Table of Contents
Introduction
If you’re one of the few iPhone users who has updated to iOS 11, you might have noticed that photos now come in HEIC format instead of JPG format. This isn’t an issue if you only use your iPhone, but if you ever want to share those photos with family and friends on other platforms (like Android), they’ll need to be converted before they can be viewed by anyone else. Fortunately, converting these photos from HEIC to JPG is pretty easy! Here’s how it works.
iPhone X
With its just-released iPhone X, Apple has ditched its standard JPEG camera format in favor of a new one: HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File Format). There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that you can now fit way more photos on your phone’s internal storage. The bad news is you can’t share those newfangled photos with everyone—unless they’re using an iPhone X too. Here’s how to get around that minor obstacle…
iPad
The process is simple—here’s how: Open your photos on your iPad and tap edit. Select a photo, then tap share. Under Format, select JPEG. Next, use three fingers to swipe left until you see a red square with a garbage can symbol in it. Tap that and confirm that you want to delete that image. This will free up space for more photos. Repeat as necessary!
1) Open your photos on your iPad and tap edit.
2) Select a photo, then tap share.
3) Under Format, select JPEG.
4) Next, use three fingers to swipe left until you see a red square with a garbage can symbol in it.
5) Tap that and confirm that you want to delete that image.
Mac
Launch Finder and navigate to your Pictures folder. Select all photos in that folder and drag them over to your desktop (you may have to hold down Option/Alt on a Mac and then drop images onto your desktop if you are dragging more than one image). Then, launch Terminal. In Terminal, type: /usr/bin/convert ~/Desktop/*.heic -quality 95 ~/Desktop/*.jpg;killall SystemUIServer This will convert all of your HEIC files into JPGs and place them on your desktop for easy access!
Windows 10
In Windows 10, you can open a Command Prompt window by selecting Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. Right-click on it and choose Run as administrator. You might also want to check out our full guide on how to convert images in Windows 10. This tutorial is designed for users running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709) or later. If you’re still using an older version of Windows, here’s how to change your file extension associations: Open File Explorer.
Android
For Android users, you can simply download a file manager with that capability. Here are a few suggestions: ES File Explorer, My Files, or FX File Explorer. Once installed, open your photo gallery and tap on any of your HEIC photos. Tap on More in the top right corner and then tap Convert to JPG at the bottom of your screen.
Other platforms
Apple is taking over phones and computers, but what about photos? If you have photos saved in Apple’s High-Efficiency Image Codec (HEIC), you’ll need to convert them before uploading them to other platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Follow these instructions and you’ll be able to convert your photos into a format that works with other social media sites. You can also save storage space on your device by converting any photos taken using an iPhone 8 or newer model. The phone uses compression when saving pictures in HEIC, which makes them smaller files—but it also means they can only be viewed on devices running iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra 10.13 or later versions of those operating systems.
Conclusion
If you want your photos to look their best, learn how to convert photos from HEIC to JPG. It’s not complicated and is a great way to make sure your images look sharp and crisp when shared. I hope that you found these tips helpful and I’d love for you to share any other ways that you know of in converting HEIC files into more widely-compatible formats in our comments section below!
About Author
