HEIC to JPG on Windows 11
Double-click a photo that ends in .heic or .heif on Windows 11 and the Photos app often says it cannot open the file, or File Explorer shows a blank thumbnail. The file is not corrupt. Windows is missing the pieces that decode it. This page explains those pieces, the built-in ways to fix or avoid the problem, and how to turn the same files into JPG in the browser when you would rather not install anything.
The converter on this site does not upload the photos. Your files never leave your computer. There is no account and no watermark. If you only want the JPG, use the tool and skip the Store. If you want Photos, Paint and Explorer to open HEIC themselves, the install steps below are the supported Windows fix.
Open the HEIC to JPG converter Steps for this tool
What the file actually is
HEIC is a file name people use for a photo stored in the High Efficiency Image File Format, HEIF. The container can hold one picture or several. On phones that shoot in a high-efficiency camera mode, the picture bytes inside that container are almost always HEVC, also called H.265. The same family of files may use the extension .heif or, less often, .hif.
That split is why one Windows add-on is not enough. Something has to understand the container, and something else has to decode the HEVC picture. Photos taken on an iPhone with Settings, Camera, Formats set to High Efficiency are this kind of file. Other cameras write HEIC too. A Live Photo is usually this still image plus a separate movie file. This page and the converter deal with the still image. They do not turn the movie into a JPG.
A default Windows 11 install often has neither piece, or only one of them. Some PCs that were sold with Windows already have both. A clean install, a PC you built yourself, and many virtual machines do not. Windows 10 has used the same Store extensions for years. Windows 11 did not replace them with a decoder that is present on every edition.
The two extensions, and the free one you may not see
Microsoft distributes the codecs as Store extensions. They are not features you tick in Settings, Optional features, in the way older codecs sometimes were. You install them from the Microsoft Store app. Names matter, because three listings sound alike and only two of them are a pair.
| Store listing | Package family | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| HEIF Image Extensions | Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension | Reads and writes the HEIF container used by .heic and .heif. It does not, by itself, decode the HEVC picture inside a typical photo. | Free |
| HEVC Video Extensions | Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtensions | Decodes HEVC (H.265) video, which is also the codec inside most HEIC photos. The HEIF listing says a video extension must be installed as well before images will display. | Paid. Read the listing. In the United States it has commonly been about $0.99. Other regions show their own price. |
| HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer | Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension | The same kind of HEVC decoder, published for PCs that shipped with it. The family name ends in Extension, singular, not Extensions. | Free when the Store actually offers it on that PC. It is often absent from search. |
You want the free HEIF Image Extensions, plus one HEVC decoder. You do not need both the paid HEVC Video Extensions and the device-manufacturer package. One HEVC decoder is enough.
The device-manufacturer package is the reason people say there is a free HEVC codec and then cannot find it. It is aimed at machines the manufacturer licensed it for. Search on a custom-built desktop, on some virtual machines, and on some PCs that were upgraded rather than sold with the codec, often returns only the paid HEVC Video Extensions. That is a Store catalogue difference, not a broken search box. If the free manufacturer listing is not on your machine, it is not something this page can unlock.
This site does not sell either extension. If a listing shows a price, that price is Microsoft's, in the region of the Store account you are using. Do not assume the United States figure applies where you live. Open the listing and read it.
Windows N and Windows KN editions ship without the usual media components. On those editions, install the Media Feature Pack for your Windows version before expecting Store image and video extensions to work. A normal Home or Pro install does not need that pack.
Install the extensions so Photos can open HEIC
Do this when you want Windows itself to show the photos: thumbnails in File Explorer, preview in Photos, and open in Paint. The browser converter further down does not need any of these steps.
- Open the Microsoft Store app that came with Windows. Search from the Store, not only from the taskbar, so you are looking at Store listings.
- Install HEIF Image Extensions. It is free. Confirm the publisher is Microsoft and the name matches. Leave it installed even after you add the video codec.
- Search for HEVC. If you see HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer, that is the free codec for PCs that were sold with it. Install that one and stop. If search only shows HEVC Video Extensions with a price, that is the paid listing. Read the price on the page. Pay only if you want Windows apps to decode HEVC, not because this website requires it.
- Close Photos if it is open. Open the
.heicfile again from File Explorer. The first open after an install can take a moment while the extension registers. - If the thumbnail is still a generic icon, sign out of Windows and back in, or reboot once. Explorer caches thumbnails. A second reboot is not a different fix. If it still fails, the HEVC half is missing or the file is not HEVC-in-HEIF.
