5 Free Tricks to Convert iPhone HEIC Photos to JPG

For those who have updated their iPhone to iOS 11, I guess it's confusing that they can’t view iPhone photos on computer or other devices. That’s because Apple changed photo format to HEIC in iOS 11. HEIC is a new image format developed by MPEG, another extension of HEIF (High Efficiency Image File). Although it’s said to end the reign of JPG format, HEIF and HEIC files still can’t work on most devices including Windows PC and Android devices by now. And so far it merely works on the Apple devices which run the latest OS High Sierra or iOS 11. So to open HEIC photos from iPhone on other platforms, you need to change the photo format. Thus follow this article and pick one out of five methods to convert iPhone HEIC to JPG.

Part One: Save Photos as JPG instead of HEIC in iPhone

Apple has built a feature inside iPhone to fix the photo format problem, for HEIC can’t be work on most non-Apple devices by now. For those who don’t want their photos to be saved in HEIC formats on iPhone, they can change the default setting.

1. Go to Settings > Camera > Formats
2. Tick “Most Compatible” instead of “High Efficiency”

After following the steps above, every new photo taken by iPhone from then on will be saved in the most popular JPG formats.

Part Two: “Transfer to Mac or PC” Features of iPhone Photos

If you prefer to keep HEIC photos on iPhone, yet also want to open them on computer or other devices, you can follow this method. Right now not many device other than Apple products can works with HEIC files. So you need to change the formats of photos first before you view them on computer. Luckily, iPhone also have a built-in feature for this.

1. Go to Settings > Photos and scroll down to Transfer to Mac or PC.
2. Tick “Automatic” not “Keep Original” to change photo format while showing on Mac.

Now with the latest OS High Sierra, Mac can support HEIF files. But for the older MAC OS and other computer, HEIC and HEIF files still need to be converted to other popular formats.

Part Three: Online iPhone HEIC Photo Converter

Browse “heic to jpg” in the Google or other search engines, and you will find a bunch of online heic/heif converter. Here I will list some of them for you.

1. HEIC Photos to JPG by JPEGmini. This free site can convert up to 50 photos.
2. Converter HEIF online by Aconvert. This free site can convert HEIC/HEIF files to not only JPG, but also other image formats like PNG, PDF, BMP, WEBP and so on.
3. Free HEIC online converter by Apowersoft
4. Feel Tool Online - Convert HEIC to JPG. This site can be uploaded up to 20 photos.
5. Gihosoft Free HEIC converter. A new and efficient HEIC/HEIF file converter.

Part Four: Share Photos via Mail or Other Cloud Storage Apps

Sharing photos to Mail or some cloud storage service also can convert heic files to jpg automatically. You just need to select photos and share them to Mail from Photos App, and then choose which size you want to send when there’s a prompt (original size for the best quality). Afterwards you will receive photos as JPG format in your mail box.

Alternatively, you can upload them to a cloud storage app. Some of these apps are able to convert heic photos, such as Google Drive and OneDrive, while DropBox allows you to view HEIF and HEVC files online. 

Part Five: Third-party HEIC TO JPG Converter Software

Besides all those methods mentioned above, there’re also some third-party utilities for HEIC photos converting to JPG. The most famous one is iMazing HEIC Converter. It’s a free tool that you can use on Mac or PC, but it’s only able to convert HEIC to JPG and PNG.

Furthermore:

If you have trouble recovering HEIC or JPG photos deleted on iPhone or iPad accidentally, you can use Gihosoft iPhone Data Recovery to retrieve precious photos from iPhone or iPhone backup in iTunes/iCloud.