Send iPhone photos to Android

Importing over USB

Unlock the iPhone and trust the computer if prompted, then use the import workflow documented for that computer. Windows Photos and macOS Photos or Image Capture provide import options. Finder does not show the iPhone photo library as a normal DCIM drive.

Apple documents that USB imports may convert HEIF to JPEG. On current iOS, Settings, Apps, Photos, Keep Originals under Transfer to Mac or PC prevents that automatic conversion. Inspect the imported filename rather than assuming every cable copy is unchanged.

Drive and Google Photos upload the file as it is

The Drive app on the iPhone sends up whatever you picked. A .heic goes up as a .heic and comes back down on Android as a .heic, and the Files app there often shows a grey tile for it even while Google Photos on the same phone opens the picture.

Google Photos is the one that fools people. Backup with Storage saver re-encodes on Google's side, so what you see in the app looks fine, while Download or Save to device can still write a .heic into the gallery folder. The upload was never a conversion step. A chat send that arrived soft rather than broken is a different complaint: WhatsApp original.

Convert the copies, not the originals

HEIC to JPG decodes the DCIM copies on the server with libheif and hands back JPEG. HDR and Photographic Styles land as an ordinary 8-bit file, which is the kind of file an Android gallery knows how to draw. Use HEIC to PNG when you need a PNG image; PNG does not preserve an editable layer stack.

The second attempt is where this usually goes wrong. You convert the folder on the desktop, then share the original again from Photos on the phone because that is the quicker gesture, and the other side is back to a grey tile. Convert, then send only what came out.

1. Drop one 1xxAPPLE copy into HEIC to JPG. Up to 10 files, 20 MB each.
2. Download the ZIP and unpack it into the folder you are going to hand over.
3. Delete the .heic copies from the desktop so you cannot pick one by accident.

The AirDrop substitutes move the file untouched

Check the transfer options supported by both devices and the version of the app. If you need JPEG at the destination, convert the copy first and select that JPEG for transfer. A transfer service should not be treated as a guaranteed HEIC converter.

File transfer and image export can behave differently. The USB import setting or the app you share from may convert the photo before transfer. Compare the selected file and the received copy instead of assuming a particular transport always preserves HEIC.

Attaching them to an email

Mail on the iPhone sometimes offers Small, Medium, Large or Actual Size when you attach photos, and the smaller options can come out as JPEG. Sometimes. It depends on the photo and the iOS build, so it is not a step you can plan a send around.

Check the mail account's total attachment limit. Personal Gmail and Outlook.com list 25 MB; a work account can use another limit. The number of photos depends on their actual bytes. For a single document, see iPhone to PDF.

Make the next batch easier

The camera can write JPEG from the start, and whether that trade is worth the storage is laid out in iPhone JPEG. If the same photos also have to open on a work PC, HEIC on Windows is the other machine with the same missing decoder.

And if a photo has already landed on the Android phone and the gallery refuses to draw it, the fix is on that side of the cable: HEIC on Android.