Real screenshot · MacBook Neo, macOS 27.0.1In short
Select the HEIC photos in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image. Check that Format is JPEG, pick an Image Size and click Convert to JPEG. The .jpeg copies appear in the same folder and the HEIC originals are kept.
Well, it is annoying when a website or an older program refuses the photo you just picked. The reason is that iPhones save photos as HEIC files, which many websites and older programs do not accept. Finder can turn them into JPEG copies in a few clicks.
6 of 6 steps show a real screenshot from our MacBook Neo.
Steps
- 1
Select the photos in Finder
Open the folder with your HEIC photos. Click the first one, then hold Command and click the others.
- 2
Right-click and choose Quick Actions > Convert Image
On our MacBook Neo, Quick Actions lists Rotate Left, Create PDF, Convert Image, Remove Background and Customize….
With two photos selected, the menu reads New Folder with Selection (2 Items), and Compress shows no count in macOS 27.
- 3
Check that Format is JPEG
The Convert Image window opens. On our MacBook Neo it was already set to JPEG, with Preserve Metadata ticked.
- 4
Choose the Image Size
Click Image Size and pick Actual Size, Large, Medium or Small. Actual Size is the default; pick a smaller size for email or upload forms.
- 5
Click Convert to JPEG
We chose Large here. The conversion takes a moment.
- 6
Find the JPEG copies
The copies are saved in the same folder, and the HEIC originals stay where they were.
On our MacBook Neo, IMG_0101.HEIC became IMG_0101 Large.jpeg: macOS adds the size name and uses the .jpeg extension.
If you do not see this option
- Convert Image is not under Quick Actions On our MacBook Neo it sits between Create PDF and Remove Background. If yours is missing, click Customize… at the bottom of the same submenu to check which Quick Actions are switched on.
- You only see Compress Compress is a different command higher up the menu. Move down to Quick Actions near the bottom of the menu and open its submenu.
- You would rather not use Finder Apple says you can also open the photo in Preview, choose File > Export and pick JPEG as the format. Source: Convert image file types using Preview on Mac
If this does not work
- You cannot spot the new files They are easy to look past, because they sit in the same folder as the originals. Sort by name and each copy, such as IMG_0101 Large.jpeg, appears next to its HEIC file.
- The copy is still too large Select the HEIC photo again, open Convert Image and choose Medium or Small under Image Size.
- You want to keep the photo's details Leave Preserve Metadata ticked in the Convert Image window, because unticking it is what leaves those details behind. It was ticked by default on our MacBook Neo.
Good to know
If your photos live in the Photos app rather than in a folder, you can do it there instead: select the photos and choose File, Export, Export Photos, with Photo Kind set to JPEG.
If you find yourself converting photos every week, it is kinder to yourself to stop the iPhone from making HEIC files in the first place: open Settings, Camera, Formats on the phone and choose Most Compatible.
Have a lot of photos to send? Make each file smaller as well: how to resize an image on a Mac with Preview.
To always open HEIC or JPG files in a different app: how to change which app opens a file type on a Mac.
macOS 27 compared with macOS 26: We rewrote this guide on macOS 27.0.1 (MacBook Neo): it now has 6 steps instead of 4. The macOS 26 page keeps the steps and screenshots as they were.
Version history: the macOS 26 version of this guide, with its own screenshots.
About this guide
- Device
- Mac
- Shown on
- macOS 27.0.1 (MacBook Neo)
- App
- Finder
- Real screenshots
- 6 of 6 steps
- Checked
- October 2026
- Sources
- 1 official, linked below
Sources
Links checked October 2026. Menus and features can change with updates.Did this guide work for you?
Sorry about that. What happened?