How to convert HEIC to JPG on Mac (batch, offline, 2026)

You AirDropped a few photos to someone on Windows, or uploaded them to a form, or attached them to an email — and they bounced back with “we can’t open this file.” The culprit is almost always HEIC, the format your iPhone has quietly saved photos in since iOS 11.

HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is a genuinely good format. It stores the same photo at roughly half the size of a JPG. The problem is that half the world still can’t read it: plenty of Windows apps, older Android phones, web upload forms, print kiosks, and legal or HR portals all expect a plain JPG.

This guide covers every way to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac — the free built-in tools, the command line, and the one-drag batch approach — and which one to reach for depending on whether you have one photo or three hundred.

First: why not just upload to a web converter?

Because a photo is not a neutral file. HEIC images from an iPhone carry EXIF metadata — the GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken, the exact timestamp, the device model, sometimes more. When you drop a photo onto a free web converter, you’re handing all of that to a server you don’t control, and many of those sites are ad-funded precisely because your uploads are the product.

Everything below happens entirely on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded. That matters more for photos than almost any other file type, and it’s the whole reason to prefer a local tool.

Method 1: Preview (best for one to a few photos)

Preview is already on your Mac and handles single conversions cleanly.

1. Open the HEIC file in Preview (double-click it, or right-click → Open With → Preview).
2. Choose File → Export.
3. In the dialog, set Format to JPEG.
4. Drag the Quality slider — 80–90% is the sweet spot where the file is small but you can’t see the difference.
5. Click Save.

You can do several at once, too: select multiple HEIC files in Finder, open them all in Preview, select all thumbnails in the sidebar (⌘A), then File → Export Selected Images. Preview will batch-export the lot to JPG in one folder.

This is fine up to a couple dozen images. Past that, the sidebar selection gets fiddly and you don’t get much control over the output filenames.

Method 2: The Finder “Convert Image” Quick Action (fastest built-in batch)

Most people miss this one. Since macOS Monterey, Finder has a built-in image converter hiding in the right-click menu — no app to open at all.

1. In Finder, select every HEIC file you want to convert (⌘-click, or ⌘A to grab a whole folder’s worth).
2. Right-click the selection.
3. Go to Quick Actions → Convert Image.
4. Set Format to JPEG, pick an image size (Actual Size keeps full resolution), and decide whether to preserve metadata.
5. Click Convert to JPEG.

New JPG copies land right next to the originals. Crucially, the “Preserve Metadata” checkbox here lets you strip EXIF on the way out — untick it and your GPS location and device info don’t travel with the JPGs.

This is the best free option for a batch. Its limits: it only outputs JPEG, PNG, or HEIF, it won’t let you set a precise JPEG quality percentage, and it can’t rename files by a pattern.

Method 3: The sips command (for scripters and huge batches)

sips (Scriptable Image Processing System) ships with macOS and is perfect if you’re comfortable in Terminal or you have hundreds of files.

Convert a single file:

sips -s format jpeg photo.heic --out photo.jpg

Convert an entire folder of HEIC files to JPG:

cd ~/Pictures/iphone-export
for f in *.heic *.HEIC; do
  [ -e "$f" ] || continue
  sips -s format jpeg "$f" --out "${f%.*}.jpg"
done

Set a quality/compression level (0 = smallest, 1 = best):

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 photo.heic --out photo.jpg

sips is fast and free, but it’s unforgiving: one typo and you can overwrite an original, and it gives you no preview of the result. It also keeps most metadata unless you strip it with a separate -d flag per tag. Great for a scripted pipeline, overkill for a one-off.

Method 4: Zumkor (drag a folder, get JPGs — no fiddling)

If you convert photos more than once in a blue moon — a photographer handing off shoots, a parent emailing school photos, anyone who regularly moves images between Apple and non-Apple devices — the built-in tools start to feel like chores. This is the exact job Zumkor is built for.

1. Open Zumkor and drag in your HEIC files, or a whole folder of them.
2. Pick JPG as the output.
3. (Optional) Flip on Strip personal data to remove GPS location and device info in the same pass.
4. Click Convert.

Every file converts at once, on your Mac, with nothing uploaded — it even works with Wi-Fi off. The results drop next to the originals. Because it’s a one-time $19.99 purchase rather than a subscription, it’s the cheapest option here the second time you need it, and it does the same drag-and-drop batch for RAW, PNG, TIFF, and AVIF too.

The honest trade-off: for exactly one photo, once, Preview is right there and free. Zumkor earns its place when “one photo” turns into “this folder of 240,” or when you want EXIF stripped without thinking about it, or when you’re also juggling video and audio conversions and don’t want five different tools.

Getting the output right

A few details separate “I made a JPG” from “I made the JPG I actually wanted”:

• Quality vs. size. JPG is lossy. Exporting at 100% quality gives you a needlessly huge file; 80–90% is visually identical for photos and much smaller. Below ~60% you’ll start seeing blocky artifacts in skies and gradients.
• Resolution. If the JPG is for email or the web, downsizing to 2048px on the long edge cuts the file size dramatically with no visible loss on a screen. Keep full resolution only if it’s going to print.
• Metadata. Decide deliberately. Keep EXIF if you want the capture date to survive; strip it if the photo is going anywhere public. The same privacy logic applies to the videos you send, which can carry location data too.
• Color profile. iPhone photos are often in the wide-gamut Display P3 space. For maximum compatibility on old Windows machines, converting to sRGB avoids washed-out or oversaturated colors. Preview and Zumkor both handle this; sips needs an explicit profile flag.

Bottom line

• One or two photos: Preview → Export → JPEG. Done in ten seconds.
• A batch, free: Finder → right-click → Quick Actions → Convert Image. Best built-in option, and it can strip metadata.
• Hundreds, scripted: a sips loop in Terminal.
• A batch you’ll repeat, with metadata control and other formats in the mix: Zumkor, one drag, fully offline.

The one option to skip is a random web converter. Your photos carry your location and your device’s fingerprint — there’s no reason to upload that when your Mac can do the whole job locally.

Next up: if the file that won’t open is a video rather than a photo, see how to convert MKV to MP4 on Mac.