Your HEIC file isn’t broken, Windows just can’t read it
Windows needs a codec it doesn’t always ship to open the HEIC photos an iPhone takes. Here is why and the three ways round it.
A photo arrives from an iPhone, Windows shows a generic icon and double clicking it offers to search the Store for an app. Nothing is wrong with the photo.
What HEIC actually is
HEIC is a container holding an image compressed with HEVC, the same codec used for 4K video. HEVC is roughly twice as efficient as the JPEG compression it replaces, which is why Apple made it the camera default in iOS 11: the same photo in half the space.
The efficiency comes with a licensing problem. HEVC is covered by a large pool of patents with several rights holders and shipping a decoder means paying for it. Apple pays. Microsoft doesn’t include it in Windows by default, which is why the codec lives in the Store as a separate download and why some laptops arrive with it preinstalled by the manufacturer and others don’t.
That is the whole story. The file is standard, widely supported on Apple hardware and unreadable on a Windows machine that never got the codec.
Three ways round it
Convert the files
The most reliable option, because a JPG works everywhere, permanently, on every machine the photos might land on next. It is the right answer when you’re sending photos to someone else, uploading them to a form or handing them to a print shop.
Install the codec
Search the Microsoft Store for HEVC Video Extensions. If your machine’s manufacturer has licensed it you’ll get it free; otherwise there is a small charge. Once installed, Explorer previews HEIC and Photos opens it like anything else. This is the better answer if the photos are staying on your own machine.
Change the source
If the photos are still on the phone, switch the camera to Most Compatible under Settings, Camera, Formats. Everything from that point is JPG. Note that iOS also converts automatically in some sharing flows, which is why the same photo occasionally arrives as a JPG without you doing anything.
Why the file grows when you convert
A converted JPG is commonly two or three times the size of the HEIC it came from. That is not a mistake in the conversion: you moved from an efficient modern codec to an inefficient thirty-year-old one and the extra bytes are the price of it opening everywhere. Dropping the quality slider to 80 recovers most of the difference with no visible change.
The same problem, other places
HEIC isn’t the only format that causes this. A photo saved from a website is increasingly WebP, which browsers read and desktop software often doesn’t. AVIF is appearing for the same reason. The underlying pattern is identical: formats optimised for delivering images efficiently arrive on machines whose software was written before those formats existed.
Common questions
Is my HEIC file corrupted?
Almost certainly not. If it opens on the phone that took it, the file is fine and the problem is on the receiving end. A genuinely corrupt file usually fails on the phone too or shows as a partial image.
Do I have to pay to open HEIC on Windows?
The HEVC Video Extensions package in the Microsoft Store has a paid listing and a free one that device manufacturers can license, which is why some machines have it and others are asked for money. Converting the files instead costs nothing and takes a few seconds.
Will converting lose quality?
A small amount, because the photo is decoded and re-compressed. At a quality setting of 85 or above the difference isn’t visible at normal viewing sizes. Keep the HEIC originals if you have space, since you can’t convert back.
Can I stop my iPhone making HEIC files?
Yes. Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible switches the camera to JPG from then on. It doesn’t change photos you have already taken and you lose roughly half your storage efficiency.