After both extensions are in place, Photos, Paint and File Explorer use them. A web browser on the same PC does not borrow those codecs for a page you open. Edge, Chrome and Firefox do not become HEIC viewers just because the Store extensions are installed. That is a separate limitation, and it is why a page that carries its own decoder can still be useful on a PC that already has the extensions.
If Paint can open the photo, you already have a built-in way to make a JPEG. Use File, then Save as, and choose JPEG. Menu labels move between Windows 11 versions. Look for a save command that lists JPEG or JPG among the types. Paint will make a new file. It will not upload the original. What it keeps of the camera metadata depends on Paint, not on this site. If you need a stated choice about GPS and the rest of the EXIF block, use the converter below instead of guessing what Paint wrote.
Make new phone photos JPEG, and convert on import
Installing codecs fixes Windows. Changing the phone stops new photos from being HEIC. Neither one rewrites the pictures already sitting in a folder on the PC.
On the phone, open Settings, then Camera, then Formats. High Efficiency keeps shooting HEIC photos and HEVC video, which take less space. Most Compatible shoots new photos as JPEG and new video as H.264, which Windows opens without extra extensions. Most Compatible does not go back through the library. Every HEIC photo already taken stays HEIC. Use it when you want tomorrow's pictures to be simple, not as a conversion of yesterday's.
There is a second phone setting that matters only while a computer is importing. Open Settings, then Photos, then Transfer to Mac or PC.
- Automatic asks the phone, during that transfer, to hand the computer a JPEG (and an H.264 video) instead of the high-efficiency original. The copy that lands on the PC can then open without the Store extensions. The phone keeps its own original.
- Keep Originals sends the HEIC file. You then need the extensions, or a converter, on the PC.
Automatic applies to the import path: the phone is connected, and the computer is transferring from it. It does not run when you copy a HEIC you already saved, when you download a photo from a message, or when you move a file that is already on a disk. If Explorer shows .heic after a manual copy, the transfer setting never saw that file. Convert it, or install the extensions.
People mix these two settings up. Formats, Most Compatible, changes what the camera writes from now on. Transfer to Mac or PC, Automatic, changes what a connected computer receives. You can use either, both, or neither. Existing HEIC files on the PC are a third problem, and the steps in the next section are for that pile.
Convert the files you already have with this tool
Use this when you have .heic files on the PC, you do not want to pay for a codec, the free manufacturer codec is not offered, or you need ordinary JPG files for a form, a printer or a site that rejects HEIC. It also works if the extensions are already installed and you still want a JPG.
Nothing is installed on Windows. The page decodes the photo in the tab with a copy of libheif that this site serves. The decoder is not on the page until you add a file, so opening the article or the home page does not download it. The photos are not sent to a server. There is no sign-up and no watermark on the JPG.
- Open the HEIC to JPG converter. The line at the top of that page says your files never leave your computer. That is the whole privacy design: read, decode and encode happen in the browser, and the JPG is then downloaded like any other file you save from a page.
- Drop the photos onto the box, or choose them. You can add many at once.
.heicand.heifare both accepted. A phone can use the same file input. Some phone photo pickers convert HEIC to JPEG before a page is allowed to see the original. If a row says the file is already a JPEG, the original never reached the page and nothing was uploaded. Pick the HEIC from the Files app, or from the PC, when you need the file itself converted. - Leave JPG quality at 90 unless you have a reason to move it. 90 is the default. 80 makes a smaller, slightly softer file. 95 keeps more detail and makes a larger file. The slider runs from 60 to 100 in steps of 5. If you change quality after a conversion, press Convert again. The page does not silently rewrite files you already downloaded.
- Leave Strip metadata off if you want the camera EXIF copied into the JPG. The orientation tag is set to upright, because the pixels are already rotated, so a viewer will not turn the picture a second time. GPS, camera model and date stay when they were in the HEIC and the block fits in a JPEG. Turn Strip metadata on to leave all of that out, including location. XMP is not copied either way. A file with no EXIF still becomes a JPG. The row says when there was nothing to copy, or when the block could not be attached.
- Watch the row for that file. A good row shows the pixel size, the quality and whether metadata was copied or removed. A bad row names the problem for that file only. The rest of the batch continues. A file over 100 MB is skipped. A picture over 80 megapixels is skipped, because the tab would need a very large amount of memory. An AVIF file is not a HEIC file and is refused with that explanation. A damaged file, or a HEIC that uses a codec this decoder does not support, fails on its own row.
