How to Convert HEIC to JPG on Mac

HEIC is the High Efficiency Image format that iPhones have used for photos since iOS 11. It stores photos more compactly than JPG, and every Mac opens it.

Outside Apple's world, support is patchier. Some upload forms reject HEIC, older photo software can't open it, and a Windows PC may need an extra codec first. JPG opens everywhere, which is why it's still the safe format to send.

macOS has several free ways to convert HEIC to JPG: Finder's Convert Image Quick Action, Preview's export, the Photos app's export and the sips command in Terminal.

• Finder: select the photos, Control-click, choose Quick Actions > Convert Image, pick JPEG and an image size, and decide whether to Preserve Metadata. There's no quality setting.
• Preview: open one photo, choose File > Export, set Format to JPEG and drag the Quality slider. For several photos, open them in one window, select all thumbnails and choose File > Export Selected Images.
• Photos: select the photos, choose File > Export > Export Photos and set Photo Kind to JPEG; turn off the location information option to leave out where they were taken.
• Terminal: sips -s format jpeg photo.heic --out photo.jpg converts one file; a folder needs a small shell loop.
• iPhone: Settings > Camera > Formats > Most Compatible makes new photos JPG from the start.

File Acture's Convert Images turns a batch of HEIC photos into JPG with one quality setting, on your Mac.

Choose JPEG under Format and set Quality; 85 is the default. Keep metadata is off by default, so camera details and location are removed, while color profiles are always kept so colors don't shift. Photos are turned upright using their orientation tag, and each JPG keeps the original file name.

The same tool converts between JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and AVIF, and it reads TIFF, GIF and BMP too. HEIC and AVIF appear as output formats when your version of macOS can write them. Files go to Downloads › File Acture unless you choose another folder, and the originals stay as they were.

The default of 85 is a sensible middle ground for photos: hard to tell apart from the original on screen, without wasting space.

Go up to 90 or more for prints and photos you'll edit again, and down to 70 or 75 for images that only need to look good on a web page. If a site sets a file-size limit, skip the guessing and use a target size instead.

When you convert HEIC to JPG, check what happens to file size, pixel dimensions, metadata and transparency.

• File size: a JPG is usually larger than the HEIC it came from. To hit a limit, use Compress Images with a target such as 500 KB.
• Pixel size: to make photos smaller for email or the web, resize them in bulk.
• Metadata: Keep metadata copies camera details where it can, but File Acture doesn't carry EXIF over from HEIC and AVIF files yet.
• Transparency: JPG has none, so transparent areas in PNG or WebP files turn white.
• Keep HEIC, drop the location: Remove Metadata cleans photos without converting them.
• Batches: the free version converts up to 5 photos per run, with 3 runs on each Mac; see pricing for Pro.

Online converters upload your photos, and iPhone photos often carry the exact place they were taken. File Acture converts on your Mac and removes location data by default, so neither the photo nor where you took it leaves your hands.