Batch convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac

You airdropped 400 photos off your iPhone and every one of them is a .HEIC that Windows, your CMS or your client can't open. You do not need an upload site for this — macOS can do it, and for bigger jobs there's a faster route.

The free way: Preview (works for any number of files)

This is built into macOS and most people never find it.

Select every HEIC file in Finder and press Space… no — open them all in Preview instead (⌘O, or right-click → Open With → Preview).
In Preview's sidebar, select all of the thumbnails (⌘A).
File → Export Selected Images… → choose a folder → set Format to JPEG → adjust quality → Choose.

Preview handles hundreds of images this way. It's slower than a dedicated tool and gives you no control over resizing or file naming, but it costs nothing and nothing is uploaded.

The other free way: a Quick Action

If you do this constantly, build it once in Automator: new Quick Action → “Change Type of Images” → JPEG. It then appears in Finder's right-click menu for any selection of photos, forever. Automator is on every Mac.

The catch is that Quick Actions are fiddly to modify and silently overwrite or duplicate files depending on how you set them up — check on a copy of a folder first, not on the only copy of a wedding.

When a real tool earns its keep

Preview and Automator convert. They don't resize to a max width, compress to a target size, strip location metadata from the photos before they go to a client, keep the original folder structure, or convert 2,000 files without turning the fans on for twenty minutes.

If you're processing photo shoots, real-estate listings or product catalogues weekly, that's the difference between an afternoon and a coffee. And as with everything here, it happens on your machine — nobody's holiday photos get uploaded to a stranger's server to be “processed”.

Common questions

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

A little, because both are lossy and you're re-encoding. At JPEG quality 85–90 the difference is invisible; the file typically ends up around twice the size of the HEIC, which is the trade for universal compatibility.

Can I stop my iPhone making HEIC files in the first place?

Yes: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos are then JPEG. Existing ones stay HEIC and still need converting.

Do HEIC files keep GPS location data when converted?

By default the EXIF data — including where the photo was taken — carries across to the JPEG. If you're sending photos to strangers, strip the metadata during conversion. Preview does not do this for you.

Keep reading

“File too big to email” — how to actually fix it on a Mac

Gmail stops at 25 MB, Outlook at 20 MB. Here's how to actually shrink a video, PDF or photo on your Mac so it sends — with the free method first, and what to do when you have 200 of them.

How to convert a file without uploading it anywhere

What actually happens to a file you drop on an online converter, when that matters, and every way to convert locally on a Mac instead — built-in tools, ffmpeg, and one app that covers the rest.

This guide is currently available in English only.