Guide
How to open HEIC photos on Windows
The quickest way is to turn the HEIC photos into JPGs in Chrome or Edge: drop them on Anyfile’s HEIC to JPG converter and the JPGs land in your Downloads folder a moment later, with nothing to install. To open HEIC files in Windows itself, add Microsoft’s HEIF and HEVC extensions from the Microsoft Store.
Step by step
Open the converter in Chrome or Edge
Go to HEIC to JPG. HEIC photos are compressed with HEVC, and the converter uses the browser’s own HEVC decoder, which Chrome and Edge have on most Windows PCs. Firefox doesn’t have one yet, so it can’t read these photos.
Drop your photos on the page
Drag one or many .heic files from File Explorer onto the drop card, or click Choose files. Each one converts on your PC as soon as it lands; there’s no queue and no upload.
Find the JPGs in Downloads
When the card says Converted to JPG, the file is already in your Downloads folder, with the same name ending in .jpg. Several photos arrive together in one ZIP: right-click it and choose Extract All. Download again fetches another copy if you need one.
Edit before saving, if you like
To crop, straighten or brighten a photo first, drop it on the HEIC page and choose Edit file. It opens in the photo editor, which saves JPEG by default when you press Download.
The JPGs come out upright, with the photo’s date and camera details. iPhone photos are stored as a grid of tiles, and these are put back together into one picture. A few extras don’t make the trip: depth and HDR data are dropped, colours become standard sRGB, and from a burst only the main photo comes across.
The location comes across too. To leave it out, use Remove location from a photo instead, or in the photo editor open the arrow next to Download and set Camera info to Keep, but remove location.
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file and makes the new one on your device. See how it works, and how to check.
Other ways to do it
In Windows itself. Install HEIF Image Extensions, which is free, and HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft charges a small fee for the HEVC one unless your PC came with it. After that, the Photos app opens HEIC files and File Explorer shows their thumbnails. Many Windows 11 PCs already have the HEIF part.
On the iPhone. Settings › Camera › Formats › Most Compatible makes the camera save JPGs from now on, at the cost of larger files. In the Photos settings, Transfer to Mac or PC › Automatic converts photos, old and new, to JPG as they’re copied to a PC over a cable.
Through a photo service. Google Photos and OneDrive show HEIC photos in the browser, but only after the photos have been uploaded to their servers.
When Anyfile is quicker
For a handful of photos, or on a work PC where you can’t install from the Store, the converter is quicker: there’s nothing to install, nothing is uploaded, and JPGs open in every app. If HEIC photos reach you every week, install the extensions so Windows opens them itself.
Questions
Why won’t HEIC photos open in Firefox?
HEIC is compressed with HEVC, and Firefox has no HEVC decoder yet. Use Chrome or Edge on Windows, or Safari on a Mac.
Do the JPGs lose quality?
JPG is compressed differently from HEIC, so each photo is encoded again, at high quality. It looks the same; the JPG is usually a little larger than the HEIC was.
Can I convert a whole folder of photos?
Yes. Select them all in File Explorer and drop them together: they convert one after another and download as one ZIP.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. They’re converted by your browser, on your PC, and never sent anywhere.