The fastest free way: right-click the HEIC file in Finder, choose Quick Actions > Convert Image, pick JPEG, and click Convert. It’s built into macOS, takes about five seconds, and works without opening anything. Preview does the same job through File > Export if you want control over quality. Identical steps on a MacBook, an iMac or a Mac mini, and it doesn’t matter whether you call it changing, converting or saving as JPG, it’s the same operation.

That’s the answer for one photo or a handful. You get a HEIC off your iPhone, a website refuses it, and you need a JPG now. Apple switched to HEIC with iOS 11 because it halves file sizes with no visible quality loss, and the rest of the internet still hasn’t entirely caught up.

Below are six ways to do it, starting with the ones already on your Mac. Two shortcuts if you already know what you need: for a whole folder, read how to batch convert HEIC to JPG on Mac, the approach changes once you’re past about twenty images. And if you’d rather just have a proper HEIC converter for Mac that keeps your EXIF data (location, camera, timestamps) intact, that’s what Picmal is.

What is HEIC, and why does it cause headaches?

HEIC is genuinely better than JPG. A 3MB HEIC photo looks identical to a 6MB JPG. It can hold multiple images in one file, which is how Live Photos work. Apple had good reasons.

Good reasons don’t help when:

  • A website rejects your upload with no explanation
  • Your Windows-using coworker can’t open the file you sent
  • Photoshop on your coworker’s machine stares at the file like it’s written in cuneiform
  • Your email client quietly drops the attachment

Method 1: Preview (already on your Mac)

Preview does more than most people realize. It can convert images.

Steps:

  1. Right-click the HEIC file → “Open With” → “Preview”
  2. File → Export
  3. Pick “JPEG” from the Format dropdown
  4. Adjust the quality slider if you care about file size
  5. Click “Save”

For multiple files:

  1. Select all HEIC files in Finder
  2. Right-click → Open with Preview
  3. Cmd+A to select all images in the sidebar
  4. File → Export Selected Images
  5. Choose JPEG and pick a destination folder

The catch:

Gets sluggish past a few dozen images. Flattens your folder structure into one pile. Quality controls are bare-bones.

Method 2: the Photos app

If your images are already in Photos, you don’t need to dig them out of a folder first.

Steps:

  1. Open Photos
  2. Select the images you want to convert
  3. File → Export → Export [Number] Photos
  4. Set Photo Kind to “JPEG”
  5. Pick your quality and size
  6. Click “Export”

Upside:

Works with your existing library. Albums and organization carry over.

Downside:

If the photos aren’t already in Photos, you first have to import them (which is its own adventure). And exporting large selections is slow enough to make you check Activity Monitor.

Method 3: Quick Actions (right-click menu)

On macOS Monterey or later, Apple buried a surprisingly useful conversion tool in the right-click menu.

Steps:

  1. Select HEIC files in Finder
  2. Right-click → “Quick Actions”
  3. “Convert Image”
  4. Pick JPEG
  5. Choose a size
  6. “Convert to JPEG”

Worth knowing:

It creates copies rather than replacing your originals. Perfect for converting a handful of files when you don’t want to open anything.

Method 4: a saved Automator Quick Action (one-click, reusable)

If you convert HEIC files all the time, set this up once and forget about it. Automator ships with macOS, so there’s nothing to download or buy.

Steps:

  1. Open Automator (Applications, or Spotlight)
  2. Choose New → Quick Action
  3. Set “Workflow receives current” to image files in Finder
  4. Search the actions list for Change Type of Images and drag it in
  5. Set “To Type” to JPEG (click Don’t Add if it offers to copy first, or Add to keep originals)
  6. Save it as something like “Convert to JPEG”

Now right-click any HEIC file in Finder → Quick Actions → Convert to JPEG, and it converts in place with a single click.

Best for:

People who do this every week. The built-in Quick Action (Method 3) is fine for one-offs, but here you decide what happens. Chain a few steps together, resize, drop into a folder, convert, and it all runs from one right-click.

Method 5: the Terminal (sips, already installed)

Your Mac already has a converter in the Terminal. It is called sips, it lives at /usr/bin/sips, and you do not install anything to use it. Most guides send you to Homebrew first. You don’t need to.

A single file:

sips -s format jpeg input.heic --out output.jpg

Every HEIC in a folder:

for f in *.heic; do sips -s format jpeg "$f" --out "${f%.heic}.jpg"; done

Control the quality:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 input.heic --out output.jpg

The number is the JPEG quality, 0 to 100. Leave it out and macOS picks a high default.

sips keeps your EXIF data, so location, camera and timestamps survive the conversion. It writes new files and never touches the originals.

If you would rather use ImageMagick:

brew install imagemagick
magick convert input.heic output.jpg

ImageMagick gives you more control over color profiles and resizing in the same pass. It is a bigger install for a job sips already does.

Why bother:

Scriptable. You can wire either one into a cron job, a shell alias, or a Hazel rule.

Why not:

If “shell alias” means nothing to you, this isn’t your method. Use Method 3.

Method 6: Picmal (when the built-in tools stop fitting)

Picmal is a native Mac app built for image conversion. Same three steps as everything else here, minus the ceilings.

Steps:

  1. Download Picmal from picmal.app
  2. Drag and drop your HEIC files into the app
  3. Select “JPG” as the output format
  4. Click “Convert”

Why people reach for it:

  • Runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing uploaded, nothing phoned home
  • Keeps metadata and folder structure intact
  • Quality slider so you control the output size
  • No file size ceiling

Best for:

Anyone who’d rather not route their vacation photos through someone else’s server, and who wants the quality control Preview doesn’t give you.

