HEIC (High Efficiency Image Format) is a newer image format that was introduced by Apple in iOS 11. It offers better compression compared to the more common JPG format, allowing you to store more photos while maintaining image quality.
However, HEIC files have limited compatibility with Android devices and Windows computers. To view HEIC photos from your iPhone on other devices, you need to convert them to the more widely supported JPG format first.
In this article, I will provide steps on how to convert HEIC photos stored on Google Drive to JPG when using an Android device.
Here are the main steps to convert iPhone HEIC photos on Google Drive to JPG when using an Android device:
1. Upload HEIC Photos to Google Drive
First, open the Photos app on your iPhone and select the HEIC photos you want to convert. Tap on the share button and select Google Drive. This will upload the photos to your Google Drive account.
You can also connect your iPhone to a computer and copy the photos to Google Drive on the web. Just make sure they are uploaded as HEIC and not automatically converted to JPG.
2. Open Google Drive on Android and Find HEIC Photos
Next, open the Google Drive app on your Android device and log into your account. Navigate to the folder containing the HEIC photos you just uploaded from your iPhone.
You may need to select the Show internal storage option in Google Drive to view folders from your cloud storage rather than just folders on the local device storage.
3. Use Share Option to Email Photos to Yourself
Unfortunately, Google Drive on Android does not allow converting HEIC photos stored in the cloud to JPG.
However, we can use the share feature to email the HEIC photos to ourselves. This will automatically convert them to JPG.
Select the HEIC photos, tap the 3-dot menu button, and choose Share. Then select Gmail and email the photos to any email account you own.
4. Save the JPG Photo Attachments
Open the email you sent to yourself on any device. Save the photo attachments to your computer or Android device storage.
The attachments are now JPG versions of the original HEIC photos from your iPhone.
5. Upload JPG Photos Back to Google Drive
Finally, upload the JPG photos saved in step 4 back to Google Drive. Now you have JPG versions of the photos that you can access from any device.
You can delete the original HEIC photos to save storage space if needed. The JPG versions will remain available in Google Drive.
Alternative Method: Use HEIC Converter App
An alternative approach is to use a HEIC converter app on your Android device instead of emailing yourself the photos. Here are the steps:
- Install a HEIC to JPG converter app on your Android device. Some good options are:
- HEIC Converter by MobiMover
- Apowersoft HEIC Converter
- Launch the converter app and log into your Google Drive account when prompted.
- Select the HEIC photos in your Drive storage that you want to convert.
- The app will allow converting multiple HEIC photos to JPG simultaneously.
- After conversion completes, the JPG versions are saved back to Google Drive automatically.
The benefit of using a dedicated converter app is it streamlines the process of converting multiple HEIC photos to JPG. You don’t have to manually email each image and re-upload.
Conclusion
Converting HEIC photos from an iPhone to JPG for better compatibility with Android and Windows devices can be done right within Google Drive, albeit through a small workaround by emailing the photos to yourself.
For batch converting many HEIC images at once, use a dedicated converter app on your Android device instead.
I hope this guide was helpful in explaining the steps to change iPhone HEIC pictures to JPG file format on Google Drive when using an Android phone or tablet.
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