Convert HEIC Photos to JPG with sips

Turn iPhone HEIC images into universally supported JPEG files using macOS's built-in sips tool.

macOSconversionimagessipsheicLow risk

Run sips -s format jpeg photo.HEIC --out photo.jpg to convert a HEIC photo to JPG without installing anything.

01Command

Command

$ sips -s format jpeg IMG_0001.HEIC --out IMG_0001.jpg

02What it does

Since iOS 11 the iPhone saves photos in HEIC format, which many websites, older apps, and Windows machines still cannot open. Every Mac already ships with sips, a command-line image converter that reads HEIC and writes JPEG in one step. Batch-convert a whole folder by combining it with find -exec or xargs.

03Risk

RiskLow risk

!Warning: Converting to JPEG discards HEIC's advantages: files get larger and transparency is lost. The original HEIC file is left untouched unless you overwrite it with the same name.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

sips - scriptable image processing system
SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
Evidence: Documents sips -s format and --out flags for converting image formats from the command line.
About HEIF and HEVC media on Apple devices
Apple · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
Evidence: Explains that iOS and macOS capture photos as HEIC and that sharing may convert them, confirming the compatibility problem.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media

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