Convert iPhone photos so they work everywhere
iPhone photos are stunning on Apple hardware but can be a puzzle when you try to use them anywhere else — Android can refuse to open them, Windows shows a generic icon, and web upload forms reject the format entirely. Drop your iPhone photo here — HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, or AVIF — and get a universally compatible version in seconds. Everything runs locally in your browser, so your photos never leave your device.
Convert iPhone photo →iPhone photo formats explained
Since iOS 11 (released in 2017), iPhones have defaulted to saving photos in HEIC — High Efficiency Image Container — which uses the HEVC codec to deliver roughly half the file size of an equivalent JPG. A single setting controls this: Settings → Camera → Formats. Choose "High Efficiency" and you get HEIC. Choose "Most Compatible" and your iPhone saves every new photo as a standard JPG. If you have changed this setting — or if your iPhone predates iOS 11 — your library contains JPGs, and this converter handles those directly. The picture is more complicated on recent iPhones. iPhone 12 Pro and later capture Live Photos by default, which bundle a still JPG or HEIC with a short video clip. iPhone 14 Pro and later support ProRAW, which stores images as DNG (Digital Negative) files at full sensor resolution — typically 50–80MB each. iPhone 15 Pro added HDR JPEG export for high-dynamic-range still images. For standard JPG photos (the most common case), this converter is the right tool. For HEIC, Live Photo video components, ProRAW DNG, and HDR JPEG variations, see the notes in the FAQ below.
How to get the photo off the iPhone
Getting an iPhone photo onto your computer or into a usable form is half the battle. AirDrop is the fastest path on a Mac: drag a photo from Photos to the AirDrop icon and it arrives on the Mac in seconds. Critically, when you AirDrop a HEIC photo to a Mac running macOS High Sierra or later, the Mac can open it natively. When you AirDrop to a Windows PC or an Android device, Apple automatically converts the HEIC to JPG in transit — which is useful, though it applies only when the receiving device is non-Apple. Other reliable methods: emailing the photo to yourself (Apple also converts HEIC to JPG when emailing to a non-Apple address, but not always when emailing to another Apple device), iCloud Drive sync (photos stay in their original format), or plugging the iPhone into a Mac or PC via USB and using Image Capture or Windows Photos to import. The USB import method lets you choose whether to preserve the original HEIC or convert to JPG during the transfer — look for the "Keep Originals" vs "Convert to JPEG" option in the import dialog.
How to convert an iPhone photo
The entire conversion runs inside your browser using WebAssembly. Your photo never leaves the device — no upload, no account, no waiting for a server response:
- Drop your iPhone photo on the converter — HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, or AVIF are all supported. HEIC is now supported natively: we added libheif WASM decoding to the in-browser engine, so iPhone HEIC photos work directly in this tool today. No manual pre-conversion or workarounds needed.
- Click "Convert iPhone photo →" above, or drag your photo directly onto the drop zone on the homepage. Both paths route to the same in-browser conversion engine.
- Select your output format. JPG at quality 90 is the best default for iPhone photos destined for email, social media, or sharing with Android and Windows users. PNG is the right choice if the photo contains a screenshot or text overlay you want to preserve without any compression artefacts. WebP produces the smallest file size for photos going onto a website.
- The in-browser codec decodes your photo and re-encodes it in the chosen format. For JPG output, mozJPEG produces a file that is typically 10–15% smaller than a standard JPEG encoder at the same quality setting, with no visible quality difference. The preview panel shows you the output before you download anything.
- Click the download button. The converted file saves to your Downloads folder with the original filename and the new extension. The original file on your iPhone or computer is untouched — the converter only reads the file, it never modifies it.
