Ask HN: How are most people converting HEIC to jpg?

I use Automator (mac os app) to do this, but it seems like such a dumb thing to do so regularly. If i transfer a photo on my iphone via google drive or some other cloud service, it inevitably needs to be changed to jpg.

5 points | by par 2 days ago

7 comments

  • k310 2 days ago
    When one eludes my ban ... (see other posts how to ban it inside the phone, but it exists outside (people send me messages)) [0] samples to play with.

    On the desktop, Preview app (and lots of others) will open and export as ...

    On the phone (Apple, sometimes you bewilder me), You can convert in Files, not Photos. 1. Save a photo to FILES from camera roll or web (This works with webp, as well) 2. click and hold the THUMBNAIL, do not open the image. 3. Quick Actions -- Convert image. 4. You can now "save" the image (open, do not click and hold) to your camera roll.

    This is BONKERS

    As others have noted, "There's an app to do it".

    Worst for me in daily life, when you get info on an image (in the camera roll, pull up on the image) WEBP does not even show as a file type. HEIC does.

    ios 18, not 26.

    [0] https://toolsfairy.com/tools/image-test/sample-heic-files

  • PaulHoule 2 days ago
    To make it perfectly clear, no browser support outside Appleworld

    https://caniuse.com/?search=HEIC

    I mostly am a DSLR photographer but for the occasional iPhone shot

    https://mastodon.social/@UP8/115740936297822037

    I use Photoshop. (Where's Cindy when I need her?)

  • mikece 2 days ago
    HEIC is a container; HEIF is a container format. I don't know why images from my iPhone get saved with a HEIC extension... seems like it should be HEIF.

    That said, when I move photos from my phone to by desktop via Signal; somewhere along the way it gets converted to JPEG so it's not a concern.

  • dev_at 2 days ago
    I use LiveConvert (it runs locally on your phone). https://apps.apple.com/no/app/liveconvert-heic-to-jpg/id6747...
  • fcpguru 2 days ago
    there's a settings on ios to use jpgs always and just remove HEIC from your life!

    Settings -> Camera -> Formats -> Most Compatible

    • par 2 days ago
      my concern was that it takes up more space on my phone, do you know if that's true?
      • fcpguru 2 days ago
        yes that's true about 40% more! You can also leave as HEIC but do:

        Settings → Apps -> Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic (convert to jpg)

        or

        In "Shortcuts" app - select photo, convert to jpeg, save file:

        https://i.imgur.com/yyUgMm1.png

      • xenospn 2 days ago
        You can enable your phone to offload originals to iCloud, and only download full-res on demand.
  • SeeManDo 2 days ago
    heif-convert CLI https://github.com/NeverMendel/heif-convert

    Use it to convert customer images sent from iphones.

  • RegnisGnaw 2 days ago
    Settings -> Apps -> Photo -> Transfer to Mac or PC (Automatic).
    • par 2 days ago
      I have this selected, but if I take a photo and upload it straight to google drive, it uploads as HEIC.
      • claudiulodro 2 days ago
        I simply live with this, but if I need to download it in a compatible format from Google Drive, I just screenshot the photo from Google Drive instead of downloading it. That solves the problem for me but from a different direction.