Convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPG
Photos copied off an iPhone often arrive as .heic files that Windows and older software will not open. Convert them here, without sending your photos to anyone.
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Nothing here is uploaded. See how the page enforces it.
Why your iPhone photos are HEIC
Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos as HEIC by default. It stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPEG, which is why Apple switched. The catch appears the moment the file leaves the Apple ecosystem: Windows needs an extension to open it, many websites reject it, and a lot of software has never heard of it.
A note on how this page works, because it is different from the other converters here: the page includes its own HEIC decoder. It is served from this domain, runs in a local browser worker and does not depend on an operating-system codec. The first visit therefore downloads a larger tool script; after that, the visited page and decoder are available from the offline cache.
The privacy angle is not decoration here
Photos straight off a phone are the most sensitive files most people ever convert. They carry GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres, the exact time they were taken, and the device that took them. Every online HEIC converter that uploads your file receives all of that, on top of the picture itself.
This page receives none of it, because it receives nothing. The photo is decoded and re-encoded inside your browser tab. As a side effect of that re-encoding, the output JPGs carry no EXIF and no GPS data at all. The location where the photo was taken does not travel with the converted copy.
If you would rather keep a photo's date and camera information, this is a reason to convert on the phone itself instead. The trade is real and you should know which side of it you are on.
Turning it off at the source
If you would rather your iPhone stopped producing HEIC in the first place: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPEG from then on, at the cost of roughly double the storage. Photos already on the phone stay HEIC.
Questions
+ Why will Windows not open my HEIC files?
Windows needs the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store, which are not always installed. Converting to JPG avoids the problem entirely and works with everything.
+ Will this work in my browser?
Yes in current browsers that support Web Workers and Canvas. The HEIC decoder is part of this page and runs locally, so no Windows extension, Apple device or operating-system HEIC codec is required. Files that cannot be decoded are flagged in the list, not skipped silently.
+ Are my photos uploaded?
No, and for this tool that matters more than most: a phone photo carries GPS coordinates and timestamps. Nothing is transmitted, so none of that reaches anyone.
+ Does the converted JPG keep the location data?
No. Re-encoding drops all EXIF, including GPS. That is usually what people want from a photo they are about to share, but if you need the metadata preserved, convert on the phone instead.
+ How much bigger will the JPG be?
Roughly twice the size of the HEIC at comparable quality. HEIC is the more efficient format; JPG is the more compatible one.