- If the HEIC contains more than one picture, the converter keeps the primary image, the frame the file marks as the main photo, and does not export the others. You get one JPG per input file, not a contact sheet of every frame.
- One file downloads on its own as a JPG, using the original name with a
.jpgending. Two or more files stay in the list so you can save each JPG, or press Download ZIP for a singleheic-to-jpg.zipbuilt in the browser. The ZIP is not created on a server.
A normal phone photo, including a 48 megapixel one, is under the 80 megapixel cap. The tab still needs memory for the decoded picture. A laptop handles that easily. A phone can convert ordinary photos and may fail on a huge file even when the file is under the cap. If that happens, convert that one on a computer. The failure stays on that row.
What you still use the Store codecs for
A JPG from this page is a normal image. Mail, Word, a website upload and an older printer will take it. You do not need the Store extensions to view that JPG.
You still want the extensions if you prefer to keep the HEIC files and open them in Photos, if you want Explorer thumbnails on the originals, or if you play HEVC video in the Films and TV app. This converter does not install a codec, does not register a shell extension, and does not change which app opens .heic. It only gives you a JPG beside the original. Keep the HEIC if you still want the smaller original. Delete it only after you have opened the JPG and checked the picture.
The two routes can live together. Install the extensions on your own PC so day-to-day browsing of the camera roll works. Use the browser tool when you have to hand someone a JPG, when you are on a PC where you cannot install Store apps, or when the free manufacturer codec is not in the catalogue and you do not want the paid one.
A short worked example
Suppose File Explorer shows twelve files, IMG_2041.HEIC through IMG_2052.HEIC, copied from a phone with Keep Originals. Photos will not open them. You do not see the device-manufacturer HEVC listing in the Store.
Open the converter. Select all twelve in the file dialog. Leave quality at 90 and leave Strip metadata off if you still want the dates and, when the phone stored it, the location. Each row should end ready, with a size and a note that metadata was copied and the photo kept upright. Press Download ZIP. Open heic-to-jpg.zip in Explorer and extract it. You should see twelve .jpg files with the same base names. Open one in Photos. That JPG does not need the HEIF or HEVC extensions.
If one of the twelve was actually a movie, or an AVIF still, that row fails and the other eleven still finish. If one row says the file is already a JPEG, that slot was converted by the picker before it arrived. The other files are unaffected.
To stop the next import from repeating this, set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic before you connect the phone, or set the camera format to Most Compatible so new shots are JPEG. The twelve files you just converted are already done. Those settings do not change the ZIP you downloaded.
Frequently asked questions
Why will Photos not open a HEIC file on Windows 11?
A default Windows 11 install often has no decoder for the picture inside a HEIC file. HEIC is a HEIF container, and the photo is usually compressed with HEVC. Windows needs the free HEIF Image Extensions and an HEVC video extension before Photos, Paint or File Explorer can show it. A browser converter does not use those Store packages.
What does each Microsoft Store extension do?
HEIF Image Extensions, package family Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension, teaches Windows to read the HEIF container used by .heic and .heif files. It does not decode the HEVC picture by itself. HEVC Video Extensions, package family Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtensions, is the paid codec that decodes that picture. The HEIF listing says a video extension must also be installed to view the images.
Why is the free device-manufacturer HEVC extension missing?
HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer, package family Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension, is offered for PCs that were sold with that codec. Store search on a custom-built PC, some virtual machines, and some upgraded machines often does not list it. The listing you can find by search is usually the paid HEVC Video Extensions. Read the price on that listing. In the United States it has commonly been about $0.99, and other regions differ.
Does Most Compatible turn my old photos into JPEG?
No. On the phone, Settings, then Camera, then Formats, then Most Compatible, only changes new photos and videos. New photos are JPEG. Pictures already saved as HEIC stay HEIC. Convert those with this tool, or import them with the transfer option set to Automatic.
What does Transfer to Mac or PC set to Automatic actually change?
It applies when a computer imports from the phone. Automatic asks the phone to send a JPEG instead of the HEIC original. Keep Originals sends the HEIC file. A HEIC you already copied, or saved from a message, does not pass through this setting.
Does converting on this page upload the photos?
No. The converter runs in your browser. Your files never leave your computer. The JPG is created locally and then downloaded. There is no account and no watermark.
Convert without installing a codec
If Photos still cannot open the file, or you would rather not add a paid extension, make the JPG in the browser. The original stays where it is until you delete it yourself.