Apple's move to the HEIC image format has brought many benefits, with significantly less storage required being the first feature in favor. However, not all of the world jumped on the HEIC bandwagon. You will still find many apps and services that don't support HEIC format at all.
The credit of Apple is that iOS automatically converts HEIC photos to JPG every time you share them with native or third-party apps (Mail, Instagram, Twitter and others). But you may want some JPG copies of your photos to mitigate potential compatibility issues.
Thankfully, you can get your photos taken on iPhone converted to JPG format pretty easily. The first method involves using a native workaround, while the second method requires using a third-party image conversion utility. Let's begin.
Copy and paste into the Files app
The easiest way to convert your HEIC photos to JPG format is to copy and paste them into the iPhone's built-in Files app. This will immediately save the copied photos as JPG. It's super easy to do, and you can convert as many images as you want with minimal effort.
Step 1: open the Files app on your iPhone, then select the location On My iPhone. Then, create a folder (long press and then select New Folder) within the location - you can enter whatever name you want.
Final report: all other locations except On My iPhone are cloud-based. Although you can also copy and paste your photos in these locations and convert HEIC images to JPG, you will not have offline access to the converted images.Step 2: open the Photos app. Tap Select, then choose the photos you want to convert. Next, tap on the Share icon.
Sheart 3: Tap the Copy Photos option within the Share tab to copy them to your iPhone's clipboard. Next, go to the folder you created in the Files app earlier. Long press inside an empty area, then tap Paste in the context menu.
And voila! Your photos are displayed in JPG format. The images will be named in the sequence you selected and the Files app will also include the word “JPEG” within the filenames for good measure. Perfect.
JPG files will only appear in the Files app, but you can save them in the Photos app if you want your photos to be in one location. To do this, select the converted photos, open the share sheet, then tap Save images. Remember that you will create duplicate images within the Photos app as the original HEIC files are also present in it. If you don't mind losing HEIC copies, you may want to delete them early to avoid confusion.
Use a third-party converter
One thing that strikes you when you browse the App Store is the lack of proper HEIC to JPG converters. Most of them require (ridiculous) compensation or are advertised nightmares that don't even work properly. However, there is one gem in the rough, and it's an app called Luma: HEIC Convert.
Step 1: download and install Luma: HEIC Convert from the App Store.
- Scarica Luma: HEIC Convert
Step 2: Open Luma: HEIC Convert. You will see that it has classified your photos into different categories. Choose one (Recent, Selfie, or Portrait), then tap Select.
Final report: you need to give Luma: HEIC Convert permission to access your photo library. Tap Allow whenever prompted.
Step 3: choose the photos you want to convert. You will see the HEIC label on the photos to help you distinguish them from other formats. When done, tap Convert. On the next screen, tap JPG, then tap Convert again to start the conversion process.
Once the app has finished converting your photos, they will automatically be saved in the photo gallery, which you can then check using the Photos app. You can also decide whether to keep or delete the originals after the conversion procedure.
This utility is actually much more convenient when it comes to processing large batches of HEIC images to JPG. This is much better than copying and pasting images manually into the Files app.
At the time of writing, there are no noteworthy apps to recommend other than Luma: HEIC Convert in the App Store. However, you can always check for other HEIC to JPG converters, as new apps are released every now and then.
But as a general rule, avoid converting photos of any sensitive nature using third party apps as you never know where they might end up in the end. Using the Files app workaround is often the way to go for such instances.
