Live Photos on iPhone: turn them off, edit them or keep them?

What a Live Photo is and why people turn it off

A Live Photo is a photo with a short moment of motion attached, which you see when you press and hold it. Many people enjoy them for family and pet pictures. Others prefer plain stills because the motion is rarely used and because they want a simpler library.

Apple’s support documentation does not give file-size figures for Live Photos, so we will not claim a specific amount of space you could save. If storage is your goal, check the iPhone Storage screen before and after a cleanup and measure the difference yourself.

Stop taking Live Photos

In Camera, tap the Camera Controls button, then tap the Live Photo button. A slash through the icon means Live Photo is off. Apple notes that Camera turns it back on automatically the next time you open it.

To keep it off, go to Settings, then Camera, then Preserve Settings, and make sure the Live Photo switch is on. This tells the phone to remember your last choice instead of resetting it.

Turn an existing Live Photo into a still

Open the Live Photo in Photos and tap Edit. At the top of the screen, the LIVE button toggles the Live effect off or back on. Apple describes this as turning the effect off and on while editing, so the change is not necessarily a one-way conversion.

You can also pick a different frame as the main picture. In Edit, tap the Live Photo button, drag the white frame to another thumbnail, lift your finger, tap Make Key Photo, then tap Done. This is useful when the default frame has a blink or a blur.

1. Open the Live Photo in Photos and tap Edit.
2. Tap the Live Photo button and drag the white frame to the best moment.
3. Tap Make Key Photo, then tap Done.
4. Tap LIVE at the top of the screen if you want to turn the motion off.

Sharing only the still

If you only want to send the still image, open the photo, tap Share and tap LIVE in the upper-left corner before choosing how to share. Apple also notes that sharing a Live Photo by Mail sends it as a still image.

Apple warns that editing a Live Photo in a third-party app may remove effects such as Loop, Bounce or Long Exposure. If you care about an effect, keep a copy before experimenting.

Which Live Photos to keep

Treat them like any other photo. Keep the ones where the motion adds something, and use the same keep-or-delete decisions you would for regular pictures. GallerySort lets you review items one at a time with a swipe, whether they are Live Photos or stills.

Remember that deleting a photo sends it to Recently Deleted for 30 days, and that with iCloud Photos on, deletions apply to your other devices too.