Why iPhone Photos Won't Open (and How to Convert HEIC to JPG)

You airdrop a photo to your laptop, double-click it, and get an error. Or you try to upload a picture to a job application form and it says the file type isn't supported. The file ends in .heic. Your iPhone made it, and plenty of other software can't read it.

Nothing is wrong with the photo. It's saved in a format that's newer than most of the world's software.

What HEIC is

Apple's flavor of the HEIF image container uses the HEVC video codec to compress the picture. Apple switched iPhones to it starting with iOS 11 in 2017. The main reason was file size. Apple says these files come out around half the size of an equivalent JPEG, which helps when you take thousands of photos on a phone with limited storage.

The trouble is compatibility. JPEG dates back to the early 1990s and every device and website understands it. HEIC needs the software to license or include an HEVC decoder, and many platforms haven't bothered.

Fix 1: convert the file you already have

If you've got HEIC files right now and need JPEGs, this is the quickest route.

1. Open the HEIC to JPG converter.
2. Drop your photo in. Conversion happens in your browser, so the picture isn't sent to a server.
3. Download the JPG and use that copy wherever the upload was failing.

Keep the original HEIC too. JPEG is a lossy format, so converting means the image gets compressed again. One conversion at a decent quality setting looks fine for most uses. But you don't want your only copy to be a re-compressed one.

Fix 2: make the iPhone save JPEG from now on

If you'd rather never deal with this again, switch the camera format:

1. Open Settings, then Camera, then Formats.
2. Choose Most Compatible instead of High Efficiency.

Photos will be JPEG going forward. The trade-off is bigger files, roughly double, so your storage fills faster. Photos you already took stay as HEIC.

Fix 3: let the transfer convert for you

There's a setting for when you plug your iPhone into a computer. Go to Settings, then Photos, and scroll to Transfer to Mac or PC. Pick Automatic and the phone converts to a compatible format as it copies files across. Pick Keep Originals if you want the untouched HEIC files.

Opening HEIC on Windows

Windows 10 and 11 can open HEIC in the Photos app, but only after you add codecs from the Microsoft Store. You typically need the HEIF Image Extensions, and often the HEVC Video Extensions too. One of those has sometimes been a paid add-on rather than free. If you don't want to install anything, converting to JPG is easier.

What you lose when you convert

For a normal photo, not much. The differences that matter:

• Color depth. HEIC can store 10-bit color. JPEG is 8-bit. Smooth gradients in skies can show faint banding after conversion in rare cases.
• Extras. Live Photo motion, depth data, and some HDR information don't come along. You get a normal still image.
• Quality. JPEG re-encodes the picture. A single conversion is fine. Don't repeatedly convert and re-save the same file.

Should you use PNG or WebP instead?

Sometimes. PNG is lossless, so it won't degrade the image, but a photo saved as PNG can be several times larger than the JPG. WebP gives smaller files than JPG at similar quality and works in every modern browser, though some older apps and email clients still choke on it. Our image format guide covers when each one makes sense.

For a form upload, an email, or sending a picture to someone with an older device, plain JPG is the safest pick.