You get a folder of iPhone photos from a client, a colleague, or a family member. You need to forward them to someone else — a printer, an editor, another team. You attach them, hit send, and the recipient replies: "I can't open these." The files are HEIC, and the recipient's computer, email client, or viewer does not know what to do with them.
The mistake is forwarding the files exactly as received. Email does not convert attachments. What leaves your outbox is byte-for-byte what you attached, and if the recipient's setup cannot read HEIC, they get the same failure you would have gotten. Worse, some mail clients show a broken preview instead of an error, so the recipient assumes the files are corrupt and the conversation stalls for a day.
Convert before you forward, not after someone complains. The rule I use: never forward a HEIC file to anyone outside my own Apple devices. Convert a copy to JPG first, attach the JPGs, and keep the originals untouched in their own folder. JPG opens everywhere — every mail client, every browser, every office suite — so the recipient never has to install anything or ask you to resend.
Two traps to avoid. First, do not just rename .heic to .jpg. The file contents are still HEIC, and many recipients will get a file that looks like a JPG but fails to open, which is harder to diagnose than a clean error. Second, do not upload someone else's photos to a random conversion site just to change their format. Forwarded photos are often someone else's work, family pictures, or business material; sending them to a stranger's server is an unnecessary exposure. A browser-local converter does the whole job on your own machine. I built FileOnTap so you can do convert HEIC to JPG for email entirely in the browser: drop in the HEIC files, download JPGs, nothing is uploaded, no account needed.
Make it a habit, not a rescue operation. When a folder of HEIC photos arrives, convert a JPG set immediately, before anyone asks for it. Then forwarding is just attaching files that work. The five minutes you spend up front saves a round of "can you resend that?" emails, and the recipient never has to know what HEIC is.
Disclosure: I'm the developer of FileOnTap. The "convert a copy, forward JPG, keep the originals" order is the real takeaway whichever tool you use.
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