What is a HEIC file?
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is the format iPhones have used for photos since iOS 11. It stores the same picture as a JPG in roughly half the space, which is why Apple made it the default. The catch is compatibility: older Windows PCs, many Android phones, web upload forms and some photo editors cannot open it.
Converting to JPG gives you a file that opens on virtually any device. You lose a little of HEIC's efficiency (the JPG is bigger), but at the High quality setting the difference is not visible.
Private by design
Your file is opened by your own browser and converted on your device. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no queue, no file-size quota and no copy left on someone else's server. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and the conversion still works.
That matters for photos: they often carry faces, documents and location data. Most online HEIC converters upload every photo to their servers first; this one does not.
Stop your iPhone from creating HEIC files
If you would rather get JPGs straight from the camera, open Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPG. To keep HEIC on the phone but send JPGs to your computer, go to Settings → Photos and set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic.
For a photo you only need once, iPhone can also convert without any tool: open the Files app, long-press the image and choose Quick Actions → Convert Image. Our iPhone HEIC guide walks through every built-in method.
Notes on very large photos
48-megapixel ProRAW-sized HEIC images are larger than Safari on iPhone allows in one canvas, so on an iPhone they are scaled to about 16 megapixels (still more than 4K). On a computer you keep the full size.
By Furkan Kaya, developer of ConvertEase · Updated