Apple started using the HEIC image format with iOS 11. It’s preferred over the incumbent JPG because of its smaller file sizes, and it’s also made its way to the Mac. HEIC can cause problems for some apps. Here’s how to easily convert HEIC files to JPG.

If you live your life on iOS, then the chances are pretty good that you never really know when an image is in the HEIC or JPG formats because, for the most part, it doesn’t matter. However, when you start sharing images or saving them to your Mac for future use, you might want them in a more common format. That tends to happen most on a Mac, so wouldn’t it be great if there was a quick and easy way to convert any number of HEIC format images into JPG? If you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty with Automator, a quick and easy way you shall have.

Let’s get started.

Setting up the Quick Action

Launch Automator on your Mac—it’s in your Applications folder, or you can use Spotlight to search for it—and then click “New Document.”

Next, from the list of templates, click “Quick Action,” followed by “Choose.”

Over on the left side of the screen, type “copy finder” into the search box and then drag “Copy Finder Items” to the right-hand side of the screen. Here, you can then select the folder to which you want to save the converted images.

If you want to convert the HEIC image without creating a copy on the desktop, just omit the “Copy Finder Items” step. Automator then will create a converted copy in the same folder as the original HEIC file.

Back on the left side of the screen, type “change type” into the search box and then drag “Change Type of Images” to the right-hand side of the screen. There is a drop-down here, too. Change that to “JPEG.”

In the menu bar, click File > Save and then enter a name for your quick action.

Finally, click “Save” to complete the process.

Using the Quick Action to convert HEIC images to JPG

To use your new Quick Action, right-click any HEIC file—or indeed, any image file—and then select the Quick Action that you created earlier. You’ll find the newly-converted JPG in the folder that you designated earlier.

You can also select a group of images and convert them all at once the same way.