How to convert HEIC to JPG on Windows 11
You copy photos from your iPhone to a Windows PC and end up with a folder of .HEIC files that show as blank icons, refuse to open in Paint, and get rejected by half the websites you try to upload them to.
The cause is straightforward. Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photos in HEIC — a format that stores roughly the same visible quality as JPG in about half the space. It is genuinely better technology, and support outside Apple's ecosystem has never quite caught up. Here are the four ways to deal with it, and the one setting that stops it recurring.
Method 1: convert in your browser
The fastest route when you have a handful of photos and don't want to install or configure anything. A browser-based converter decodes the HEIC in JavaScript and writes out a JPG, all on your machine — the photos are never uploaded, which matters given these are usually personal pictures.
It works on any Windows version, needs no admin rights (useful on a work laptop), and handles several files in one go. The one quirk: browsers block pages that start many downloads in quick succession, so allow multiple downloads when prompted and work in batches of about ten for large sets.
Method 2: install the Microsoft HEIF extension
This is the right long-term fix if you deal with iPhone photos regularly, because it teaches Windows itself to understand the format rather than converting file by file.
- Open the Microsoft Store and search for HEIF Image Extensions. Install it — it is free.
- Double-click a HEIC file. It should now open in the Photos app, and thumbnails should appear in File Explorer.
- To convert one, open it in Paint and use File → Save as → JPEG.
A wrinkle worth knowing: there is a companion package, HEVC Video Extensions, which Microsoft charges a small fee for and which is needed for HEIC files using certain encodings, as well as for iPhone video. If HEIF Image Extensions alone doesn't do it, that is usually why. On Windows 11 the image extension is often already present.
Handles multiple photos at once, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Open the tool →Method 3: let the transfer convert them for you
This is the method most people don't know about, and it is the cleanest of the lot. Your iPhone can convert photos to JPG automatically as it hands them over:
- On the iPhone, open Settings → Photos.
- Scroll to the bottom, to Transfer to Mac or PC.
- Choose Automatic rather than Keep Originals.
Now, when you connect by cable and copy photos to your PC, the phone converts them to JPG during the transfer. Nothing arrives as HEIC in the first place. If your photos have been coming across as HEIC, this setting is set to Keep Originals — which is exactly why.
Method 4: stop the iPhone creating HEIC at all
If you would rather not deal with the format ever again:
- On the iPhone, open Settings → Camera → Formats.
- Choose Most Compatible instead of High Efficiency.
Every photo taken from then on is saved as JPG. The trade-off is real — photos take roughly twice the storage space, and you lose HEIC's support for 10-bit colour depth — but for many people the compatibility is worth more than the space. Note this affects new photos only; everything already in your library stays HEIC.
Which method should you pick?
| Situation | Best method |
|---|---|
| A few photos, right now | Browser converter |
| You handle iPhone photos often | Install HEIF Image Extensions |
| You transfer by cable regularly | Set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic |
| You never want HEIC again | Set Camera Formats to Most Compatible |
| Work laptop, no admin rights | Browser converter |
What you lose in conversion
Two things are worth flagging. First, expect the JPG to be bigger than the HEIC — often twice the size — because HEIC is simply a more efficient container. If file size matters, compress the JPGs afterwards.
Second, HEIC files can carry more than a single still image. Live Photos store a short motion clip, and portrait mode photos store depth data that lets you re-adjust the background blur. Neither survives conversion to JPG — you get the still frame only. If those matter to you, keep the HEIC originals somewhere even after converting.
If a HEIC file still won't open
A few things to check. Files copied over a poor cable connection can arrive truncated — recopy them. Photos synced through iCloud with Optimise iPhone Storage enabled may be placeholder thumbnails rather than full images until downloaded; open each one in the Photos app on the phone first to force a full download. And a file that came via a messaging app may have been re-encoded into something with an inaccurate extension, in which case the original from the phone is the file you want.