Select (this will save photos as JPEGs instead of HEIC). Summary Table: Which one should you choose?
On your iPhone, navigate to Settings → Photos and set the option for transferring to Mac or PC to "Automatic". This will help ensure smoother compatibility when transferring images to your Windows computer.
To open HEIC photos in the default Windows Photos App or File Explorer, you need two tools:
Ultimate Guide to the Best HEIC Image Viewers for Windows 11 heic image viewer windows 11
– Click the Store icon on your taskbar or search for "Microsoft Store" in the Start menu.
PowerToys includes a tool called "Image Resizer," but the latest builds also allow for bulk conversion. Right-click on selected files and use the "Convert" images option if available, or use the official free , which integrates into the right-click context menu for one-click conversion.
This extension allows Windows 11 to read the High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) container format. Open the on your PC. Search for HEIF Image Extensions . Click Get or Install . (This extension is completely free). 2. Install HEVC Video Extensions Select (this will save photos as JPEGs instead of HEIC)
Sometimes requires a secondary paid extension ("HEVC Video Extensions") to decode certain files properly. CopyTrans HEIC for Windows
Even after installing extensions, you might hit a wall. Here are the three most common failure points:
Below is a draft for a social media or blog post regarding this topic. Right-click on selected files and use the "Convert"
A2: You can change your iPhone's default camera format. Go to Settings > Camera > Formats and select "Most Compatible" . Your iPhone will then capture photos as JPEGs instead of HEIC files.
Apple devices shoot photos in the HEIC format by default to save storage space while maintaining high image quality. However, Windows 11 does not natively support this file format out of the box.
Note: Microsoft used to provide this for free but sometimes charges a small fee ($0.99) for the required HEVC Video Extensions, which handle the underlying video compression codec used by Apple.