Typical file sizes for iPhone photos
Measurements from an iPhone 15 Pro at 48MP main sensor. JPG outputs use mozJPEG. HEIC sizes as reported by iOS Files app. Actual sizes vary by scene complexity.
| Source | Format | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 48MP iPhone ProRAW | DNG (ProRAW) | ~50 MB | Full sensor data; not supported by this converter |
| 48MP iPhone photo | HEIC (default) | ~10 MB | HEIC now supported — libheif WASM decoder in-browser |
| 48MP iPhone photo | JPG at q90 (mozJPEG) | ~28 MB | Full resolution, near-lossless; may exceed email limits |
| 48MP iPhone photo | JPG at q75 (mozJPEG) | ~4 MB | Best for email; visually identical at normal viewing size |
| 12MP iPhone photo | JPG at q90 (mozJPEG) | ~3.5 MB | Older iPhones or 1× lens; fits all email providers |
When to convert, and when to keep the original
Convert your iPhone photo when: you are emailing it to someone on Windows or Android (especially to an Outlook user, who may see a HEIC as a broken attachment); you are uploading it to a web service that does not accept HEIC or your specific format; you are sharing it in a messaging app on a non-Apple device; or you need a specific output format for print or a design workflow. Keep the original when: you are archiving photos in Apple Photos, which handles every iPhone format natively and losslessly; you are editing in Lightroom, Capture One, or another professional application that supports HEIC and DNG directly; or you plan to use the photo only within the Apple ecosystem. Converting a high-quality HEIC to JPG and then back to HEIC would introduce compression artefacts from two separate lossy encode steps — always keep the original HEIC as your archive copy and convert only for export. For social media, the destination platform re-encodes every image you upload regardless of what you send, so converting to JPG before uploading rather than HEIC simply removes one extra encode step on their end and ensures the file is accepted without format warnings. For professional printing, JPG at quality 90 or PNG is the right output. Print labs universally accept both; most accept neither HEIC nor WebP.
Under the hood: which codecs are used
JPG output uses mozJPEG, Mozilla's optimised JPEG encoder maintained at github.com/mozilla/mozjpeg. mozJPEG applies trellis quantisation to find better quantisation tables than the classic libjpeg, producing files that are typically 10–15% smaller at the same quality level with no visible difference. PNG output uses oxiPNG, a Rust-based lossless PNG encoder and optimiser at github.com/shssoichiro/oxipng. WebP output uses libwebp, Google's reference implementation at chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp. AVIF output uses libavif backed by the AOM encoder. HEIC decoding uses libheif, the open-source HEIF/HEIC library maintained at github.com/strukturag/libheif. All five codecs compile to WebAssembly and run inside a Web Worker in your browser — the encode and decode steps never make an outbound network request. Your files stay entirely on your device from the moment you drop them into the converter.
FAQ
Does ConvertMyPic support HEIC files today?
Yes — HEIC is fully supported. We added libheif WASM decoding to the in-browser engine, so iPhone HEIC photos work natively in this tool today. Drop your .heic file directly into the converter and choose your output format. For format-specific conversions we also have dedicated pages: convertmypic.com/heic-to-jpg/ converts HEIC to JPG, convertmypic.com/heic-to-png/ converts HEIC to PNG, and convertmypic.com/heic-to-webp/ converts HEIC to WebP.
How do I check if my iPhone photo is HEIC or JPG?
On iPhone: open the photo in the Photos app and swipe up to see the file details — the format is listed there. On Mac: right-click the file in Finder and choose "Get Info" — the file extension and kind are in the General section. On Windows: right-click → Properties → General tab shows the file type. The quickest check is the file extension: .heic or .heif means HEIC, .jpg or .jpeg means JPG. If you emailed the photo to yourself and it arrived as a .jpg, Apple already converted it during transfer.
Why are my AirDropped photos huge JPGs all of a sudden?
When you AirDrop a HEIC photo to a non-Apple device — a Windows PC or Android phone — iOS converts it to JPG automatically in transit. The conversion uses a high-quality JPEG setting (roughly equivalent to quality 90–95), which produces a JPG that is two to three times the size of the original HEIC. A 10MB HEIC becomes a 25–30MB JPG. This is the correct behaviour — the recipient gets a format they can open — but the file size jump can be surprising. To reduce the size for sharing, drop the JPG into this converter and set quality to 75: the result is typically around 4MB with no visible quality loss at normal viewing size.
