HEIF to PSD Converter
FileFlip converts HEIF to PSD entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an HEIF file to PSD?#
- Drop your HEIF file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to PSD and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the PSD file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting HEIF to PSD lose quality?#
PSD is a lossless format, so nothing further is lost here, but nothing is recovered either. Whatever the HEIF encoder already threw away is gone, and the PSD file will usually be several times larger for exactly the same content.
Is it safe to convert HEIF files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts HEIF 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 HEIF to PSD actually does to the file#
Converting HEIF to PSD runs on ImageMagick, downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, writes a lossless file that cannot recover what the source already discarded, keeps EXIF metadata, ICC colour profile and transparency, and drops animation frames and extra images.
| Engine | ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: HEIF → PSD |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless output, but nothing is recovered |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF metadata | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| ICC colour profile | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Transparency | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Animation frames | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Extra images | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- ImageMagick is asked for a single image, so only the first frame, page, or icon size is read
What is an HEIF file?#
An HEIF file is a general-purpose container, built on the same ISO base media file format as MP4, that can hold one or more images encoded with any of several codecs, HEVC being the case Apple names HEIC and AV1 being the case standardized separately as AVIF.
Expect HEIF, rather than HEIC specifically, from cameras and devices that encode stills with a codec other than HEVC, since HEIF is the umbrella container those files also use.
Convert a HEIF file to JPEG or PNG when the destination only accepts a single, codec-agnostic raster image, since most upload forms and older software carry no HEIF decoder at all.
What is a PSD file?#
A PSD file is Adobe Photoshop's native document format, keeping an image as a stack of independently editable layers, masks, adjustment layers and text objects instead of merging them into a single picture.
Keep a design as PSD while it's still being edited, so layers, masks and adjustment layers stay available for later changes.
Convert PSD to JPEG or PNG once a design is finished and needs to be viewed on the web or by someone without Photoshop, since flattening is what makes it viewable everywhere.
HEIF to PSD questions people ask#
What's the difference between HEIF and HEIC?
HEIF is the container format, defined by ISO/IEC 23008-12, and it can hold images encoded with several different codecs. HEIC is specifically a HEIF file whose images are encoded with HEVC, which is the case Apple uses for iPhone and iPad photos, so every HEIC file is a HEIF file but not every HEIF file is a HEIC file.
Is AVIF the same thing as HEIF?
AVIF is a HEIF file whose images are encoded with the AV1 codec, in the same way HEIC is a HEIF file encoded with HEVC. The AVIF specification is written explicitly as a profile of HEIF, but it registers its own MIME type and extension because AV1 avoids the patent licensing that comes with HEVC.
Why does my camera save photos with a .heif extension instead of .heic?
Some cameras, including recent Canon and Sony models, encode HEIF stills for 10-bit HDR photography using a codec setup that isn't the HEVC-in-HEIF case Apple calls HEIC, so they label the file with the generic .heif extension instead. The underlying container is the same either way.
What happens to my layers when I convert a PSD to JPEG?
Converting a PSD to JPEG merges every layer into one flat plane, bakes layer masks and adjustment layers permanently into the pixels, and rasterizes any text so it's no longer editable. Paths and guides are dropped entirely, since JPEG has nowhere to store them.