How to Download HEIC Images and Convert Them to JPG

You open a shared photo album or browse an iCloud link, you save the images, and then nothing on your Windows PC can open them. The files end in .heic and they may as well be from another planet. This guide walks you through a two-step fix: use Bulk Image Downloader to grab every image at once, then run them through the HEIC to JPG Converter to get universally compatible JPG files, all without uploading a single photo to a stranger’s server.

The Problem: HEIC Files That Nothing Will Open

Picture this common scenario. A friend shares an iCloud album from their vacation. You click through the link in Chrome, see 40 beautiful photos, and start saving them. A few minutes later you try to attach one to an email or drop it into Canva, and you get an error. The file is .heic, not .jpg, and the tool you’re using has no idea what to do with it.

The same situation comes up in other ways:

• A client sends a folder of product shots taken on an iPhone and every file is HEIC.
• You back up your own iPhone to a Windows PC and want to edit the photos in software that does not support HEIC.
• You find a gallery on a photography site where the images are HEIC because the photographer shot on Apple hardware.

The instinct is to find an online converter, upload the photos, and download the JPGs. That works, but it means sending potentially private photos to a server you know nothing about, waiting for an upload, and doing it one image at a time if the site has limits. There is a faster, more private path that stays entirely inside Chrome.

The two-step workflow covered here pairs Bulk Image Downloader (for mass download) with the HEIC to JPG Converter (for local, private conversion). Both extensions are free. Neither one ships your images to any server.

What HEIC Actually Is (and Why It Causes So Much Trouble)

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. Apple adopted it as the default camera format starting with iOS 11 in 2017. The underlying codec, HEIF, compresses photos significantly better than JPEG at the same visual quality, so a 12-megapixel iPhone shot that would be 4 MB as a JPG might be only 1.5 to 2 MB as a HEIC. That saves storage on the device and in iCloud.

The problem is compatibility. HEIC is an Apple-native format. Microsoft added basic support in Windows 10 and 11 through the HEVC Video Extensions codec, but only if you have it installed and only in a subset of apps. Most of the web, most design tools, most CMS platforms, and most email clients expect JPG or PNG. Drop a HEIC into a web form or a WordPress media library and you will get a rejection or a broken image.

Key facts to keep in mind:

• HEIC is NOT the same as HEIF, though the terms are often used interchangeably. HEIC is the container; HEIF is the image standard inside it.
• Conversion to JPG is slightly lossy because JPG itself is a lossy format. You choose the quality level and accept a small tradeoff in file size.
• EXIF metadata (date, GPS, camera model) is usually preserved during conversion but some online tools strip it. The local converter described below keeps it.
• Apple devices can be set to shoot in “Most Compatible” mode (JPG) in Settings, but most users never change this default.

Understanding this helps you explain to a client why their iPhone photos are not working and why converting HEIC to JPG is the right fix rather than asking them to change their phone settings.

Step 1: Download All the HEIC Images at Once

If there are more than two or three images, right-clicking each one individually wastes time. Bulk Image Downloader scans the entire page (including CSS backgrounds, srcset attributes, <picture> elements, data URIs, and even WebP and AVIF sources) and shows you a preview gallery so you can select exactly what you want before downloading anything.

How to use it on a HEIC gallery

• Install and open the extension. Click the Bulk Image Downloader icon in your Chrome toolbar while on the page containing the images.
• Filter by file type. In the extension panel, use the file type filter to show only HEIC files. This is useful when a page mixes HEIC photos with JPG thumbnails or PNG interface elements you do not want.
• Set size filters if needed. Use the minimum width and height filters to exclude small icons or thumbnails. If the real photos are at least 1000 pixels wide, set the minimum width to 1000 and the noise disappears.
• Select all and download as ZIP. Tick all the images that pass the filter, choose a filename pattern if you want sequential names, and click download. The extension packages everything into a ZIP file and sends it to your Downloads folder.

The free tier of Bulk Image Downloader allows up to 25 downloads per day, which covers most shared albums. If you regularly work with larger sets, the Pro tier is included in the $9/month Peak Productivity bundle alongside every other extension in the suite.

For a deeper look at how the scanner works across different site structures, see the guide on bulk downloading images from any website.

After the ZIP lands in your Downloads folder, unzip it. You now have a folder of HEIC files ready for the next step.

Step 2: Convert the HEIC Files to JPG Locally in Chrome

Open the HEIC to JPG Converter extension. It runs entirely inside your browser using the browser’s own rendering engine, so your photos never leave your machine. There is no account, no upload progress bar, no waiting for a server response.

Batch conversion in a few clicks

• Open the converter panel. Click the extension icon in Chrome. A conversion interface opens either as a popup or a full browser tab depending on how you have it pinned.
• Drag your folder in. Drag the entire unzipped folder of HEIC files onto the drop zone, or click to browse and select multiple files at once. The converter accepts HEIC and HEIF files in batch.
• Choose your output format. Select JPG for universal compatibility or PNG if you need a lossless result. For web use and email, JPG at quality 85 to 90 is the standard choice.
• Convert and download. Click convert. The extension processes each file in sequence using local compute and offers a download for each converted image, or a batch download depending on the version.

