iPhone photo won’t open on Windows? How to convert HEIC to JPG without uploading your photos

By Marcelo Amantino · published October 21, 2026 · 2 min read · who we are

You send a photo from your iPhone to your computer and Windows shows a strange file that will not open. You try to attach it to a form and the site rejects it. You send it to a friend with an Android phone and they cannot see it. The culprit has a name: HEIC, the format the iPhone uses by default. It can be fixed in a minute, but it is worth understanding what you gain and what you lose in the conversion.

Why the iPhone uses HEIC (and why that is annoying)

HEIC (and its cousin HEIF) stores the same photo in a file much smaller than a JPEG, which saves space on the device. The problem is compatibility: many computers, Android phones, email systems, websites and older editing programs cannot open this format, or need an extra component. JPEG, on the other hand, opens everywhere.

Step by step: batch HEIC to JPG

Open WebFaz HEIC to JPG (or Image Converter, which accepts HEIC and HEIF).
Select the photos or drag them to the upload area. The page accepts up to 50 at a time.
Leave the quality around 90%, which works for most photos, or adjust it if you like.
Click convert. Large HEIC photos can take a few seconds each, and the page shows a timer.
Download each file or everything at once in a ZIP.

Does it lose quality?

Converting to JPEG is a lossy recompression: at around 90% quality the difference is usually hard to see, but the file is not identical to the original. So keep the photos in HEIC on the iPhone or in your backup and use the JPG only for sharing. Converting to PNG does not “improve” the photo, it only makes the file bigger; PNG makes sense when there is transparency or graphics. To understand the choice better, see PNG, JPEG or WebP: which format to use.

Your photos don’t go to any server

Personal photos, photos of documents or of children should not be sent to just any site only to change format. Here the conversion happens in your browser: the photos are read from your device’s memory and the JPG is delivered as a download. Nothing is sent to WebFaz, and you can confirm it by opening your browser’s network tab during the conversion.

Before publishing, think about location

Phone photos often carry, hidden in the file, the location where they were taken and other data. If the photo is going into an ad, forum or website, after converting use Metadata Removal, which accepts JPG, PNG and WebP (HEIC is not accepted there, so the order is convert first and clean afterwards), and check the list of what was found. Understand the risks in how to remove location from photos before posting.

Avoiding the problem at the source

If you want the iPhone to start saving in JPEG, there is an option in the camera settings, under Formats, called “Most Compatible” (the name and path may vary with the system version). The switch makes new photos larger, so weigh space against compatibility. Photos you already have stay in HEIC, and for them batch conversion remains the way to go.