"Why won't my iPhone photos open on Windows?" — because they're HEIC, and Windows doesn't natively support it.
What is HEIC?
High Efficiency Image Container — Apple's default since iOS 11. Better compression than JPG (about 50% smaller at the same quality), but poor compatibility.
Why convert to JPG
- Windows opens JPG natively
- Every photo app supports JPG
- Email clients won't reject it
- Print services accept it
- Web uploads work everywhere
What you lose
- File size will roughly double
- Live Photos' motion data is dropped (keeps still frame)
- Slight quality difference at extreme zoom
What you keep
- Resolution (identical)
- Color depth (8-bit preserved)
- EXIF metadata (GPS, date, camera)
- Portrait mode depth data (as separate layer if enabled)
Batch
Convert 500 HEIC files at once. Each outputs a matching .jpg.