BlogGuide2 November 20265 min read

How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac

Photos from an iPhone arrive on your Mac as .HEIC files. They look great and take up half the space, but upload forms, Windows PCs, and plenty of websites still want a JPG. You don't need an online converter: your Mac can do it in a couple of clicks, one photo or a whole folder at a time.

What HEIC is, and why sites reject it

HEIC is Apple's name for HEIF, the image format iPhones have used by default since iOS 11. It keeps about the same detail as a JPG in roughly half the file size, and it can hold extras like depth data. Macs and iPhones open it without a second thought, but Windows needs extra extensions from the Microsoft Store, and a lot of upload forms, job portals, government sites, and older apps only accept JPG or PNG.

Every method below makes a new JPG and leaves your HEIC original alone, and all of them run on your Mac without uploading anything.

Finder: Convert Image

The quickest way, built into macOS since Monterey:

1. Select one or more HEIC files in Finder.
2. Right-click and choose Quick Actions › Convert Image.
3. Set Format to JPEG and Image Size to Actual Size (the smaller sizes shrink the photo).
4. Leave Preserve Metadata on to keep the date and camera details, or turn it off to strip them, location included.
5. Click Convert to JPEG. The JPGs are saved next to the originals.

Preview

Use Preview when you want to choose the JPG's quality:

1. Open the HEIC in Preview.
2. Choose File › Export.
3. Set Format to JPEG and drag the Quality slider. The estimated file size updates as you go, which helps with upload limits.
4. Pick where to save and click Save.

For several photos, open them all in one Preview window, select every thumbnail in the sidebar with ⌘A, then choose File › Export Selected Images and set the format under Options.

Photos

If the pictures are still in the Photos app, export them directly instead of saving HEICs first. Select them, choose File › Export › Export [number] Photos, set Photo Kind to JPEG, and pick a quality and size. Dragging a photo out of Photos onto the Desktop also gives you a JPG, but you don't get to choose its quality or size.

Terminal, for a whole folder

macOS includes sips, a command-line image tool. To convert one file:

sips -s format jpeg IMG_1234.HEIC --out IMG_1234.jpg

To convert every HEIC in the current folder, keeping each name:

for f in *.[Hh][Ee][Ii][Cc]; do sips -s format jpeg "$f" --out "${f%.*}.jpg"; done

Add -s formatOptions 90 to set the JPEG quality (0 to 100). This is the fastest option for hundreds of photos, and easy to put in a script.

Drop it on the notch

NotchDude puts a file shelf in the MacBook notch, and converting images is one of its quick actions. (Disclosure: I make NotchDude.) It's handy when the HEIC is on its way somewhere else, such as an upload form in your browser.

• On the drop: drag a single HEIC toward the top of the screen and hold it over the notch. The drop target splits into Keep, To JPEG, and other actions; let go on To JPEG and only the JPG lands on the shelf. The notch shows the actions you use most for that kind of file, so To JPEG can give way to Copy Text or Cut Out if you use those more. Drop actions other than Keep, Zip, and AirDrop are part of Pro.
• From the shelf: drop the HEIC to keep it, then right-click it on the shelf and choose Convert Image › JPEG. The JPG appears beside the original. Select several images first to convert them together. PNG and HEIC are there too, and this route is free.

The JPG is saved at high quality (90%) and keeps the photo's metadata, including its date and location; use Finder's Convert Image with Preserve Metadata off if you want the location stripped. Drag the JPG straight into the upload form, a message, or a Finder folder. Nothing is uploaded: the conversion uses macOS's own image frameworks. The free shelf holds 3 items, so a new file pushes the oldest one off; Pro removes the limit.

Stop your iPhone sending HEIC

If you'd rather never convert again, you have two options on the iPhone:

• Shoot JPEG: Settings › Camera › Formats › Most Compatible. New photos are JPEGs, at the cost of bigger files on your phone and in iCloud.
• Convert on transfer: Settings › Photos › Transfer to Mac or PC › Automatic lets the iPhone convert photos to JPEG when it copies them over a cable to a computer that may not read HEIC, such as a Windows PC. A current Mac often still gets HEIC, and this doesn't affect AirDrop or iCloud Photos.

Photos you've already taken stay HEIC either way.

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