Why this happens
Your phone opens the file instantly. Your PC shows a blank icon and an error. Nothing is broken on either machine.
Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photos as HEIC — a format that stores roughly the same quality as a JPG in about half the space. Windows does not include a decoder for it.
The reason is licensing rather than engineering. HEIC stores its image data using HEVC compression, which is covered by a large and contested patent pool. Shipping a decoder with every copy of Windows is a licensing cost, so Microsoft split it into optional Store extensions and has historically charged for the HEVC component.
JPG has no such encumbrance, which is why it has been universal for thirty years.
Option 1 — install the codec extensions
Best if iPhone photos arrive regularly and you want Windows to just handle them.
Search the Microsoft Store for HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions. The first has generally been free; the second has usually carried a small charge, though this has changed more than once.
Once installed, HEIC files open in Photos and thumbnails appear in File Explorer as they should.
The catch: it is per-machine. Copy those photos to another PC and you are back where you started.
Option 2 — convert the files
Best if you have a batch of photos to deal with now, or you send them on to other people.
Convert them to JPG. The result opens on any version of Windows, any Android phone, any print service and any upload form — with nothing installed anywhere.
This is the only option that fixes photos you already have in a way that travels with them. If you are going to email these pictures to someone, they will hit exactly the same wall you did unless the file itself changes.
A note on doing this with family photographs: most online converters upload your files to a server. This one does not — the decoding runs in your browser through libheif compiled to WebAssembly, and the Uploaded readout on the page measures the page’s own network traffic so you can confirm it. If you want to check independently, the thirty-second Network tab test works on any converter.
Option 3 — stop producing HEIC files
Best if the conversion step is a constant irritation.
On the iPhone: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible. New photos save as JPG from then on.
Two catches. Every photo now takes roughly twice the storage, on the phone and in iCloud. And existing HEIC files are unaffected — so you still need option 2 for everything already taken.
Which to choose
- A one-off batch of photos → convert them. Nothing to install, works everywhere afterwards.
- iPhone photos arriving constantly on one PC → install the extensions, and convert the ones you forward to other people.
- Converting has become a chore → switch the camera to Most Compatible, and convert the back catalogue once.
Most people end up doing both option 2 and option 3, which is a perfectly sensible combination.
If you want something other than JPG
PNG gives a lossless working copy for editing, at a much larger file size. WebP is the right target if the photos are going onto a website you control — go directly rather than via JPG, since two lossy conversions discard more than one.
The trade-off in full: HEIC vs JPG.