How to Open HEIC and HEIF Photos on Windows - 4 Free Fixes

A HEIC photo that will not open on Windows is almost never a broken file - it is a missing decoder, and the fix takes about two minutes.

Your phone took the picture, your PC can see the file, and the Photos app shows you a grey square.

That is a codec problem, not a damaged photo.

Windows needs two small pieces to read a HEIC file, and most people only ever install one of them.

Why Windows shows a grey square instead of your photo

HEIF is the format, HEIC is the file extension Apple gives it, and the picture inside a HEIC file is squeezed down using HEVC - the same compression used for H.265 video.

So Windows needs two separate things: something that understands the HEIF wrapper, and something that can decode the HEVC picture inside it.

Four ways to open HEIC files on Windows

All four work. Pick the one that matches how you actually use the photos, then stop - stacking two decoders on one PC is how people end up with odd colours and slow thumbnails.

Route 1: Microsoft's own extensions

This is the closest thing to built-in support, because it fixes HEIC everywhere at once - File Explorer thumbnails, the Photos app, Paint, and anything else that asks Windows to open an image.

Install HEIF Image Extensions for the wrapper, then HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer for the picture data.

Sign out and back in once both are installed, and the grey squares fill in by themselves.

Route 2: CopyTrans HEIC, with no Store account

CopyTrans HEIC teaches Explorer and the Photos app to read HEIC on their own, with nothing to buy and no Microsoft account involved.

It also adds a right-click convert-to-JPEG option, which is the quickest way to hand one photo to something that will never understand HEIC - an older printer driver, a council upload form, a work portal.

It runs on Windows 7, 8.1, 10 and 11, so it is the one to use on a machine too old for the Store route.

Route 3: WIC for HEIC

WIC for HEIC plugs straight into Windows Imaging Component, which is the part of Windows that apps ask when they need to open a picture.

The result is the same set of apps reading HEIC, with the Store left out of it entirely. It needs Windows 10 version 1809 or newer, and it covers both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Route 4: a viewer that brings its own decoder

If you only want to look at the photos rather than fix Windows itself, install an image viewer that already reads HEIC and leave the system alone.

PicView is the easy recommendation - fast, free, and it opens HEIC, AVIF, WEBP, GIF, SVG and PSD with no extra parts to install.

IrfanView is the lighter alternative and the better choice on an old or low-powered PC. There are plenty more on the image viewers page if neither suits you.

When you need JPEGs instead

Opening a HEIC file and converting one are different jobs, and sometimes only a JPEG will be accepted.

For a handful of photos, an online converter such as HEIC to JPG is the fastest route and installs nothing.

For a whole holiday's worth, do it in one pass - our guide to converting HEIC to JPG in XnConvert walks through a full folder at once.

Mac, iPhone and Android

Every Mac since High Sierra opens HEIC in Preview and Photos with nothing to install, and so does every iPhone and iPad - the format is Apple's own.

Modern Android phones read HEIC too, so Google Photos and the Files app show them normally. On an older handset that will not, an image viewer from the store is the same answer as on Windows.

Stop the problem at the source

If the photos are yours, you can tell the iPhone to stop making HEIC files in the first place.

Open Settings, tap Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible - the camera shoots JPEG from then on. You give up roughly half the storage saving, and you never think about this again.

There is a second switch worth knowing about. Under Settings, Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC, the Automatic option converts photos to JPEG as they copy across, while Keep Originals sends the HEIC untouched.

HEIF, HEIC and AVIF - what the names mean

HEIF is the standard. HEIC is the extension Apple puts on a HEIF file whose picture is compressed with HEVC, which is why it is the one you meet on an iPhone, and the difference between the two names rarely matters in practice.

AVIF is a different format built on the same container family, using AV1 compression instead of HEVC. It needs its own decoder, which our guide to viewing AVIF files on Windows covers.

And no, HEIF is not about to replace JPEG. It is smaller, it handles HDR, and it can hold several frames in one file - but JPEG opens absolutely everywhere, and nothing has closed that gap in thirty years.

If it still does not work

Check that both Microsoft extensions are installed rather than just one. That single omission is behind most of the reports that HEIC support is broken on Windows.

If you would rather start clean, removing them is less obvious than it should be, and our guide to uninstalling the HEVC and HEIF extensions covers the missing uninstall button.

Quick questions