HEIC Converter
FileFlip converts HEIC files into 62 other formats entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The HEIC file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. There is no file-size limit and no account to create.
How do I convert an HEIC file?#
- Drop your HEIC file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer.
- Choose the format you want out of it. FileFlip downloads the engine that conversion needs, once, and your browser caches it.
- Conversion starts the moment you pick the format, and the result is yours to download. The work happens in this tab, so nothing is uploaded and nothing is queued.
Is it safe to convert HEIC files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts HEIC files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What happens to a HEIC file#
FileFlip converts HEIC into 62 formats with ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc, all of it inside the browser tab. Each conversion below names the engine it uses, what it downloads, and exactly what that conversion keeps or drops.
| Category | Image Files |
|---|---|
| File extension | .heic |
| FileFlip support | Read only, so it is a source rather than a target |
| Conversions available | 62 |
| Engines | ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB on the first conversion, then cached |
What is an HEIC file?#
An HEIC file contains one or more images saved in the High Efficiency Image Format, the container Apple has used for iPhone and iPad photos since iOS 11 because it stores the same picture in roughly half the space of a JPEG.
Keep photos as HEIC while they stay on Apple devices, where the space saving is free and nothing loses quality.
Convert HEIC to JPG when a file has to leave the Apple ecosystem, which in practice means uploading it anywhere, emailing it to someone on Windows, or printing it.
The HEIC file format reference covers the specification, the programs that open one, and what each conversion keeps or drops.
HEIC questions people ask#
Why are my iPhone photos HEIC instead of JPG?
iPhones save photos as HEIC by default because the format stores the same image in about half the space of a JPEG. Changing Settings, Camera, Formats to Most Compatible switches new photos to JPEG, though it does not convert the pictures already in your library.
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
Converting HEIC to JPG re-encodes the image with a different lossy codec, so a small amount of detail is discarded. At high JPEG quality the difference is not visible at normal viewing sizes, but the resulting file is usually larger than the HEIC it came from, and 16-bit colour is reduced to 8-bit.
Can Windows open HEIC files?
Windows 11 shows HEIC files only after the HEIF Image Extensions are installed from the Microsoft Store, and the HEVC Video Extensions they depend on are a paid download. Converting to JPG avoids the codec entirely and works on any version of Windows.
What happens to a Live Photo when I convert HEIC to JPG?
A Live Photo stores a still image and a short video as separate items. Converting the HEIC keeps the still frame and discards the motion, because JPEG holds exactly one image and has nowhere to put the video.
Is HEIC the same as HEIF?
HEIF is the container format and HEIC is the common case of that container holding HEVC-encoded images. Apple uses the .heic extension for photos, while .heif appears when the container holds images encoded another way.