How to convert HEIC to JPG on your Mac

Your Mac converts HEIC to JPG by itself. Open the photo in Preview, choose File, then Export, and pick JPEG. For a whole folder, select the photos in Finder, Control-click them and use the Convert Image quick action. Photos can export a JPEG too. None of them uploads anything.

Koi does it in one gesture: drag the HEIC, hold Shift, drop it on Convert and click JPEG. A copy lands beside the original. We make Koi, so read that part with this in mind. Apple's steps below come from its own guides, checked October 21, 2026.

Why it matters at all: iPhones save photos as HEIC (Apple calls the format HEIF), which is small and sharp, but plenty of websites, forms and Windows apps still won't take it. A JPEG goes everywhere.

Preview is the fastest free way for one photo, and it can do several at once. From Apple's guide:

1. Open the HEIC photo in Preview. Double-clicking it usually does this.
2. Choose File, then Export.
3. Click the Format pop-up menu and choose JPEG. PNG is in the same list.
4. Drag the Quality slider if you want a smaller file, then pick a name and a folder.
5. Click Save.

To convert several photos with Preview, open them all in one Preview window, select them in the window's sidebar, then do the same steps. The Format menu lists HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF. Hold Option while you click it to see older formats.

For a folder full of iPhone photos, Finder is quicker than Preview because you never open the pictures. Apple describes it in Perform quick actions in the Finder:

1. Select one HEIC file, or several, in Finder or on your desktop.
2. Control-click the selection and choose Quick Actions.
3. Click More if you need to, then choose Convert Image.
4. Choose a format (JPEG, PNG or HEIF) and a size: small, medium, large or the actual size.
5. Click the Convert button. The copies are saved in the same folder and the originals stay.

The dialog also has a checkbox to keep the original's metadata, as MacRumors shows. Leave it on if you care about the date the photo was taken. If the photo has a location you'd rather not share, read how to remove the location from a photo first.

If the pictures are in your Photos library, export them as JPEGs instead of dragging them out. From Apple's Photos guide:

1. Select the photos.
2. Choose File, then Export, then Export [number] Photos.
3. In the Photo Kind pop-up menu, choose JPEG. Click the arrow beside it to set JPEG Quality and Size.
4. Click Export, pick a folder, and click Export again.

A Live Photo exports as two files, a still and a short video, so expect extra files in the folder.

Koi's Shift wheel puts a set of picture tools on one gesture, wherever the file is: the desktop, Finder, or a photo dragged out of another app.

1. Start dragging the HEIC file.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. A wheel of nine tools opens round your pointer, the file's size in the middle.
3. Drop the photo on Convert. The wheel turns into a wheel of formats and stays open.
4. Click JPEG. “Photo.jpg” is saved beside “Photo.heic” and shows in Finder.

• The same wheel saves PNG, HEIC, TIFF, AVIF, BMP or PDF. Click PNG instead of JPEG for a lossless copy.
• Convert works on one picture at a time. Drag several and only the first is converted, so for fifty photos the Finder quick action is the better tool.
• JPEG has no see-through parts, so Koi puts white behind them. A HEIC photo from a camera has none anyway.
• Your Mac reads WebP but can't write it, so the WebP wedge is drawn empty.
• The original is never touched. When its folder can't be written to, the copy goes to Downloads.
• Everything runs on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded.

The step-by-step for every wedge is in how to use the Shift wheel.

• JPEG isn't always smaller. A HEIC is very efficient, so the JPEG copy can come out bigger. If size matters, compress it afterwards.
• PNG is much bigger than JPEG for photos. Pick PNG only when you need it lossless, or for a screenshot.
• Converting the same JPEG again and again loses a little quality each time. Convert from the HEIC original when you can.
• Dragged a photo out of Photos and got a HEIC? Use File, Export, Export Photos with Photo Kind set to JPEG instead.
• If you never want HEIC, Apple's iPhone setting is Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible. New photos are then JPEGs.

That last setting is in Apple's guide to HEIF and HEVC, which also says photos you import from an iPhone into Photos or Image Capture might already be converted to JPEG. Look at the file's extension before converting anything.

• One photo, now, for free: Preview.
• A folder of iPhone photos: the Convert Image quick action in Finder.
• Photos in your library: Photos, File, Export.
• You convert, crop and shrink pictures every week and want one gesture for all of it: Koi's Shift wheel. The same wheel compresses a photo, crops it and turns it into a PDF.

The Shift wheel is part of Koi, on every plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The plans are on the pricing page. Koi isn't free, and for a one-off conversion Preview is all you need.