Published by @SoNiceInfo at 9/21/2026
If you convert HEIC in bulk, as photographers and web creators do, the easiest route is the GUI app Image Tool+: WebP or AVIF output, resizing, renaming, and metadata control all happen in one drag and drop. If, on the other hand, you only need a few JPGs, the built-in Finder Quick Action "Convert Image" is enough (macOS 12 Monterey or later, no extra software). Preview and the sips command work too. This article covers four methods, all of them offline: none of them upload your photos anywhere.
| Method | Batch | Output formats | Resize / rename | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image Tool+ (recommended) | Yes | WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, PNG, JPG, HEIC, and more | Yes / yes (plus watermark and metadata editing) | Install from the App Store |
| Quick Action | Yes | JPEG, PNG, HEIF | 4 size presets / no | None (macOS 12+) |
| Preview | Yes (not ideal for large batches) | JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, and more | Separate step / no | None |
| sips command | Yes | JPEG, PNG, HEIC, and more (no WebP) | Yes / via shell scripting | None (uses Terminal) |
Image Tool+, a batch image converter for Mac, is a Mac-only app I develop. It batch-converts HEIC, PNG, JPG, GIF, and more to WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, PNG, JPG, and other formats. Using it takes three steps: drag images or a folder into the window, pick an output format, and hit Start.
Drop your images
Drag a stack of HEIC files (or a whole folder) from Finder.
Pick output format
WebP, AVIF, PNG, JPG, and more. Set resize, watermark, and rename in one go.
Hit Start
Done in seconds on Apple Silicon — even hundreds of images at once.
The built-in macOS tools run out of road in cases like these. Image Tool+ handles all of them in a single pass.
All processing happens on your Mac and your images are never uploaded. It is a one-time purchase with no subscription. See the Image Tool+ product page for details.
If you only need WebP, or only want to try AVIF, there are also free-to-start single-format apps. Both accept HEIC input.
macOS 12+ · Apple Silicon native
Finder on macOS 12 Monterey and later ships with a Quick Action for converting images. If all you need is HEIC to JPG, this is enough.
⌘ + A selects everything in the folder).The trade-off for the convenience: you cannot set a numeric JPEG quality, there are only four size presets, and you cannot choose the output folder or file names.
Preview can also export several images at once. Unlike the Quick Action, it lets you adjust the JPEG quality with a slider.
⌘ + A to select every image.If you do not select all thumbnails in the sidebar, only the image currently shown is exported. Opening hundreds of photos at once uses a lot of memory, so for large batches sips is the better tool.
sips is an image processing command that ships with macOS. In Terminal, move to the folder that holds your HEIC files and run the following. Every HEIC file in the folder is converted to JPG and saved in a jpg folder.
cd ~/Pictures/heic-photos
mkdir jpg && sips -s format jpeg *.HEIC --out jpg/Set the JPEG quality with formatOptions (0–100, or low / normal / high / best).
sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 *.HEIC --out jpg/For PNG, just change the format. You can also resize in the same command, for example to fit within 2048 px on the long edge.
# Convert to PNG
mkdir png && sips -s format png *.HEIC --out png/
# Convert to JPG while fitting the long edge to 2048 px
sips -Z 2048 -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 *.HEIC --out jpg/If your files use a lowercase extension (.heic), write *.heic instead. Always pass --out with a destination folder: without it, sips overwrites the original files.
You can list the formats sips supports with this command.
sips --formatsOn my machine (macOS 27), jpeg, png, heic, and avif are marked "Writable", but webp is not. In other words, the built-in macOS tools can read WebP but cannot write it. To turn HEIC into WebP you need either the app in Method 1, or a two-step route: convert to PNG first, then run cwebp (which cannot read HEIC directly).
Search for "HEIC to JPG" and you will find plenty of online converters. But iPhone photos carry EXIF metadata: the capture time, the camera model, and the GPS location. Using an online converter means uploading not just the photo but also data that can reveal where you live or work to a third-party server.
macOS can already convert HEIC by itself, so there is no need to upload anything. Every method in this article runs entirely on your Mac and works offline.
HEIC is the image format iPhones have used by default since iOS 11. It uses HEVC (H.265) compression to store a photo at roughly half the size of a JPEG of similar quality. Apple devices open it without trouble, but some Windows setups, web services, and older software cannot, which is why converting to JPG or PNG is often necessary.
JPG is a lossy format, so strictly speaking there is a small loss. Exported at a quality of around 80–90, the difference is rarely visible. If you want no loss at all, choose PNG, but expect photo files several times larger than JPG. Keep the original HEIC files rather than deleting them.
It depends on the method. The Finder Quick Action has a "Preserve Metadata" checkbox; untick it to export without location data. The sips command and Preview generally carry metadata over. For photos you plan to publish on social media or a blog, remove the location data first.
On the iPhone, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose "Most Compatible". New photos are then saved as JPEG. JPEG files are roughly twice the size of HEIC, so if storage matters it is more practical to stay on "High Efficiency" and convert only the photos you need on your Mac.
Not with the built-in macOS tools: the Quick Action, Preview, and sips cannot write WebP. Google's cwebp command cannot read HEIC directly either, so you would have to convert to PNG or JPG first. To batch convert HEIC straight to WebP, the easiest route is an app that accepts HEIC input, such as Image Tool+ or WebP Converter.
For converting HEIC in bulk, Image Tool+ is the easiest option: WebP or AVIF output, resizing, renaming, and metadata control in a single pass. That said, for plain HEIC to JPG, the Quick Action is all you need. Use Preview when you want to set the JPEG quality, and sips when you process large batches regularly.