Because everything happens inside Chrome, the conversion speed depends on your machine rather than a server queue. On a modern laptop, 40 typical iPhone photos convert in under a minute.

A Real Walkthrough: 40 iPhone Photos, Two Minutes

Here is exactly how this workflow plays out on a concrete example: a shared iCloud album of 40 photos from a birthday party that a friend has made accessible via a web link.

1. Open the link in Chrome. The page shows a grid of photo thumbnails. Most are HEIC because the sender has an iPhone and never changed the default format.
2. Launch Bulk Image Downloader. Click the extension icon. The scanner runs and finds 40 images. A few thumbnail-sized images from the page UI also appear in the gallery, so you set the minimum width filter to 800 pixels and they drop out. You are left with the 40 real photos.
3. Download as ZIP. Click select all, then download. The extension packages the 40 HEIC files into a ZIP. Download time depends on your connection speed. A 40-photo album of typical iPhone shots at 1.5 to 2 MB each is roughly 60 to 80 MB total.
4. Unzip the folder. Right-click the ZIP in your Downloads folder and extract. You have a folder named something like images_2026-06-03 with 40 .heic files.
5. Open the HEIC to JPG Converter. Drag the whole folder onto the drop zone. All 40 files load into the queue.
6. Convert. Select JPG at quality 85, click convert. The extension processes each file. Progress shows inline.
7. Download the JPGs. Use the batch download option to get all 40 converted files. They land in your Downloads folder as standard JPG files, ready to attach to email, upload to Google Drive, or import into any editing app.

Total time from opening the shared link to having 40 usable JPGs: roughly two minutes, depending on connection speed for the initial download. No accounts created, no files sent to a third-party server, no per-image repetition.

Tips: EXIF Data, Quality, and Why Local Beats Upload-to-Convert

Keeping or stripping EXIF metadata

EXIF data embedded in HEIC files includes the date the photo was taken, GPS coordinates, the camera model, and exposure settings. For personal archives, you usually want to keep it so your photo library app can sort by date and location. For images you plan to publish publicly, stripping GPS coordinates is a good privacy practice since the data reveals where you were when you took the photo. The HEIC to JPG Converter preserves EXIF by default. Check the settings if you want to strip location data before sharing images online.

JPG quality vs. file size

JPG quality is a scale from 1 to 100. Quality 85 to 90 is visually indistinguishable from the original for almost all use cases and produces files roughly 40 to 60 percent smaller than quality 100. For web publishing, quality 80 is often the sweet spot. For print or archival use, go to 90 or higher. There is no reason to go above 95 for HEIC-to-JPG conversion because the HEIC source itself was already compressed.

Batch vs. one-by-one

Always use batch mode when you have more than three or four images. Processing one at a time through a browser extension or any other tool is slower and creates the temptation to skip some files. Load the whole folder, convert everything, download everything.

Why local conversion beats upload-to-convert websites

Upload-based converters have several real drawbacks:

• Privacy. Your photos go to a server you do not control. For photos that contain faces, locations, or sensitive subjects, this is a genuine concern.
• File size limits. Most free online converters cap files at 5 to 10 MB per image or 20 to 50 MB per batch. iPhone HEIC files can be larger, especially burst shots or live photos.
• Speed. Upload time plus server queue time plus download time adds up. Local conversion is faster once the initial download from the source page is done.
• Reliability. Online tools go down, change pricing, or add watermarks without warning. A browser extension you have installed keeps working regardless of what the developer’s website is doing.

FAQ

Why are the images I downloaded HEIC instead of JPG?

iPhones default to HEIC since iOS 11 because it produces smaller files with the same quality. Unless the photographer has changed their camera settings to “Most Compatible” (which outputs JPG), every photo they take is a HEIC file. When those photos are shared via iCloud or any link that serves the original file, you get HEIC. This is not a download error, it is just the format the file was saved in.

Is converting HEIC to JPG lossless?

No. JPG is a lossy format by design. When you convert HEIC to JPG, you choose a quality level and the encoder throws away some image data to achieve compression. At quality 85 to 90 the difference is not visible to the naked eye in normal use, but technically the JPG is not identical to the original. If you need a pixel-perfect lossless output, convert to PNG instead of JPG. PNG is lossless but produces larger files.

Can I convert hundreds of HEIC files at once?

Yes. The HEIC to JPG Converter accepts batch input. Drag a folder containing as many HEIC files as you have and it queues them all. The only practical limit is your computer’s available memory. Very large batches (several hundred high-resolution files) may take a few minutes, but they will complete without any per-file interaction from you.

Does converting HEIC to JPG keep the photo date and location?

Yes, by default. The EXIF metadata from the original HEIC file, including the timestamp, GPS coordinates, camera model, and exposure data, is carried over to the JPG output. If you want to strip location data for privacy before sharing the images, look for an EXIF or metadata option in the converter settings before running the batch.

Do my photos get uploaded anywhere during conversion?

No. The HEIC to JPG Converter processes everything locally inside your browser. No file leaves your machine. This is the main reason to prefer a local browser extension over any online converter: your photos stay private regardless of what they contain.