How do I open HEIC photos on Windows for free?

Why Windows can’t open your iPhone photos

Since iOS 11, iPhones save photos as HEIC (the HEIF format with HEVC compression). It keeps the same quality as JPG in less space, but Windows doesn’t include the HEVC decoder it needs, so the Photos app shows an error or a blank picture, and many websites refuse the file.

You have four ways out. Converting to JPG is the only one that is free, works on every PC and also fixes uploads to websites.

Convert HEIC to JPG on Windows, a whole folder at once

1. Drop the HEIC photos at the top of this page, or click Select File and choose them all (Ctrl+A selects a whole folder).
2. It’s already set to HEIC to JPG. Click Convert: the photos are converted in your browser, one after another.
3. Click Download all to get every JPG in one ZIP, or Download next to each photo.

Tip: Photos up to 200 MB each are converted on your PC and never uploaded. Open Options to make them smaller (a lower quality or width) or to remove the location and camera details.

Or install the Windows extensions to view HEIC in Photos

Windows can show HEIC photos in its Photos app once two Microsoft Store extensions are installed. The HEIF Image Extension is free, but on its own it can’t show .heic files: Microsoft says the HEVC Video Extensions must be installed too, and they cost $0.99 in the US store. Some PCs already have the free HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer preinstalled.

The extensions only help on that PC: the files are still HEIC, so websites, forms and other people’s computers may still refuse them. For anything you send or upload, convert to JPG.

Stop your iPhone saving photos as HEIC

1. On the iPhone, open Settings → Camera → Formats.
2. Choose Most Compatible. New photos and videos are saved as JPG and H.264 from now on; photos you already took stay HEIC.
3. For photos copied to a PC with a cable, open Settings → Apps → Photos and keep Transfer to Mac or PC on Automatic: the iPhone then converts them to JPG as they are copied.

Tip: Sharing by email, Messages or AirDrop may also send a JPG when the other device can’t open HEIC: the iPhone decides that by itself.

JPG, PNG or TIFF?

We tested it: five real iPhone photos

We converted five real HEIC photos (four from iPhones) to JPG together, in Chrome on an ordinary laptop. All five were converted in the browser in 9.1 s in all, and Download all gave one ZIP. The JPGs came out about the same size as the HEIC files, at a quality where the difference is hard to see.

Tip: Tested on 8 November 2026 with photos from the test-heic-images and libheif projects. A full iPhone photo takes about two seconds on a laptop; a phone is slower.

Your photos stay on your PC

HEIC to JPG runs inside your browser, so the photos are never uploaded. iPhone photos often record where they were taken: tick Remove metadata in Options to leave the location and camera details out of the JPGs, for example before posting them online.

When something looks wrong

• A Live Photo: it is a HEIC photo plus a short MOV video. Converting gives the still photo as JPG; the moving part is a separate video file.
• The photo is sideways: ConvertKitty turns each photo upright using the orientation the iPhone recorded. If a photo still looks wrong, it was already saved that way.
• “Not supported” or the file won’t convert: the file may not be a real HEIC (some apps rename other formats) or it may be damaged. Try opening it in the HEIC viewer to check.
• Uploading still fails after converting: the form may also limit the size. Open Options and lower the quality or the width, then convert again.