Manatee

How to convert HEIC to JPEG on a Mac

· 6 min read

The quickest way to convert a HEIC photo to JPEG on a Mac is to right-click it in Finder, choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image, and pick JPEG. That works on one file or a whole selection and needs nothing installed. Preview, Photos, and a one-line Terminal command do the same job with slightly different controls, and all of them are covered below, along with the quality and metadata details that matter when you are sending the result somewhere.

Why the photo is HEIC in the first place

iPhones and recent iPads save photos as HEIC by default because it stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPEG. Macs open HEIC natively, so you will not notice until you try to upload the photo to a website, attach it to a form, or send it to someone on Windows or an older device, and the file is rejected or shows as a blank square. heic-explained-why-iphone-photos-won-t-open-everywhere has the full background; the short version is that JPEG opens everywhere and HEIC does not, so converting is the safe move for anything leaving your Mac.

Method one: Finder’s Convert Image Quick Action

This is built into macOS Monterey and later and handles batches.

  1. Select one or more HEIC files in Finder. Command-click to pick several, or Command-A for a whole folder.
  2. Right-click the selection and choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image. (If you do not see it, open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, then Extensions, then Finder, and turn on Convert Image.)
  3. In the dialog, set Format to JPEG.
  4. Set Image Size. Actual Size keeps the full resolution; the other presets shrink the picture, which is useful for email but otherwise leave it at Actual Size.
  5. Decide on the Preserve Metadata checkbox. Checked keeps the date, camera details, and location inside the JPEG. Unchecked strips all of it. For photos you are posting publicly, unchecked is usually the right choice.
  6. Click Convert to JPEG. The JPEGs appear next to the originals with the same names and a .jpg extension. The HEIC files are untouched.

Method two: Preview

Preview gives you a quality slider, which the Quick Action does not.

  1. Open the HEIC in Preview (double-click it).
  2. Choose File, then Export.
  3. Set Format to JPEG. If JPEG is not in the list, hold the Option key while clicking the Format menu to show every format.
  4. Drag the Quality slider. Around 80 to 90 percent is visually identical to the original for almost any photo; 100 percent makes a much larger file for no visible gain.
  5. Name the file, choose a folder, and click Save.

To batch in Preview, select all the HEIC files in Finder, open them together (they appear in Preview’s sidebar), select all the thumbnails in the sidebar, then choose File, then Export Selected Images. Pick JPEG in the Options, choose a destination, and Preview writes them all.

Method three: Photos

If the pictures are in your Photos library rather than loose in Finder, export from there.

  1. Select the photos in Photos.
  2. Choose File, then Export, then Export Photos (not Export Unmodified Original, which gives you the HEIC back).
  3. Set Photo Kind to JPEG and choose a quality. Maximum is the safest default.
  4. Under the Location Information and other metadata options, decide what to include.
  5. Click Export and choose a folder.

You can also stop the problem at the source. On the iPhone, go to Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPEG from then on (existing ones stay HEIC). And when you transfer to the Mac by cable, Settings, then Photos, then Transfer to Mac or PC, set to Automatic, converts on the way across.

Method four: Terminal with sips

macOS ships with a command-line image tool called sips. For one file:

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Type sips -s format jpeg then drag the HEIC file onto the window, then type --out and a path for the result ending in .jpg. Press Return.

For every HEIC in a folder, change to that folder in Terminal (type cd and drag the folder in) and run:

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

Add -s formatOptions 85 before --out to set the JPEG quality to 85 percent. This is fast, scriptable, and handles hundreds of files without a dialog.

When a converter app makes more sense

The built-in methods cover most situations. Three cases where Manatee is the better fit:

  • Mixed batches. A folder with HEIC, PNG, WEBP, and camera raw files all destined for JPEG. Manatee’s Convert mode accepts all of them (122 input types) and writes JPEGs in one pass, from a single drag onto its window or menu bar icon.
  • Stripping location data deliberately. Manatee’s Clean mode removes GPS coordinates and camera EXIF from photos as a separate step, so you can convert for compatibility and then clean for privacy, or clean a JPEG that was already converted with metadata intact. how-to-remove-gps-location-from-photos-on-a-mac-before-sharing covers why that matters.
  • HEIC files that will not open. If Preview refuses a HEIC, it is damaged or not really a HEIC, and none of the converters above will help. See how-to-fix-a-heic-photo-that-won-t-open-on-mac first.

Manatee runs entirely on the Mac with no uploads, and like the methods above it never touches the originals; converted files are written alongside them. It is not a photo editor, so cropping, color, and retouching still belong in Photos or Preview.

Questions

Will converting to JPEG lose quality?

Slightly, technically, and none you can see at a sensible quality setting. Converting always means decoding the image and re-encoding it, because the two formats compress differently, and the HEIC itself is already lossy. At a quality of 80 or above the difference is invisible at normal viewing sizes. Expect the JPEG to be larger than the HEIC, typically one and a half to two times, because JPEG is the less efficient format; if size matters, lower the quality to 70 or reduce the dimensions rather than converting twice. What you should avoid is converting to JPEG, editing, saving, and converting again; every lossy save compounds.

Does the JPEG keep the date and location?

Depends on the method. Finder’s Quick Action keeps them if Preserve Metadata is checked. Preview and sips keep them by default. Photos lets you choose at export. If you need them gone, uncheck the option or run the JPEGs through Manatee’s Clean mode.

I converted, but the file still shows as HEIC on the website. Why?

Check the extension; some upload forms judge by name. Also check that you picked Export Photos rather than Export Unmodified Original in Photos, and that the Quick Action’s format was set to JPEG rather than the default.

What happens to a Live Photo?

The HEIC is the still frame and the motion is a separate MOV file. Converting gives you a JPEG of the still and leaves the motion behind, which is normally what you want for sharing.