HEIC to HEIF Converter

How to Convert HEIC to HEIF Online

1. Upload Your HEIC File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select HEIC images straight from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac export. Batch is supported — drop in dozens of photos at once.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Default is "Very High (Recommended)". Choose Highest to keep maximum detail, Very High for everyday photos, High or Medium to trade a little quality for a smaller file, or Low for the smallest size. You can also enter a Specific file size in MB or KB and let the encoder auto-scale to hit your target.
3. Resize or Set Resolution (Optional): Keep original dimensions, pick a Preset Resolution from 144p up to 4320p (8K), set Resolution Percentage to scale uniformly, lock Width or Height with aspect ratio preserved, or specify exact Width × Height.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Why Convert HEIC to HEIF?

HEIC and HEIF are sibling formats built on the same ISO/IEC 23008-12 specification. HEIF is the broader container standard defined by MPEG; HEIC is Apple's specific brand of HEIF that always pairs the container with HEVC (H.265) compression. Apple has shipped.heic as the default photo extension on iPhone since iOS 11 in 2017. Some non-Apple software and Linux image libraries recognize the generic .heif extension when they refuse the .heic one, even though the underlying bytes are nearly identical.

• Software that filters by extension — Some asset pipelines, CMS uploaders, and scientific imaging tools whitelist .heif (the standardized extension) but block .heic because they associate it with Apple-only content. Renaming the container resolves the rejection.
• Open-standard archival — If you store iPhone photos long-term, the .heif extension is the spec-defined one and is more likely to be recognized by future tools written against the ISO/IEC standard rather than Apple's brand.
• Cross-platform sharing — Sending iPhone photos to Android, Linux, or Windows users whose tools accept HEIF but trip on HEIC. Modern Android (9+) and Windows 10+ (with the HEIF Image Extensions) read both, but older tooling often does not.
• CDN and image pipelines — Many image-processing CDNs (ImageMagick-based, libvips-based) detect by extension first; .heif routes through the generic decoder path more reliably than .heic.
• Toolchain compatibility — Libraries like libheif, GIMP's HEIF plugin, and Krita all accept either extension, but build configs and Docker images sometimes only register the .heif MIME type by default.

HEIC vs HEIF — What's Actually Different

The codec stays the same when the HEIC source is already HEVC — converting changes the container brand, MIME type, and file extension and re-encodes the HEVC image at your chosen quality preset (Highest keeps the result visually indistinguishable from the source).

Quality Preset Quick Guide

Related Conversions

If you need a more universally compatible format, see HEIC to JPG or HEIC to PNG. For modern web delivery, HEIC to AVIF gives even smaller files using the royalty-free AV1 codec. Going the other direction, use HEIF to HEIC. To shrink files without changing the format, use Compress HEIC.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is HEIC just HEIF with a different extension?

In practice on Apple devices, yes — an iPhone.heic file is HEVC-coded image data inside a HEIF (ISO/IEC 23008-12) container. The HEIF spec, though, is broader: HEIF can also carry AV1 payloads (then called AVIF with a.avif extension), AVC/H.264 (rare,.avci extension), or even JPEG payloads. So every HEIC is a HEIF, but not every HEIF is a HEIC. Converting HEIC to HEIF rewrites the container brand and extension and re-encodes the image with the same HEVC codec.

Will converting from HEIC to HEIF lose any quality?

Not visibly, if you pick Highest or Very High. The image is always re-encoded, but it stays in the same HEVC codec, so at those presets the result is visually indistinguishable from the source. Picking a lower quality preset re-encodes more aggressively and does introduce visible loss; pick Highest if you want the most faithful round-trip.

Why does some software accept.heif but reject.heic?

Many tools detect file type by extension before they sniff the actual bytes. If their accept-list contains image/heif but not image/heic, they bounce the upload. This happens with CMS uploaders, some scientific imaging tools, and older HEIF library bindings. Renaming or converting to the standardized .heif extension usually clears the gate.

Do Live Photos, depth maps, and burst sequences survive the conversion?

The HEIF container supports auxiliary image items (depth, alpha, thumbnails) and image sequences. XConvert's converter outputs the primary still image — the Live Photo motion clip and depth aux items are not carried through to the.heif output. If you need those preserved, share via AirDrop or iCloud Link, both of which keep the original.heic intact.

Does Windows or Android open.heif files?

Windows 10 and 11 need the free Microsoft "HEIF Image Extensions" from the Microsoft Store; once installed, both .heif and .heic open in Photos and File Explorer thumbnails work. Android 9 (Pie) and later read HEIF natively in the system gallery. Linux users need a build of libheif plus a viewer that links it (GIMP 2.10+, Krita, Geeqie all work). If a tool still refuses HEIF, converting to JPG is the universal fallback — see HEIC to JPG.

Will the EXIF metadata, GPS coordinates, and capture date transfer?

Yes. HEIF carries EXIF and XMP metadata in standardized item references; the conversion preserves date taken, GPS coordinates, camera model, lens, and exposure settings by default. If you want to strip metadata for privacy before sharing, convert to JPG and use that pipeline's metadata-removal option.

Should I convert HEIC to HEIF or to AVIF for web use?

For the web, AVIF is the better target. AVIF uses the same HEIF-style container but with AV1 codec, which is royalty-free and produces files roughly 20-30% smaller than HEIC at equivalent quality. Browser support for AVIF is now broad: Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, Safari 16.4+, and Edge 121+. HEIF/HEIC has essentially no native browser support outside Safari. Use HEIC to AVIF for web embedding; use HEIC to HEIF only when you need a HEIF-compliant file for a specific desktop tool.

What's the difference between.heif and.heifs?

.heif is a single still image; .heifs is a sequence (multiple frames, like a burst or short animation, all in one container). Apple uses .heic and .heics analogously. Most consumer use cases are single-image, so you'll see .heif almost exclusively. XConvert outputs .heif for single images.

Can I batch convert my whole camera roll from HEIC to HEIF?

Yes. Upload as many HEIC files as you want — there's no quantity cap. The same quality and resolution settings apply to every file in the batch, and outputs are available as individual downloads or a single ZIP at the end.