How to convert HEIC to JPG without uploading your photos
Convert the photo on your Mac instead of on a website. Online HEIC converters have to receive the photo on their server before they can convert it. FileMate converts it locally: right-click the HEIC in Finder and choose FileMate › Convert Image › JPEG. Preview and Finder’s Quick Actions also convert HEIC on the Mac. None of them upload anything.
With FileMate, your photos never leave your computer.
Convert HEIC on your Mac with FileMate
- Select the HEIC photos in Finder.
- Right-click and choose FileMate › Convert Image › JPEG.
- The JPGs are saved next to the originals. Nothing is sent anywhere.
FileMate works offline. It only goes online to activate the licence, once per Mac, and to check for updates if you ask it to.
What an online converter does with the photo
- Your browser uploads the photo to the service’s server.
- The server converts it.
- You download the JPG.
The photo now exists in one more place, handled according to that service’s policies, for as long as they keep it. For a sunset, that may not matter. For a photo of a passport, a medical document, a child, or anything with a location in its metadata, there is no reason to send it anywhere just to change its format.
Photos carry more than the picture
iPhone photos include metadata: when they were taken, which device took them, and often the exact GPS location. An uploaded photo takes all of that with it.
FileMate keeps metadata in converted copies by default. In FileMate Settings you can choose to remove the location and device details, or all metadata, from the copies it makes. Useful before you post or send a photo.
Local options on a Mac
| Tool | Where | Batch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview | Open the photo, File › Export | No | Built in; one photo at a time |
| Finder Quick Actions | Right-click › Quick Actions › Convert Image | Yes | Built in since macOS Monterey; asks for options each time |
| FileMate | Right-click › FileMate › Convert Image | Yes | Starts at once; also TIFF, and WebP where macOS supports it |
All three run on the Mac. FileMate is the one that keeps conversion and compression, for images, PDFs, video and audio, in the same right-click menu.
Is FileMate an online converter?
No. FileMate is a macOS app. It adds actions to Finder and does the processing on your Mac. It has no account and no upload step, and it works with the Wi-Fi off.
Get FileMate
There is no reason to upload a photo just to change its format. FileMate converts it in Finder, on your Mac, and the photo stays yours.
Normal price €9.99, now €4.99 incl. VAT
One payment, no subscription. macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon or Intel.