How to Batch Convert HEIC Photos, and What Happens to a Folder
Drop a folder, get one ZIP. What our converter does with every file, taken from its own code.
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Add photos, a folder, or a tree of folders
Drop files or folders on the converter, browse for files, use “Choose a folder”, or paste. Folders are read with everything inside them, subfolders included.
- Inside a folder, only .heic, .heif and .hif files are converted. Other files are skipped, and the page tells you how many.
- A dropped folder is read up to 10,000 files. Hidden folders (names that start with a dot) and __MACOSX folders are skipped.
- Files you pick or drop on their own are checked by their content, not only their name. One that isn’t HEIC or HEIF gets its own row saying “Not a HEIC/HEIF file.”
- Files are converted in the order you add them.
Live Photos and multi-image files
- A Live Photo is a .heic photo and a .mov clip with the same name. When you add both, the photo is converted and the clip is set aside, with a notice. The converter makes images only.
- If a HEIC file holds more than one image, the converter exports the primary image by default. Choose “Export all frames” under “Bursts & multi-image files” to get every image, named photo.jpg, photo-2.jpg, photo-3.jpg and so on.
How many photos at a time
- The converter runs up to 4 conversions in parallel: one fewer than your processor’s cores, and never more than 4. On an iPhone or iPad, and on a device that reports 4 GB of memory or less, it converts one photo at a time.
- How large a batch can run depends on your device’s memory. If a photo fails because memory ran out, the converter drops to one conversion at a time and retries that photo once.
- Settings apply to the photos you add after changing them. To apply new settings to the photos already in the list, use “Re-convert with new settings”.
Downloading the batch
- “Download all (ZIP)” appears once there are at least two converted images (with “One PDF for all photos” it reads “Download PDF”). The ZIP is named after the format and the time, for example heic-to-jpg-20261111-1430.zip.
- The ZIP is flat: folders are not recreated. Two photos with the same name don’t overwrite each other; the second becomes photo (2).jpg.
- The ZIP stores the images as they are, without compressing them a second time, and uses ZIP64 past 4 GiB so very large archives still open.
- Every file in the ZIP carries the same fixed date, 1 January 2000, so the archive doesn’t record when you converted.
- For PDF, choose “One PDF for all photos” or “One PDF per photo”. Per-photo PDFs come in a ZIP.
On a Mac, Preview can batch convert too
If you’d rather use the apps that come with macOS, Apple’s Preview guide says:
“Tip: To convert more than one image file at a time, open the files in one window, select them in that window’s sidebar, then follow the steps above.”
What leaves your device
No photo does. Every step above, building the ZIP included, runs in your browser tab. After a batch, the page sends an anonymous count for each pair of formats: how many files succeeded or failed, and the total input size rounded to the nearest MiB. It is not sent when Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track is on. Separately, Cloudflare Web Analytics reports page-load timings on every page. Our privacy proof page shows how to check both yourself.
How we know
What this guide says about heic-to.io comes from the converter’s own source code as of , not from an outside source:
src/lib/client/convert/folder.ts: Folder drops: the 10,000-file limit, and skipping hidden and __MACOSX folders and non-HEIC files.src/lib/client/convert/queue.svelte.ts: Content checks, conversion order, Live Photo pairs, when “Download all” appears, and what it builds.src/lib/client/convert/pool.ts: How many conversions run in parallel, and the out-of-memory retry.src/lib/client/convert/filenames.ts: Output names, burst frame numbers, repeated names and the ZIP name.src/lib/client/convert/pack.ts: The ZIP (no second compression, ZIP64, the fixed date) and the PDFs.
Sources
Official pages only. Each was read on the date shown and then read again independently before we used it.
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Open HEIC to JPG converterFrequently asked questions
How many HEIC photos can I convert at once?
It depends on your device’s memory. A dropped folder is read up to 10,000 files, and the converter works through them up to 4 at a time (one at a time on iPhone and iPad).
Does the ZIP keep my folder structure?
No. The ZIP is flat: each photo keeps its file name with the new extension, and repeated names get “ (2)”, “ (3)” added.
What happens to Live Photo videos?
When you add a .mov with the same name as a HEIC photo, the clip is skipped and the page says so. Only the photo is converted.
Can I convert a multi-image HEIC to separate JPGs?
Yes. Choose “Export all frames” under “Bursts & multi-image files”. Each image gets its own file, numbered from -2 after the first.
Is the ZIP compressed?
No. JPG, PNG and WebP images are already compressed, so the ZIP stores them as they are rather than compressing them twice.