HEIC arrived with iOS 11 - what still will not open it in 2026
Apple switched the iPhone camera to HEIC by default when iOS 11 shipped on September 19, 2017, cutting photo file sizes by roughly 40-50 percent. Nine years on, most browsers and many Windows PCs still cannot open a .heic file directly - the fastest fix is converting it to JPG with the HEIC to JPG converter.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-11
What happened
Apple released iOS 11 on September 19, 2017, alongside the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X. From that release on, iPhone 7 and later models switched their default camera format from JPEG to HEIC for photos and from H.264 to HEVC for video, storing each picture in roughly 40-50 percent less space than an equivalent JPEG - the same storage suddenly held twice as many photos.
Nine years later, native browser support is still narrow. Checked against the caniuse.com HEIF/HEIC support table on July 11, 2026:
| Browser | HEIC/HEIF status | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Safari (macOS and iOS) | Renders natively in an image tag | Version 17 (2023) |
| Chrome | No native support, no flag | - |
| Firefox | No native support (Bugzilla bug 1402293, priority P5, unassigned) | - |
| Edge and Opera | No native support (follow Chromium) | - |
That leaves roughly 14 percent of global browser traffic able to display a .heic file directly in a web page - everyone else sees a broken-image icon unless the site converts the file first. Operating systems fared better: Android added platform HEIF support in Android 9 "Pie" on August 6, 2018. Windows 11 from 22H2 onward opens HEIC files out of the box, but Windows 10 and earlier builds need two Store add-ons - HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions - before Photos shows a thumbnail.
Why it matters for everyday files
Why this matters for everyday files: a .heic photo that will not open is not corrupted - it is simply in a format the receiving app or website has not been taught to read yet. The mismatch shows up when emailing a photo to a Windows PC, uploading to a site built for JPEG, or pasting into an editor written before HEIC existed. Apple's workaround is Settings, then Camera, then Formats, switching "High Efficiency" to "Most Compatible" so the iPhone saves new photos as JPEG. That only affects photos taken after the switch, not files already on the phone or already sent.
What to do with your files right now
If a .heic file will not open, these options cover almost every case:
- Convert it to JPG once, and it works everywhere. The HEIC to JPG converter turns a .heic photo into a JPG that opens in any browser, OS, or editor from the last twenty years, with no extension to install.
- Compress the converted JPG if size matters. The image compressor claws back some of HEIC's space savings after conversion.
- Compare formats before choosing one for new work. The HEIC vs JPG vs WebP guide covers which format fits archiving, web publishing, or sharing with an older device.
- Change the camera setting only if the mismatch keeps repeating. Settings, then Camera, then Formats, then Most Compatible stops new HEIC files at the source, at the cost of the storage savings.