Can I keep the EXIF GPS data when converting?
Yes. The converter preserves EXIF metadata in the output file, including GPS coordinates, timestamp, camera model, and other embedded data. If you want to strip GPS data before sharing a photo — for example before posting a photo taken at home — the current version does not offer a metadata-strip option. You can remove location data using the built-in Photos app on macOS (Image → Location → Remove Location) or on iOS (tap the photo, swipe up, tap "Adjust" next to the location) before bringing the file to this converter.
Will the converted photo still play as a Live Photo?
No. A Live Photo is a pair of files: a still image (HEIC or JPG) plus a short MOV video clip that plays when you press and hold the photo in the Photos app. When you convert the still image component to a new format, the video component is not included — the output is a single-frame static image. The Live Photo motion effect requires both components in the Apple Photos library. Converting to JPG or PNG produces a standard photo that any application can open, but the motion playback is permanently gone from the converted version. Your original Live Photo with both components remains in the Photos library untouched.
ProRAW (DNG) — is that supported?
Not at this time. ProRAW saves images as DNG (Digital Negative) files, which are raw sensor data files rather than fully processed images. A DNG from an iPhone 14 Pro or 15 Pro at 48MP is typically 50–80MB and requires a raw processing pipeline — tone mapping, demosaicing, noise reduction — before it can be encoded as JPG or PNG. This is a fundamentally different operation from converting a processed JPG or HEIC, and the current converter is not a raw processor. For ProRAW files, Lightroom Mobile (free on iPhone) can export them as full-resolution JPGs with tone mapping applied before you bring the result here.
Do my photos get uploaded anywhere?
No. The entire conversion runs inside your browser using WebAssembly. You can verify this yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, then drop a photo into the converter and watch the requests. You will see zero outbound data requests during the conversion — only the initial page load fetched the app and codec files from a CDN. There is no server receiving your photos, no account required, and no logging of what you convert. Photos containing sensitive content, documents, or location data all stay entirely on your machine.
Will I lose quality converting my iPhone JPG to JPG again?
Re-encoding a JPG as a new JPG does introduce a small second generation of lossy compression. At quality 90, mozJPEG is conservative enough that the quality loss is imperceptible in side-by-side comparison at normal viewing size and only faintly visible when zooming in to 400% on areas with fine texture. If you are archiving the photo and want to avoid any generation loss, keep the original JPG from the iPhone as your archive and convert a copy. If you are converting for sharing or email, quality 90 is indistinguishable from the original for all practical purposes.
Can I batch-convert a whole vacation album?
The current workflow converts one file at a time. For a small set of photos, open /convert in multiple browser tabs and process them in parallel — each tab runs an independent WebAssembly instance. For a large vacation album, the most efficient path is often to import the photos to a Mac via USB and use macOS Preview in batch mode: select all files in Finder, open with Preview, then File → Export Selected Images. True batch conversion with a queue and bulk download is on the ConvertMyPic roadmap.
Why does my JPG say 12MB when iPhone storage showed only 4MB for the original?
Your original photo was almost certainly stored as HEIC on the iPhone, not as JPG. HEIC uses the HEVC codec, which is roughly twice as efficient as JPEG — a 48MP photo that takes 10MB as HEIC will typically be 20–28MB when re-exported as a high-quality JPG. When iOS converts a HEIC to JPG for AirDrop or email, it uses a high-quality setting to avoid visible loss, which produces a large JPG. The file size in iPhone storage was the HEIC size; the 12MB you are now seeing is the JPG size — a normal and expected difference. Running that JPG through this converter at quality 75 will bring it down to roughly 4MB with no visible quality loss.