How to convert HEIC to JPG on a Mac
macOS has the best built-in tooling of any platform for this — the Finder can convert a thousand files in seconds and most people never find the menu item.
The one to remember
Finder Quick Actions. Select, right-click, Convert Image, JPEG. It has been there since macOS Monterey and it is faster and more capable than almost every third-party converter people install instead. It keeps the originals, writes the JPGs alongside them, and offers a metadata toggle so you can strip GPS data while converting.
- Use Finder Quick Actions for any number of files
Select the HEIC files in Finder, right-click, and choose Quick Actions → Convert Image. Set Format to JPEG, choose an image size, and decide whether to keep metadata. Click Convert to JPEG. This handles thousands of files at once and is by far the fastest route.
- Use Preview when you want to adjust as you go
Open the file in Preview, then File → Export. Set Format to JPEG and use the quality slider — Preview shows the resulting file size live as you drag it, which no other method on any platform does.
- Batch in Preview for a mixed selection
Open several images in one Preview window, select them all in the sidebar with ⌘+A, then File → Export Selected Images. You get one shared quality setting and one destination folder.
- Build a Quick Action if you do this weekly
Open Automator, create a new Quick Action, set it to receive image files in Finder, and add Copy Finder Items followed by Change Type of Images set to JPEG. Save it as 'HEIC to JPG'. It now sits permanently in the Finder right-click menu.
The Terminal method, for scripting
macOS includes sips, a command-line image tool, with no installation required:
sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 92 *.heic --out ./converted
Create the converted folder first. Add -Z 2000 to cap the longest edge at
2000 pixels while converting. This is the right approach for a folder-watching script or a cron job.
Getting files out of the Photos library
Photos stores images in a package you should not reach into directly. To export properly:
- File → Export → Export Photos — choose JPEG, set quality and size, and decide whether to include location. This is the correct route.
- File → Export → Export Unmodified Original — gives you the untouched HEIC, which is what you want for archiving rather than sharing.
- Dragging a photo from Photos to the Desktop gives you a JPG copy in most macOS versions, which is quick but gives you no control over quality.
Going the other way. Mac is the one platform where JPG to HEIC genuinely works without installing anything: Preview's Export dialog offers HEIF as a format, and Finder's Convert Image Quick Action includes it too. Apple licenses the HEVC encoder, which is why this works here and nowhere else. More on that here.
Common questions
- What is the fastest way to convert many HEIC files on a Mac?
- Select them all in Finder, right-click, and choose Quick Actions then Convert Image. It processes thousands of files in seconds and requires nothing to be installed.
- Does Preview let me control JPEG quality?
- Yes. File then Export shows a quality slider with a live estimate of the resulting file size, which makes it easy to hit a specific target such as an upload limit.
- How do I strip location data while converting?
- The Finder Convert Image panel has a metadata option, and Photos' export dialog has a Location checkbox. Turning either off removes GPS coordinates from the exported files.
- Can a Mac convert JPG to HEIC?
- Yes — Preview's Export dialog offers HEIF, and Finder's Convert Image Quick Action does too. macOS is one of the few environments with a licensed HEVC encoder available to ordinary users.