All guides · Photos & images
iPhone HEIC photos won’t open on your PC? How to fix it
Short answer
- For future photos, set Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible on the iPhone and it will save JPG instead of HEIC.
- For photos you copy over a USB cable, set Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC > Automatic so the iPhone hands them over as JPG.
- To open HEIC files directly on Windows, install the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store; some PCs also need the HEVC Video Extensions.
What HEIC is and why it fails
HEIC (a form of HEIF) has been the iPhone’s default photo format since iOS 11. It stores a photo at similar quality in noticeably less space than JPG, which is why Apple uses it. The catch is compatibility: older Windows installs, some photo editors and many job, university, visa and insurance upload portals still accept only JPG or PNG. The result is an “unsupported file type” error, or a file picker that simply greys the photo out.
The photo is not damaged. The app or website in front of it does not understand the format, so the fix is either to convert the file or to add a reader that does.
Pick the fix that matches your situation
| Situation | Simplest fix |
|---|---|
| You want future photos to be JPG from the start | iPhone: Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible |
| You copy photos to a PC with a USB cable | iPhone: Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC > Automatic |
| You want Windows Photos to open HEIC files | Install HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store |
| The HEIC files are already on a Mac | Open in Preview, then File > Export and choose JPEG |
| You need a few JPGs for an upload right now, on iPhone or Mac | Use HEIC to JPG in Safari |
1. Make the iPhone camera save JPG
Open Settings > Camera > Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPG. Photos you have already taken are not changed, and each new photo will take more storage than the HEIC version would have.
2. Let the iPhone convert during transfer
At the bottom of Settings > Photos, “Transfer to Mac or PC” has two options. Automatic converts photos to a compatible format when you import them over a USB cable; Keep Originals copies the HEIC files as they are. This setting applies to cable transfers. Photos that reach your computer through cloud sync, email or a messaging app may still arrive as HEIC.
3. Open HEIC on Windows
Search the Microsoft Store for “HEIF Image Extensions” and install it. On some PCs the Photos app also needs the “HEVC Video Extensions” to decode the image data, and that extension may be sold rather than free. Once the photo opens, you can save a JPG copy from the Photos app if a website still needs one.
4. Convert in the browser without uploading
FileLivo’s HEIC to JPG converts photos in your browser instead of sending them to a server. It relies on the browser’s own HEIC decoding, so it works in Safari 17 or later on iPhone and Mac when the system can read the file, and it usually fails in Chrome on Windows. It handles up to 5 photos at a time, each up to 20 MiB and 24 megapixels. Only the main still image is converted: HDR, depth, Live Photo motion and the original metadata are not kept.
Before you convert
- Check the file extension first. A photo exported from the Photos app with “Save to Files” or attached through some apps may already be a JPG.
- If the photo was taken on an iPhone with Location Services on, the JPG made by your phone or computer may still carry GPS coordinates. Before posting it publicly, read how to remove photo location data.
- Converting does not delete the original. Keep the HEIC file; it is the higher-quality copy.
How to check the result
Open the new JPG on the device you will upload from, not only on the phone. Compare it with the original for orientation, colour and fine detail such as text on a document. Then confirm the extension reads .jpg and that the file size fits the form’s limit before you submit.