How to transfer HEIC photos to PC?

If you’ve ever connected your iPhone to a Windows computer and opened your photo folder, you might have noticed something unexpected: some photos appear in HEIC format instead of regular JPEGs. On the iPhone, they look perfectly fine, but on Windows, they often appear as blank icons that can’t be opened. It’s a small thing, but it can instantly slow down your work, especially when you just want to save, share, or edit photos on your computer.

This article explains how to transfer HEIC photos to PC without losing time, quality, or patience.

Transfer HEIC photos to computer

drag and drop method

If you don’t have HEIC photos on a computer yet, don’t worry – we can easily fix that with CopyTrans Photo. You can even transfer a HEIC file as JPG on your computer directly.

💙 What CopyTrans Photo can do for you:

▪ Transfer photos in HEIC, bmp, gif, jpeg, jpg, dng, tiff, tif, tga, png, pcx, dng (ProRAW);

▪ Convert HEIC to JPEG Windows 10, 11, also 8.1, and 7;

▪ Choose the format: HEIC, JPEG or both;

▪ Transfer photos from PC to iPad or iPhone preserving the original quality and EXIF data;

▪ Copy photo albums back and forth, preserving the album structure;

▪ Work offline.

• If you didn’t yet install CopyTrans Photo, download and install it here:
  Get CopyTrans Photo

• In the Settings tab, choose the format in which you wish to transfer HEIC pictures to your PC. You can convert HEIC to JPEG, transfer native HEIC to computer or even transfer both JPEG and HEIC if you want.
  

• Make sure your Apple device is unlocked, connect it to your PC, locate the HEIC file you wish to transfer, and just drag and drop it to the PC side. Then, apply changes.
  

• Navigate to the folder where you transferred the photo and enjoy!
  

View HEIC photos on your PC

If you want to view your HEIC photos on your computer, use CopyTrans HEIC for Windows. It’s a simple tool that allows you to open and view HEIC files using the native Windows Photo Viewer, Photos app, and Windows Explorer – no third-party app necessary.

CopyTrans HEIC is a plugin for Windows Explorer, 100% free for home use.

Along with other cool features, CopyTrans HEIC for Windows can actually convert HEIC to JPEG!

How do I convert iPhone photos to JPEG?

We have 2 solutions to your question “How do I convert iPhone photos to JPEG?”:

1. Once you installed CopyTrans HEIC select a photo you want to convert to JPEG. Right-click and choose “Convert to JPEG with CopyTrans”. CopyTrans HEIC for Windows can convert up to 100 HEIC photos simultaneously.

2. With CopyTrans Photo you can smoothly transfer photos and videos to and from iPhone and quickly convert HEIC files stored on PC to JPEG in the same window.

1. Launch CopyTrans Photo and navigate to the folder on your PC where you have a HEIC to convert;
2. Select the photo you want to convert to JPEG. Right-click and choose “Save to JPEG”:

Final Thought

Transferring HEIC photos to PC may seem confusing at first, especially when Windows displays blank icons instead of the expected images. However, once you understand how the HEIC format works and how Windows can read it correctly, the whole process becomes much easier.

Whether you want to convert HEIC to JPG, view HEIC files directly on your computer, or transfer entire photo folders from iPhone to Windows without losing quality, you now have clear options that actually work. With the right approach, your photos will remain organized, accessible, and easy to use, regardless of which device they come from.

So if you’ve had trouble opening HEIC files in Windows or transferring iPhone HEIC photos to PC without experiencing the usual frustrations, you now have a simple workflow that makes everything smooth and predictable.