Got a whole camera roll rather than a few photos? That’s a different job with different tools, and it has its own guide: how to batch convert HEIC photos on Mac.

Side-by-side comparison

MethodSpeedKeeps EXIFQuality ControlEase of UsePrice
PreviewModerateUnreliableBasicEasyFree
Photos AppSlowYesBasicEasyFree
Quick ActionsFastYesLimitedVery EasyFree
AutomatorFastYesBasicEasyFree
Terminal (sips)FastYesAdvancedTechnicalFree
PicmalVery FastYesAdvancedVery Easy$29

Tips for better results

Quality settings that actually matter

  • Archiving photos you care about: 95-100%. No visible difference from the original
  • Uploading to a website: 80-85%. The file shrinks noticeably; your eyes won’t notice
  • Emailing someone who doesn’t zoom in: 70-75%. Gets the job done

Keep your originals

Put converted files in a separate folder. Don’t delete the HEIC originals. They’re smaller than the JPGs anyway, and you might need them later.

Every method here writes a new JPG and leaves the HEIC alone. The one exception to watch is Preview’s File > Save, which overwrites what you opened. Use File > Export instead.

Watch your metadata

Not every method preserves EXIF data (location, camera settings, timestamps). Picmal and Photos keep it. Preview might strip some of it without warning.

Troubleshooting

”Cannot open HEIC file”

Your macOS is too old. Update to High Sierra (10.13) or later. If you’re already on a recent version, you may be missing HEIF/HEVC codecs.

The converted JPG looks worse than the original

Crank the quality slider up to 90-95%. If you left it at the default, the tool probably picked something aggressive. Picmal gives you finer control here than the built-in options.

Conversion is painfully slow

Close Chrome. Yes, really. It’s eating your RAM. For large batches, use a dedicated converter instead of Preview, or split the batch into smaller chunks.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is the fastest way to convert HEIC to JPG? A: Right-click the file in Finder, choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image, and pick JPEG. About five seconds, nothing to install, and it works on a whole selection as easily as one file. It writes new JPGs and leaves your HEIC originals alone. Past a few hundred files the built-in tools start to groan, and that’s where Picmal or the sips command take over.

Q: What is the best free program to convert HEIC to JPG? A: You already have three. Preview, the Photos app and Quick Actions in Finder all ship with macOS and all export JPG. ImageMagick is a free install if you want a command line. Paid apps like Picmal ($29, one time) buy you batch speed and a real quality slider, not the conversion itself.

Q: Is there an online converter that converts HEIC images to JPG? A: Plenty, and that’s the problem. An online converter means uploading your photos, with their location and timestamps attached, to a server you know nothing about. You don’t need to. Quick Actions in Finder does the same job offline, and your originals never leave the Mac.

Q: Can I convert HEIC to JPG all at once? A: Yes. Select every file in Finder, right-click once, and Quick Actions converts the whole selection in a single pass. Preview and the sips command handle batches too. For a full camera roll, the batch guide covers what changes past a few hundred files.

Q: How do I make a picture JPEG instead of HEIC? A: Two ways. Convert the ones you already have with Quick Actions in Finder, or stop them being HEIC at the source: on the iPhone, go to Settings, Camera, Formats and choose Most Compatible. The camera shoots JPG from then on, at roughly double the file size, so plenty of people leave HEIC on and convert only the photos they need to share.

Q: Do I lose quality when converting HEIC to JPG on Mac? A: Technically yes, HEIC and JPG compress differently, so any conversion introduces some loss. At 90% quality or above you’d need to pixel-peep to spot it. Expect the JPG to come out larger than the HEIC it came from, though, because HEIC compresses about twice as efficiently at the same visible quality.

Q: Can I keep the metadata (location, camera info) when converting HEIC to JPG? A: Picmal, the Photos app and the built-in sips command all preserve EXIF metadata. Preview is unreliable and may strip some of it. ImageMagick preserves it by default but can drop it if you tell it to.

Q: How do I convert HEIC images to JPG using the Mac terminal? A: Use sips, which is already on your Mac, so there is nothing to install. For one file: sips -s format jpeg input.heic --out output.jpg. For a whole folder, loop over it. Add -s formatOptions 80 to set the JPEG quality. sips keeps EXIF data and writes new files, so your originals stay as they are.

Q: How do I change a HEIC to a JPG on my MacBook? A: Same as on any Mac: select the file in Finder, right-click, choose Quick Actions then Convert Image, pick JPEG and click Convert. Changing, converting and exporting as JPG all mean the same thing here, and macOS Monterey and later can do it without installing anything. For a whole folder, use Picmal or the sips command.

The short version

Right-click → Quick Actions and you’re done in seconds. If your HEIC files are already in Photos, export from there instead.

Pick based on what you’re doing:

  • A photo or a handful: Quick Actions or Preview
  • Already in Photos: Export from Photos
  • You want the quality slider: Picmal
  • Want to script it: the Terminal, with sips
  • A whole camera roll: that’s the batch guide, not this one

Change HEIC to JPG on a MacBook

Changing, converting and saving as JPG all describe the same operation, and the steps don’t differ by machine. On a MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, an iMac or a Mac mini: select the file in Finder, right-click, choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image, pick JPEG and click Convert.

The only real difference a laptop makes is heat. Converting a few hundred files with Preview or Automator will spin the fans on a MacBook and throttle partway through. sips and Picmal both handle the same job without pinning every core.

If you’d rather stop the problem at the source, change the camera format on the iPhone itself: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. Every photo shoots as JPG from then on, at roughly double the file size.