How to open HEIC photos on Windows

You copy photos from an iPhone to a PC, double-click one, and get an error, a blank thumbnail or a prompt to buy something from the Store. The files end in .HEIC, and Windows does not handle them out of the box. Upload forms, online print shops and older editing software often refuse them too.

There are three ways out: teach Windows to read HEIC, convert the files to JPG, or stop the iPhone producing HEIC in the first place. Which one is right depends on whether you only need to look at the photos or also need to send, upload or edit them.

What HEIC is and why the iPhone uses it

Since iOS 11, iPhones and iPads save photos in HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File format, with the .heic extension. The picture inside is compressed with HEVC (H.265), the same codec the iPhone uses for video. A 12 MP photo that takes 3 to 4 MB as JPG usually fits in about half that as HEIC with the same visible detail.

The cost is compatibility. JPG has been readable everywhere for decades; HEIC needs an HEVC decoder, and HEVC is covered by patents, which is why it is not built into every operating system and browser by default.

Option 1: make Windows open HEIC

Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC in the Photos app, Paint and File Explorer thumbnails once two extensions from the Microsoft Store are installed:

• HEIF Image Extensions, which is free and often already present.
• HEVC Video Extensions, which Microsoft sells for a small fee. Some PCs ship with a manufacturer version preinstalled.

This is enough if you only want to view your own photos on your own PC. It does not help when the next step is a website, a colleague's computer or a print service that wants JPG, and it has to be repeated on every machine.

Option 2: convert to JPG in the browser

HEIC to JPG converts any number of photos at once, without installing anything and without uploading them. The page loads libheif, an open-source HEIF decoder compiled to WebAssembly, and decodes each photo on your own device. That makes it suitable for private pictures, ID photos and documents.

1. Open the converter and drop the HEIC files, or a whole selection from the folder you copied them into. Each file can be up to 50 MB, enough for 48 MP shots.
2. Set the quality slider. It starts at 85%, which is visually identical to the original for normal viewing.
3. Download each JPG, or all of them as one ZIP.

The JPG keeps the full resolution: a 4032×3024 HEIC becomes a 4032×3024 JPG. Rotation is applied, so portrait shots come out upright.

Picking the quality

• Sharing, chat and online forms: 75 to 85%.
• Printing: 90%, which keeps fine texture in skin, fabric and foliage.
• Further editing: 95 to 100%, because every later JPG save loses a little more.

Expect the JPG to be larger than the HEIC even at 85%. That is normal: HEVC is the more efficient codec.

What is not carried over

• EXIF metadata: date taken, camera model and GPS location are dropped. That is useful before posting photos publicly. If you need capture dates for sorting an archive, read them first with EXIF viewer or keep the HEIC originals next to the JPGs.
• Portrait depth data: the blur already in the photo stays, but it can no longer be adjusted.
• HDR brightness: on newer iPhones the JPG looks like the standard version of the photo, so it may appear less bright than in the iPhone's Photos app on an HDR screen.
• Live Photo motion: the moving part lives in a separate .mov file and is not part of the conversion.

Option 3: stop producing HEIC on the iPhone

If you regularly move photos to Windows, two settings on the iPhone remove most of the friction:

• Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPG. They take more storage on the phone, and some newer camera features depend on the high-efficiency format, but every computer and website reads them.
• Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic. When you copy photos over a USB cable, the iPhone converts them to JPG on the fly. With Keep Originals you get HEIC files.

Neither setting touches photos you already have, HEIC files sent to you by someone else, or photos downloaded from cloud storage as originals. Those still need converting.

Where HEIC files come from on a PC

It helps to know which routes convert automatically and which do not:

• USB cable with Transfer set to Automatic: JPG.
• USB cable with Keep Originals: HEIC.
• Downloading originals from cloud storage or a backup: usually HEIC.
• AirDrop to a Mac: HEIC. A Mac opens it natively, and Preview can export it as JPG through File → Export.
• Sharing from the iPhone to an email or many apps: often converted to JPG for compatibility, though not every app does it.
• Files received from friends as attachments: whatever their phone was set to.

After converting: getting under upload limits

A 12 MP JPG at 85% is typically 1.5 to 3 MB. Many forms cap photos at 1 or 2 MB, and some want a specific pixel size.

• Reduce the resolution first. Resize image to 2000 px on the long side and a typical phone photo falls well under 1 MB while staying sharp on any screen. Enter 2000 in both width and height with the ratio lock on, and portrait and landscape shots alike get 2000 px on their longest side.
• Then lower the quality if needed. Compress JPG at 70 to 80% shaves off a good part of what remains.

Lowering quality alone on a full-resolution photo works less well than resizing: you lose detail everywhere and still carry 12 million pixels.

Troubleshooting

• The converter rejects a file. Check that it really is HEIC; some apps rename JPGs or even videos with a .heic extension. A file that fails to decode may have been damaged during transfer, so copy it again.
• Photos come out sideways. The rotation stored in the HEIC is applied during conversion. If a photo was already rotated wrongly on the phone, rotate the JPG afterwards.
• Conversion is slow. HEVC decoding is demanding. A hundred photos are quick on a laptop and take a while on an older phone; you can leave the tab working in the background.
• Windows still shows no thumbnails after installing the extensions. Restart File Explorer or sign out and back in; thumbnail caches do not always refresh immediately.
• Dates are wrong after converting. The JPG has no EXIF date, so programs sort it by file date instead. Keep the originals if the archive order matters.

Checklist

1. Only viewing on your own PC: install the two Store extensions.
2. Sending, uploading or editing: convert to JPG at 85%.
3. Many photos: drop them all at once and download the ZIP.
4. Upload limit: resize to about 2000 px, then compress.
5. Moving photos to a PC often: switch the iPhone transfer setting to Automatic.