How to open a HEIC file
Your file is not damaged and your computer is not broken. HEIC is the format iPhones save photos in, and most other devices were never taught to read it. There are three ways out, and which one suits you depends on how often this happens.
Files never leave your browser
First: the file is fine
If Windows Photos showed you an error, or a website rejected the upload, or the picture appeared as a blank icon — none of that means the file is corrupt. A HEIC file is a perfectly good photograph written in a format your software does not recognise.
You can prove it in ten seconds: drop the file into the box above and it appears as an ordinary JPG. If the picture comes back, the picture was always there.
Way one: convert it — nothing to install
Fastest if this happens occasionally. Drop the file above, take the JPG, and open it with anything. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded — the decoding happens inside this page on your own device.
Use this when you have a handful of photos to send, print or upload somewhere. It is also the only option that works on a machine where you are not allowed to install software, which covers most office and school computers.
Way two: teach Windows to read HEIC
Better if you receive iPhone photos constantly and want them to just open. Windows 10 and 11 can display HEIC once the HEIF Image Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store. The catch is that the companion codec Windows needs for iPhone files has historically been a paid item, and what you are charged — if anything — depends on your Windows version and where you are.
Worth knowing before you pay: this makes the files viewable. It does not make them acceptable to a website that demands JPG, and it does not help anyone you send them to.
Way three: change the setting on the iPhone
The permanent fix, if the phone is yours. Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible makes the camera save JPG from that moment on.
It does not convert the photos already on the phone, and JPG files take roughly twice the storage. But it means the problem stops arriving.
Which one to pick
- A few photos, needed now — convert them here. No installation, no cost, no account.
- A steady stream of iPhone photos from other people — install the Windows extensions so they open normally, and convert only the ones you have to upload somewhere.
- They are your own photos — change the camera setting, then convert the old ones once and be done.
On Android, macOS before High Sierra, and most Linux desktops the situation is the same as Windows: convert, or find a viewer that handles HEIC. Converting is usually less work than either.
Why this page does not upload your photo
Photos that will not open are, more often than not, personal ones — family, documents, things photographed because they mattered. Nearly every other converter for this problem sends your file to a server, which is a strange thing to accept for a task this small.
Here the file never leaves. It is read from your disk, decoded in your device's memory, and given straight back. The page is served with a policy that tells your browser to refuse any connection to another address, so this is enforced by your own browser rather than promised by us. You can watch it hold in the network tab, or simply go offline and convert anyway.
Related
- Convert HEIC to JPG
The same converter, on a page written for people who already know what they need.
- Why your iPhone photos will not open on Windows
The longer story, including why renaming the file never works.
- Convert between other formats
PNG to JPG, WebP to JPG, and back again.