HEIC explained: what it is and how to open iPhone photos anywhere

You took a perfectly ordinary photo, sent it to a laptop, and it arrived as .HEIC, a file some apps open and others refuse. Nothing is broken. It’s a newer, more efficient photo format that iPhones have used by default for years. Here’s what it is, which devices read it, how to change the setting, and how to turn a HEIC into a JPG without sending your photos anywhere.

What HEIF and HEIC actually are

HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) is an international standard from the MPEG group, published by ISO as ISO/IEC 23008-12, also known as MPEG-H Part 12. The first edition came out in 2017. HEIF is a container: a structured file that holds pictures and information about them. It is a special case of the ISO base media file format (ISO/IEC 14496-12), and it can hold a single image, a collection of images, or a sequence, plus metadata such as EXIF.

The container doesn’t decide how the pixels are compressed. That job belongs to a codec. When the pictures inside a HEIF file are compressed with HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, also called H.265), the file uses the brand “heic”, and Apple gives such files the .heic extension. So, strictly speaking, HEIC is HEIF with HEVC inside. Most people use the two names for the same thing, and so will we from here on.

HEVC is a video codec, which sounds odd for a still photo, but a photo is just a single frame. HEVC has profiles meant specifically for still images, and they are what make HEIC files smaller than JPGs of similar quality. The Library of Congress format notes also describe a neat trick Apple uses: an iPhone photo is stored as a grid of 512 × 512 pixel tiles, which helps when you pan and zoom.

Why your iPhone uses it

Apple introduced HEIF for photos (and HEVC for video) with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra in 2017. Its reason, in its own words: HEIF and HEVC “offer better compression than JPEG and H.264, so they use less storage space on your devices and iCloud Photos, while preserving the same visual quality.” A smaller file per photo adds up quickly across a library of thousands.

Apple’s support page lists iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus or later among the devices that can capture in HEIF, along with recent iPads and Apple Vision Pro. On those devices, “High Efficiency” is the default. On supported Macs with macOS Tahoe 26 or later, screenshots also come out as HEIF when the Screenshot app’s capture format is set to HDR.

Apple’s own devices and apps handle this quietly. When you share with AirDrop, Messages or email and the receiving device doesn’t support the newer format, Apple says the photo “might automatically be shared in a more compatible format, such as JPEG.”

Switching your iPhone to JPG, and the transfer setting

If you’d rather never see a HEIC file again, you can switch the camera back to JPEG. Apple’s steps:

1. Open Settings, then tap Camera.
2. Tap Formats, then tap Most Compatible.

New photos are then saved as JPEG and new videos as H.264. To go back, choose High Efficiency. The setting only appears on devices that can capture HEIF, and it doesn’t convert photos you’ve already taken. The cost is storage: you give up the space saving that’s the whole point of the format.

There is a second, separate setting for copying photos to a computer over USB. Apple notes that when you import from an iPhone into Photos, Image Capture or a PC, the media “might be converted to JPEG or H.264.” If you don’t want that conversion, open Settings, tap Apps, tap Photos, scroll down and tap Keep Originals. That gives you the true HEIC files, which is useful for backups, but your computer then needs to be able to open them.

Which devices open HEIC

Support has improved a lot since 2017, but it still isn’t universal. This is what each platform’s own documentation says:

On Windows, Microsoft also suggests two ways around the extensions: let the device convert files as you copy or email them, or upload photos to OneDrive, which converts them. The catch with any upload route is that your photos leave your device first.

HDR, 10-bit color and Live Photos

HEVC isn’t limited to 8 bits per color channel (256 levels each of red, green and blue). It can also code 10, 12 and 16 bits, and it supports the color systems used for high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut pictures. The Library of Congress notes that some camera makers already offer 10-bit HEIF files, and Apple’s HDR screenshots on recent Macs are saved as HEIF.

The same Library of Congress description notes that converting such a file to JPEG reduces it to 8 bits. For everyday viewing and sharing that’s rarely visible, but if you edit HDR photos seriously, keep the originals and convert copies.

Live Photos are a separate thing. With Live Photo on (it is by default), your iPhone records what happens 1.5 seconds before and after you take the picture. Apple supports Live Photos on iPhone 6s and later. The motion is video, not a photo. A HEIC converter deals with the still image; if you drop the .mov video from a Live Photo into ours, it explains that it handles still images rather than failing silently. Photos that hold several images, such as bursts, are converted using the primary image.

Location data in iPhone photos

HEIC files carry EXIF metadata just like JPGs, and that can include where the photo was taken. Apple explains that when Location Services is on for the Camera app, the location coordinates are embedded in each photo and video, and that people you share them with “may be able to access the location metadata and learn where it was taken.”

Apple’s own controls, all on iPhone:

• For one share: in the share sheet, tap Options and turn off Location. “Location Not Included” appears above the button.
• For one photo in your library: open it, tap the info button, then Adjust Info > Adjust Location > No Location.
• For all future photos: Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > Camera, then Never.

If the files are already on your computer, the EXIF remover shows what’s inside each photo, including GPS coordinates. It can read HEIC files but can’t clean them in place, so for HEIC the simplest route is to convert with location removed. Our guide to removing location data from photos covers Android, Windows and Mac too.

Converting HEIC without uploading

Converting doesn’t have to mean uploading. The HEIC to JPG converter runs entirely in your browser, and the files never leave your device. In Safari, it uses the browser’s own HEIC decoder. In other browsers, it downloads a decoder of about 1.5 MB once (libheif, an open-source library compiled to WebAssembly) and decodes your files on your device.

• Output is JPG (quality 50–100, default 90) or PNG.
• Metadata: Remove location, keep the rest is the default; you can also remove everything or keep everything, and you’ll be warned if GPS is present.
• Each row shows the date taken and a “Location removed” or “Location kept” badge.
• Batches download as a single zip.

If you’re sending photos to a website with a size limit, convert first and then compress, or use the compressor directly: it accepts HEIC and saves it as JPG. If you want to keep a photo but tidy what it reveals, the converter’s default already drops the location while keeping the date and camera details you might want.

Written and checked by the PixWrench team against the sources listed above. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we’ll check it and note the fix in the changelog.