Manatee

How to convert AVIF images to JPEG on a Mac

· 6 min read

On macOS 13 Ventura or later, open the AVIF in Preview, choose File > Export, pick JPEG, and save. On macOS 12 Monterey, Preview cannot read AVIF at all, so you need a converter that brings its own decoder; Manatee does, and it converts a folder of AVIFs to JPEG in one drop. Either way, keep the original AVIF if you can, because the JPEG will be larger and slightly lower quality.

Why AVIF files are turning up everywhere

AVIF is an image format built on the AV1 video codec. It produces files that are noticeably smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality, which is why websites, screenshot tools, and some browsers now hand you AVIF when you save an image. The catch is that AVIF is young. Apple added system-wide support in macOS 13 Ventura and iOS 16; before that, Preview, Quick Look, and the Photos app treat an .avif file as an unknown blob.

That produces the usual symptoms. Double-clicking the file opens nothing, or opens it in a browser instead of Preview. Quick Look shows a generic icon. A web form or an older app rejects the upload with “unsupported format.” A friend on an older Mac says your image is broken. Converting to JPEG fixes all of these because JPEG is readable by every device made in the last twenty-five years.

Convert one AVIF with Preview (macOS 13 or later)

If your Mac runs Ventura, Sonoma, Sequoia, or later, Preview handles AVIF natively.

  1. Right-click the .avif file in Finder, choose Open With, and pick Preview. (If Preview is not listed, your macOS version is too old for native AVIF; skip to the Manatee section.)
  2. In Preview, choose File > Export.
  3. Open the Format menu and choose JPEG. If you only see a short list, hold the Option key while clicking the Format menu to reveal every format.
  4. Drag the Quality slider. Around 80 to 90 percent is a sensible balance for photos; set it higher for images with text or sharp edges.
  5. Pick a folder, click Save, and you have a .jpg alongside the original.

Preview never overwrites the AVIF. If you want the JPEG to replace it, delete the AVIF yourself afterward.

Convert several AVIFs at once in Finder

Finder has a Quick Action called Convert Image that works on a whole selection at once. It uses the same image engine as Preview, so it also needs macOS 13 or later for AVIF.

  1. Select all the AVIF files in a Finder window (Command-A, or Command-click individual files).
  2. Right-click the selection and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. On some Macs it appears directly in the right-click menu.
  3. Set Format to JPEG.
  4. Choose an Image Size. Actual Size keeps the original dimensions; the other options downscale.
  5. Leave “Preserve Metadata” checked if you want date and camera information kept, uncheck it if you are about to post the images publicly.
  6. Click Convert to JPEG. The new files appear in the same folder with a .jpeg extension, and the originals stay untouched.

If the Convert Image action is missing, open System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Finder (or Extensions > Finder on older versions) and make sure it is enabled.

The command line option

Ventura and later also let you convert from Terminal with sips, Apple’s built-in image tool. This is handy when the files are spread across folders or you want to script it.

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 85 photo.avif --out photo.jpg

To do every AVIF in the current folder:

for f in *.avif; do sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 85 "$f" --out "${f%.avif}.jpg"; done

The formatOptions number is the JPEG quality from 1 to 100. On Monterey, sips reports an error because the AVIF decoder simply is not present on the system.

When Preview cannot open the file: Manatee

Two situations put you outside what macOS can do by itself. The first is a Mac on Monterey, where nothing built in reads AVIF. The second is an AVIF that Preview opens but shows as blank or garbled, which usually means the file uses a feature (high bit depth, an unusual color profile, an animation) that the system decoder does not handle yet.

Manatee bundles its own decoding engine, so it does not depend on the macOS version for AVIF support. It runs on Monterey and later, on Apple silicon and Intel, and nothing is uploaded; the conversion happens on your Mac.

  1. Open Manatee and choose Convert.
  2. Drop the AVIF files into the window. You can also drag them onto the menu bar icon, or right-click them in Finder and use the Manatee service.
  3. Pick JPEG as the target.
  4. Click Convert. Each JPEG is written next to its original; the AVIF is never modified.

Manatee converts; it does not edit. It will not crop, resize, or adjust the colors of an image, and its Shrink mode targets video and PDF rather than photos. If you need the JPEG at a specific pixel size, convert first and then resize in Preview (Tools > Adjust Size). For a handful of files on a current macOS, Preview or the Finder Quick Action is quicker and free. Manatee earns its place when the built-in tools refuse the file, when you have dozens of them, or when you want the same tool to handle WebP and HEIC conversions too.

What changes when you convert

JPEG is lossy, and so is almost every AVIF, so you are re-compressing an already compressed image. At a quality setting of 85 or above, the difference is invisible for ordinary photos, but it is real: each generation of lossy compression throws away a bit more, so avoid converting a JPEG back to AVIF and then to JPEG again.

Expect the JPEG to be two to four times the size of the AVIF for the same picture. That is simply the difference in compression efficiency.

Transparency does not survive. AVIF supports an alpha channel; JPEG does not. A logo with a transparent background will land on a white (sometimes black) background in the JPEG. If transparency matters, export to PNG instead, which every tool in this article also offers.

Animated AVIFs become a single still frame, typically the first one. There is no animated JPEG.

Wide color and HDR images lose their extra range. An AVIF saved with 10-bit HDR data will be tone-mapped down to standard 8-bit JPEG, and the result can look flatter than the original on a Mac with an HDR display. That is a limitation of JPEG, not of any particular converter.

Metadata usually carries over. EXIF fields such as the capture date, camera, and GPS location are copied into the JPEG by Preview and by Manatee’s Convert mode. If the photo is going somewhere public, run it through Manatee’s Clean mode afterward, or uncheck “Preserve Metadata” in the Finder Quick Action.

Questions

Can I just rename the .avif file to .jpg?

No. The extension is a label; the data inside is still AV1-encoded. Some apps will open the renamed file because they sniff the real format, but most will report a corrupt JPEG. Convert properly.

Why does Safari save images as AVIF when I did not ask for it?

Because the website served AVIF and Safari saves what it received. You can often get a JPEG by right-clicking the image and choosing Copy Image, then pasting into Preview (File > New from Clipboard) and exporting. Otherwise, convert the downloaded AVIF using any method above.

Does converting to JPEG on my Mac send the image anywhere?

Not with Preview, Finder, sips, or Manatee. All four run entirely on your Mac. Online converters are a different story; see what you give up with online converters before uploading personal photos.

Which is better for sharing, JPEG or PNG?

JPEG for photographs, PNG for screenshots, logos, and anything with transparency or crisp text. Both are universally supported.