Music schools usually ask for several photos at enrollment — a student headshot, an instrument photo, sometimes a practice-room setup shot — and many enrollment portals want them as a single PDF. iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, so a perfectly good set of photos can stall the whole application with a vague "invalid file type" message.

  1. Keep the HEIC originals
    Do not overwrite your originals. Convert copies for the enrollment and keep the HEIC masters, in case the school later asks for a clearer headshot or a different crop.

  2. Do not just rename them to .jpg or .pdf
    Renaming changes the extension, not the contents. The files will still be HEIC data, and the portal will still reject them. The photos have to be genuinely converted.

  3. Convert copies to PDF for the enrollment
    If you need a PDF quickly, you can convert HEIC photos to PDF for music school enrollments entirely in the browser: the conversion happens on your own device, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed. Then check the PDF preview before submitting — confirm every photo is the right way up, in the order the school asked for, and that the student's face and instrument are clearly visible.

That is the whole fix: real PDFs, made from copies, checked once before you hit submit. No app to install, no account to create, and your photos never leave your device.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of FileOnTap.