You copied photos from an iPhone, and the computer shows files ending in .heic that will not open. The photos are fine; the program you are using simply does not read the format.
What HEIC is
HEIC is Apple's name for photos stored in HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format. According to Apple, HEIF compresses better than JPEG, so photos take less space on the phone and in iCloud while keeping the same visual quality (Apple Support, “Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices”, checked on 24 September 2026). The price is compatibility: a program that does not support HEIF cannot open the file.
The quick fix: convert to JPG
- Open the HEIC to JPG converter.
- Drop your .heic files, up to 20 at a time.
- Choose JPG — the format almost everything opens — or PNG or WebP, set the quality, convert and download.
The conversion runs in your browser: the photos are decoded and re-encoded on your own computer and are not uploaded anywhere. For photos of people and documents that matters.
Which format to choose
- JPG for sending, printing and uploading: it opens everywhere. The quality slider trades size for detail.
- PNG only if you are going to edit the photo in several rounds: it is lossless and therefore several times larger — in our converter test, an ordinary photo saved as PNG was 2.7 to 10 times the size of its JPEG.
- WebP for putting photos on a website.
Make the iPhone shoot JPEG instead
Apple's page gives the setting: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos will then be saved as JPEG; photos already taken stay HEIC and still need converting. Apple also notes that when you share by AirDrop, Messages or email with a device that does not support the newer formats, the photo may be sent as JPEG automatically.
Next steps
Converted photos are often large: compress them for email or a form, or combine them into a PDF.