPEG remains the universal currency, and converting costs you very little.
What survives the conversion
The image itself converts faithfully — HEIC and JPEG both store ordinary photographic data, and at good quality the difference is not visible. The file will typically get larger, sometimes close to double, since you are moving from a more modern codec to an older one. That is the price of universal compatibility.
Some things do not carry over. HEIC can hold ten-bit colour depth and HDR gain maps that JPEG cannot represent, so a photograph with extreme highlights may look slightly flatter. Live Photos lose their motion component, because the video half has no equivalent in a JPEG. Depth maps used for portrait-mode effects are dropped. For the overwhelming majority of uses — sending a photo, filling in a form, printing — none of that matters.
Converting a whole camera roll privately
The usual reason people convert HEIC is that something needs to be submitted: an insurance claim with damage photos, a rental application, an ID photograph, a set of receipts. These are exactly the images you would rather not hand to an unknown server, and yet the standard advice is to upload them to a converter site.
Imgnest decodes HEIC in your browser using a WebAssembly build of the decoder and re-encodes to JPEG locally. Drop in the whole set at once — there is no per-file limit and no queue, because the work is done by your own device. Nothing is transmitted at any point, which you can confirm by disconnecting from the internet before you start.
Good to know
HEIC has been the iPhone camera default since 2017 because it stores roughly the same quality as JPG in half the space. The problem is purely compatibility: Windows needs an extension from the Microsoft Store, browsers generally will not display it, and plenty of web forms reject it outright.
Expect the JPG to be 1.5 to 2 times larger than the HEIC it came from — that storage saving is exactly what you are giving up. Keep the HEIC originals and convert copies; the conversion also drops HEIC-only extras such as Live Photo motion and depth maps.
If this keeps happening, fix it at the source: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible makes the camera shoot JPG directly. There is also a middle path — leave the camera on High Efficiency but set Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic, and iOS converts on the way out.
Read more: HEIC vs JPG: why your iPhone photos won't open · Why in-browser image processing is more private
Frequently asked questions
Why does my iPhone save photos as HEIC?
HEIC stores the same quality as JPG in about half the space, so Apple made it the default. The problem is compatibility: Windows, older software and many web forms do not accept it.
Is it safe to convert personal photos here?
Yes — and this is the key difference from most converters: your photos are decoded inside your browser and never uploaded. You can turn off your connection after loading the page and it still works.
Does the conversion lose quality?
The JPG is saved at high quality, so any difference is invisible in normal use. Keep the original HEIC if you want the untouched file.
Can I stop my iPhone from using HEIC?
Yes: Settings → Camera → Formats → “Most Compatible” makes the camera shoot JPG directly, at the cost of larger files.
Why is the JPEG larger than the HEIC I started with?
HEIC uses a newer, more efficient codec, so the same picture needs more bytes as a JPEG. Roughly double is normal. If size matters, compress the result afterwards.
What happens to a Live Photo?
You get the still frame as a JPEG. The short video attached to a Live Photo has no place in the JPEG format and is not included.