What is HEIC? (And Why Your iPhone Uses It)
So you tried to open a photo from your iPhone and got hit with "file format not supported." Or maybe you tried uploading it somewhere and the site just... refused. Welcome to HEIC.
The short version
HEIC is Apple's photo format. Every picture you take on a modern iPhone gets saved as a .heic file instead of a .jpg. Apple did this starting with iOS 11 back in 2017, and they didn't exactly ask permission.
The format itself is fine—good, even. The problem is that the rest of the world hasn't caught up yet.
Why Apple switched
Look, Apple didn't do this just to annoy Windows users (probably). There are actual reasons:
The files are way smaller. Like, roughly half the size of a JPG at the same quality. When you're storing thousands of photos on a phone, that adds up fast.
Better image quality. HEIC supports 16-bit color instead of JPG's 8-bit. More colors means smoother gradients and less of that banding you sometimes see in skies or shadows.
Extra features. Live Photos, depth data for portrait mode, transparency—HEIC can store all of it in one file. JPG can't.
So from Apple's perspective, this was a no-brainer. Better quality, smaller files, more features. Ship it.
The problem
Nobody else got the memo.
HEIC works great if you stay in the Apple ecosystem. Mac to iPhone to iPad, no issues. But the moment you try to do anything else:
- Windows won't open it (without installing extra stuff)
- Half the websites won't accept it for uploads
- Email attachments get rejected
- Photo editing software throws errors
- Your parents definitely can't open it
I've hit this wall more times than I want to admit. You just want to upload a photo somewhere and suddenly you're troubleshooting file formats.
What to do about it
You've got a few options.
Option 1: Convert when you need to
This is what I do. Keep the HEIC files (they're actually better), and just convert to JPG when you need compatibility. Takes a few seconds with the right tool.
Option 2: Make your iPhone save as JPG
You can change this in Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. Now everything saves as JPG.
Downside: your photos take up twice the space and you lose some of the quality benefits. But if you never want to think about this again, its an option.
Option 3: Install codecs on Windows
Microsoft has HEIF extensions in the Store. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they want you to pay for an additional codec. Sometimes they just don't help with the thing you're actually trying to do (like upload to a website).
My take
Honestly? HEIC is the better format. Keep using it. Just accept that you'll need to convert sometimes when sharing with the non-Apple world.
The good news is that converting is pretty painless if you have a tool that doesn't require uploading your photos to some random server. That's actually why I built this site—I got tired of the sketchiness of most converters and figured there had to be a better way.
There was. It runs in your browser. Your files never leave your device. Check it out if you're dealing with a pile of HEIC files right now.