How to open HEIC files

Someone sent you iPhone photos and your computer will not open them. Here is every real option, from built-in viewers to the one-step alternative: converting the files to JPG so the problem never comes back.

On Windows 10 and 11

Windows can open HEIC only after installing codec extensions from the Microsoft Store. The "HEIF Image Extensions" package is free, but the HEVC video extension it depends on costs $0.99 and Microsoft has never bundled it, because of HEVC patent licensing. Free workarounds exist: the popular IrfanView viewer with its plugin pack opens HEIC, as does recent GIMP. If you just need to see and use the photos, converting them to JPG in your browser is faster than installing anything: open our HEIC to JPG converter, drop the files in, download the results. No installation, no payment, no upload.

On a Mac

Any Mac running macOS High Sierra (2017) or newer opens HEIC natively in Preview and Photos. To get a JPG copy for sharing, open the photo in Preview, then File, Export, and choose JPEG. For a whole folder, batch conversion in the browser is quicker than exporting one by one.

On Android

Android 10 and newer generally opens HEIC in Google Photos and most gallery apps. Older Android versions do not, and some messaging apps fail to preview HEIC attachments even on new phones. If a specific app rejects the file, the fix is the format, not the app: convert to JPG once and every app accepts it.

In a web browser

Safari is the only browser that displays HEIC directly (caniuse.com). Dragging a HEIC into Chrome, Firefox or Edge shows a download prompt or a broken image. This is precisely why our converter exists as a web page: it teaches the browser to decode HEIC via WebAssembly, entirely on your device.

The one-step alternative

Viewers solve viewing; they do not solve uploading, sending or editing in software that rejects HEIC. Converting the file ends the problem for good. HEIC to JPG covers virtually every destination; HEIC to PNG when you need lossless quality; HEIC to PDF when a portal insists on documents.