How to convert HEIC to JPG on iPhone
If you landed here, a photo from your iPhone probably refused to open on a Windows PC, in an old app, or on a website's upload form. That is a compatibility problem, not a corruption problem — the file is fine, the other machine just can't read it.
What HEIC actually is
HEIC is a HEIF container holding an image encoded with HEVC (H.265) — the same codec family used for video. Apple made it the camera default in iOS 11 (2017), and it earns its place: at the same visual quality a HEIC is typically about half the size of the equivalent JPG, it stores 10-bit colour instead of JPG's 8-bit, and it can carry extras a JPG has no room for — depth maps, Live Photo pairing, HDR gain maps, multiple images in one file.
The catch is licensing. HEVC is patent-encumbered, so Windows has never shipped a HEIC decoder in the box — Microsoft sells the codec as a separate Store download. Plenty of web upload forms, print shops, older Android builds and enterprise software reject it for the same reason. JPG, by contrast, is 30+ years old, unencumbered, and decodable by literally everything.
What you lose in the conversion
Be clear-eyed about this: both formats are lossy, so this is a re-encode, not a copy. The HEIC is decoded to pixels and those pixels are compressed again with a different, older, less efficient algorithm. Practically:
- Quality: at a high quality setting the difference is invisible to the eye, but it is not mathematically free. Never re-convert an image repeatedly — lossy generations compound.
- File size: expect the JPG to be roughly 1.5x to 2x larger than the HEIC at comparable quality. You are trading bytes for compatibility.
- Colour depth: 10-bit HEIC becomes 8-bit JPG. On an ordinary photo you will not notice; on a smooth sky gradient you might see faint banding.
- The extras: depth data, the Live Photo video, and HDR gain maps do not survive. A JPG is one flat frame.
Metadata: Convexy strips EXIF, GPS, IPTC and TIFF tags by default, so the JPG you hand over does not quietly carry the coordinates of your house. If you want the camera data and location kept — for a photo archive, say — turn off “Strip metadata” in Options before converting.
Doing it without uploading your photos
Most “free HEIC converter” websites work by uploading your photo to their server, converting it there, and letting you download it back. For a picture of a receipt, fine. For pictures of your family, your passport, or a whiteboard at work, you have just handed a stranger a copy and taken their word on deletion.
Convexy converts on the device itself, using Apple's own imaging frameworks. There is no server involved, so there is nothing to upload and nothing to leak — it works in Airplane Mode, which is the easiest way to prove to yourself that an app isn't phoning home.
The better fix: stop shooting HEIC
If you convert HEIC constantly, treat the cause instead of the symptom. Go to Settings → Camera → Formats and choose Most Compatible: your iPhone will shoot JPG from then on. You give up the size and quality advantages, but nothing needs converting again. Leave it on High Efficiency and convert the few photos you actually need to share — that is usually the better trade.
How to do it
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Bring the photo in
Open Convexy and tap Browse files, or pick from Photos. You can also share a photo into Convexy from the Photos app share sheet. Select several HEICs at once and they go to the batch screen.
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Choose JPG
Convexy shows only the formats a HEIC can actually become — JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, WebP, AVIF, ICO or PDF. Tap JPG.
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Set the quality (optional)
The quality slider defaults to a high setting that is visually indistinguishable from the source on a photo. Drop it if you need a smaller file for email; leave it alone for anything you might print.
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Decide about metadata
Metadata is stripped by default. Turn the toggle off if you deliberately want to keep EXIF camera settings and GPS location in the JPG.
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Convert, then save or share
Tap Convert. You will see the output size next to the original, so you know exactly what the trade cost you. Save it back to Photos or Files, or send it straight on from the share sheet.
Common questions
Why won't my iPhone photo open on Windows?
Because it is a HEIC, and Windows does not ship an HEVC decoder by default — the codec is patent-licensed. Windows 10 and 11 can open HEIC only if you install Microsoft's HEIF/HEVC extensions from the Store. Converting to JPG sidesteps the problem entirely, and is the right move if you are sending photos to someone whose setup you do not control.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
Yes, technically — both are lossy formats, so the image is decompressed and re-compressed. At a high quality setting the loss is not visible to the human eye on a normal photograph. What you will definitely notice is the file getting bigger: JPG is a far less efficient codec, so the same picture typically lands at 1.5x to 2x the HEIC's size.
Can I convert a JPG back into a HEIC?
Yes, Convexy can write HEIC from a JPG, and the file will get smaller. But understand what that is: it re-compresses the already-lossy JPG with a second lossy codec. It does not recover the quality or the 10-bit colour the original HEIC had. Round-tripping HEIC → JPG → HEIC leaves you worse off than either single step.
What happens to my Live Photo?
The motion is lost. A Live Photo is a still image plus a short video, and JPG is a single-frame format with nowhere to put the video. You get the key frame as a normal photo. If the movement is the point, extract the video from the Live Photo instead of converting the still.
Does the JPG still contain my GPS location?
Not by default in Convexy — EXIF, GPS, IPTC and TIFF metadata are stripped unless you explicitly turn that off. This matters more than people think: photos posted online or emailed with intact EXIF can reveal exactly where they were taken, and many converter tools and websites preserve it silently.
How do I convert a whole album at once?
Select multiple files when you browse — two or more sends you to the batch screen, where every file is converted with the same settings and each one gets its own success or failure status. Conversion runs on-device, so a large batch is limited by your phone's processor, not by an upload queue.