Manatee

HEIC explained: why iPhone photos won't open everywhere

· 6 min read

HEIC is the image format iPhones have saved photos in by default since iOS 11 in 2017. It stores a picture at roughly half the size of an equivalent JPEG, using the same compression family as HEVC video, but support outside Apple devices is patchy: Windows needs add-on codecs, many web upload forms reject it, and older software has never heard of it. The fix is to convert to JPEG, or to tell the iPhone to hand over JPEGs in the first place.

What HEIC actually is

The name stands for High Efficiency Image Container, and it is a file built on the HEIF standard (High Efficiency Image File Format) with the picture inside compressed using HEVC, the same codec iPhones use for video. That combination is why the files are so compact. A 12-megapixel photo that would be 3 to 4 MB as a JPEG is typically 1.5 to 2 MB as HEIC, with no visible difference.

HEIC also does things JPEG structurally cannot. A single file can hold more than one image (that is how burst shots and the still half of a Live Photo are stored), 16-bit color for a wider range of tones, a depth map for Portrait mode, and alpha transparency. Apple chose it because the camera had outgrown a format designed in 1992.

Note that Apple ProRAW photos are DNG files, not HEIC, and screenshots are PNG. The HEIC question is specifically about ordinary camera photos.

Why it will not open everywhere

A file format is only as useful as the decoders installed on the receiving end, and HEIC’s decoder situation is uneven.

  • Macs: full support since macOS High Sierra. Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Finder thumbnails all work. If a HEIC refuses to open on a Mac it is damaged rather than unsupported; see How to fix a HEIC photo that won’t open on Mac.
  • Windows: Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC only after the HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store. The HEVC one is a paid add-on on many machines, and a corporate PC may block the Store entirely. Without them the file shows as a blank icon.
  • Web forms and portals: government sites, job applications, insurance claims, marketplace listings and school portals often whitelist JPEG and PNG only. The upload fails or silently strips the file.
  • Older software: anything that was last updated before 2018 will not know what to do with it, including some email clients, photo kiosks and printing services.
  • Android: newer phones open HEIC; older ones do not.

When a recipient says “your photo is broken”, it is almost never broken. It is a HEIC that their device cannot decode.

Three ways to get a JPEG on a Mac

If you already have the HEIC files on your Mac, any of these will produce JPEGs.

Finder Quick Action (no extra software)

  1. Select one or more HEIC files in Finder.
  2. Right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image.
  3. Pick JPEG as the format, choose an image size, and decide whether to keep metadata.
  4. Click Convert to JPEG. The JPEGs appear next to the originals.

Preview (for one file at a time)

  1. Open the HEIC in Preview.
  2. Choose File > Export.
  3. Set Format to JPEG and adjust the quality slider if you want a smaller file.
  4. Save.

Photos (if the pictures live in your library)

  1. Select the photos in Photos.
  2. Choose File > Export > Export Photos.
  3. Set Photo Kind to JPEG and pick a quality.
  4. Choose a destination folder.

For a folder with hundreds of files, or when you also need to clear location data before sharing, Manatee does the same job in one drop: drag the HEICs onto its menu bar icon, choose JPEG (or PNG or TIFF), and it writes the converted copies alongside the originals without touching them. Its Clean mode can strip GPS coordinates and camera EXIF from the results at the same time, which matters if the photos are going onto a listing or a public page. Manatee converts the picture; it does not edit it, resize it by pixel dimensions, or crop. The full walkthrough is in How to convert HEIC to JPEG on a Mac.

Stopping the problem at the source

If you regularly send photos to people on Windows or upload them to forms, it is easier to have the iPhone produce JPEGs when it hands them over, while still shooting in HEIC to save space.

  1. On the iPhone open Settings > Photos.
  2. Scroll to Transfer to Mac or PC and select Automatic. The phone converts to JPEG when you copy over a cable, and leaves your library untouched.
  3. For AirDrop and Mail, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose Most Compatible only if you want every new photo captured as JPEG. This roughly doubles storage use per photo, so most people leave it on High Efficiency and convert as needed.

There is also a per-share option. When you share from Photos, tap Options at the top of the share sheet and you can choose the format for that one send.

What you lose in the conversion

A JPEG is an 8-bit lossy format, so converting from HEIC discards the 16-bit tonal headroom, any depth map, and the motion half of a Live Photo. For a photo you are emailing or posting, none of that is visible. For a photo you plan to edit heavily later, keep the HEIC original and convert a copy.

Metadata behaves differently by route. The Finder Quick Action asks whether to preserve it; Preview and Photos generally carry EXIF across, including GPS. If the destination is public, check Does AirDrop, iMessage or email strip photo metadata? It depends before assuming the location was removed.

Questions

Is HEIC better quality than JPEG? At the same file size, yes, noticeably. At the same visual quality, HEIC is about half the size. The only reason to choose JPEG is compatibility, which is a good reason often enough.

Why did my photo arrive as JPEG when I sent it from my iPhone? iOS converts automatically in many share paths, particularly Mail and Messages to non-Apple recipients. AirDrop between Apple devices sends the HEIC as is.

Can I convert HEIC back from JPEG? You can produce a HEIC file from a JPEG (Manatee and Preview both can), and it will be smaller, but the quality that JPEG compression removed does not come back. Convert from the original HEIC whenever you have it.

My HEIC will not open on my Mac either. Is it a format problem? Not on any Mac running High Sierra or later. Either the file is incomplete (a cut-off transfer is the usual cause) or it is not actually a HEIC despite the extension. Open Get Info and check the Kind line, then try Manatee’s Repair mode if it really is damaged.