Why iPhone photos are hard to open
HEIC is the format Apple uses to save photos on modern iPhones and iPads. It is based on the HEIF standard and stores images with excellent quality at roughly half the file size of JPG, which saves space on your device. The downside appears the moment you move a photo off the phone.
Windows computers, many Android phones, older software, and countless websites do not support HEIC. People regularly find that a photo they emailed or uploaded simply will not open on the recipient's device. This makes HEIC a frequent source of frustration when sharing pictures.
Converting to JPG solves the problem instantly. JPG is the most universally supported image format, so a converted photo will open on any computer, phone, or website without special software. It is the safe choice whenever you need to send an iPhone photo to someone else.
How the conversion works
Because browsers cannot decode HEIC on their own, this tool uses a dedicated HEIC decoder that runs inside your browser to read the file. The decoded photo is drawn onto an HTML canvas and encoded as a JPG. Crucially, this all happens on your own device, so your personal photos are never uploaded to any server.
That local processing is especially important for HEIC because these files are usually personal photos. There is no queue, no privacy trade-off, and no risk of your images sitting on someone else's computer. The conversion produces a standard JPG that behaves like any other photo.
The tool is free, adds no watermark, and requires no account. It works directly in mobile browsers too, so you can convert a HEIC photo on the same phone that took it and share the JPG right away.
HEIC vs JPG: technical differences
Both formats are lossy, but they belong to different generations. JPEG compresses 8×8 pixel blocks with a DCT and has barely changed since 1992. HEIC encodes the photo as an HEVC intra-frame, which can use variable block sizes and directional prediction. At the same visual quality, a HEIC is usually about half the size of a JPG. Converting one into the other therefore makes the file bigger, typically 1.5–2.5× the HEIC at Pixohub's default 85% quality.
Pixohub's decoder first turns the HEIC into a 92%-quality JPEG internally, draws that to a canvas, and then encodes your final JPG at the quality you choose. So there are two JPEG passes. At 85% or higher the second pass is not visible on a normal photo. If you drop much below 70%, blocking shows up sooner in smooth areas like sky and skin.
JPEG is limited to 8 bits per channel, and Pixohub writes it without an ICC profile. Display P3 colour and HDR gain-map brightness from a recent iPhone are flattened into standard 8-bit SDR. Most people only notice this on HDR-capable screens, where the original HEIC's highlights looked brighter.
| HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) | JPG (JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)) | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy HEVC (H.265) intra-frame in a HEIF container | Lossy (8×8 DCT blocks, quantisation, chroma subsampling) |
| Colour depth | 8 or 10 bits per channel; Display P3 on iPhone | 8 bits per channel; RGB/YCbCr, greyscale or CMYK |
| Transparency | Not used in iPhone photos | None |
| Animation | Live Photos and bursts are stored as sequences | None |
| Metadata | EXIF, XMP, depth maps, HDR gain maps | EXIF, IPTC, XMP, ICC profile |
| Typical file size | About half a JPG of the same photo | Smallest of the classic formats for photos |
| Support | Apple devices natively; Windows needs an extension; most browsers cannot display it | Universal — every browser, camera and device |
When to convert HEIC to JPG
Sending photos to a Windows PC or Android user
Windows can only show HEIC after installing Microsoft Store extensions, and many Android galleries and messaging apps still choke on it. A JPG is the one format every recipient can open, preview in email and print at a kiosk.
Uploading to forms that only take .jpg
Visa portals, job applications, insurance claims and rental sites often whitelist .jpg/.jpeg and reject anything else, sometimes with a confusing “invalid file” error. Converting removes that obstacle, and stripping GPS data is a bonus when you're uploading photos taken at home.
Listing photos for marketplaces
Sellers who shoot with an iPhone and upload to marketplaces or older e-commerce back ends get predictable results with JPG. If a platform also caps file size, use the quality slider or the image compressor after converting.
What converting HEIC to JPG keeps and loses
What you keep
- Full resolution and upright orientation.
- Visual quality. At 85–92% the JPG is indistinguishable from the HEIC on an ordinary screen.
- Portrait-mode blur, filters and crops you applied in the Photos app, because these are part of the rendered image.
What you lose
- EXIF, including date taken, GPS location and camera model.
- HDR highlight data and 10-bit/Display P3 precision. The JPG is 8-bit SDR.
- Depth maps and other auxiliary images stored in the HEIC.
- Some file-size efficiency: the JPG is bigger than the HEIC it came from.
Tips for better HEIC to JPG results
- To stop the problem at the source, set your iPhone to Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible, which saves new photos as JPEG. Or leave HEIC on and enable Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic so photos convert when you copy them over a cable.
- For web pages, consider HEIC to WebP instead. You get a smaller file than JPG with similar quality.