Do your photos sometimes magically come to life? That‘s the magic of Live Photos on the iPhone! While fun, the feature isn‘t for everyone. In this guide, I‘ll explain exactly what Live Photos is, why you may want to disable it, and walk you step-by-step through how to turn off Live Photos on your iPhone.
What Exactly Are Live Photos?
You may have noticed that when you capture photos on a newer iPhone model, the pictures seem to move or come to life when you press on them. This is thanks to the Live Photos feature, introduced in 2015 with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Here‘s how it works:
Every time you open the Camera app, your iPhone is continuously recording video in the background. When you press the shutter button to take a photo, the iPhone captures the last 3 seconds of footage.
This includes:
- 1.5 seconds of video before you took the photo
- The still frame itself
- 1.5 seconds after you pressed the shutter
So when you later view that photo and press down on it, instead of just seeing a static image, you get a glimpse of motion and sound – a mini 3 second video clip animating your photo!
It‘s like having a tiny Harry Potter movie inside your pictures!
Live Photos is great for capturing candid moments, reactions, or fleeting expressions from kids, pets, family, and friends. It adds a sense of vitality and motion to your photos.
But there are some downsides…
Why You Might Want to Disable Live Photos
While Live Photos is fun for some, there are good reasons you may want to turn this feature off on your iPhone:
- Storage space – Live Photos take up more space than regular photos. Each Live Photo includes a 3 second video, while a standard photo is a single image file. So disabling Live Photos can help save storage room on your iPhone.
- Editing and sharing – Live Photos can be trickier to edit, crop, filter, and share compared to static photos. Turning the feature off avoids any complications.
- Preferences – Some people simply prefer still photos over motion. If you want classic static images, disabling Live Photos ensures you only capture still frames.
- Unwanted motion – The 3 second video can sometimes capture unintended movement if you or the subject shift slightly. This can result in blur or distortion. Turning off Live Photos prevents any unwanted motion.
Ready to turn off Live Photos? Let‘s go through how to disable the feature on your iPhone.
How to Turn Off Live Photos in iPhone Camera Settings
The quickest way to disable Live Photos is directly through your iPhone‘s Camera settings:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down and tap Camera.
- Under Camera settings, tap Live Photos.
- Toggle the switch to the OFF position to disable Live Photos.
That‘s all there is to it! Going forward, your Camera will now only capture standard still photos without any animation.
Here‘s what the steps look like:
To turn Live Photos back on at any time, simply return to Settings and toggle the switch on again.
Pretty easy right? Now let‘s look at how to turn off Live Photos directly in the Camera app.
How to Disable Live Photos in the iPhone Camera App
You can also easily turn Live Photos on or off right from the Camera app itself, no Settings required:
- Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
- At the top of the screen, tap on the Live Photos icon. This is the circular icon with concentric rings inside.
- When Live Photos is on, the icon is yellow. Tap it to toggle the feature off.
- The icon will turn white, indicating Live Photos is now disabled.
To turn Live Photos back on, simply tap the icon again to switch it to yellow.
Here‘s a visual guide to the steps:
This lets you quickly toggle Live Photos on or off when taking shots. Very handy!
Now what if you already have Live Photos on your iPhone that you want to convert to still images? Let‘s go over that next.
How to Convert Existing Live Photos to Still Images
Already have a bunch of Live Photos in your camera roll that you want to turn into normal static photos? No problem!
Here are the steps to convert Live Photos to still images in the Photos app:
- Open the Photos app and find the Live Photo you want to convert.
- Tap on the Live Photo to view it.
- In the top left corner, tap on the Live icon (the circle with rings inside).
- A menu pops up – tap on Convert to Still Photo.
- The Live Photo will be converted into a standard still image!
Here‘s how the process looks:
The original Live Photo is unchanged. But you now have a nice still copy saved on your iPhone.
How to Duplicate Live Photos as Still Images
You can also duplicate any Live Photo while keeping the original intact. Here‘s how:
- In the Photos app, find the Live Photo you want to duplicate.
- Tap the Share icon (box with arrow pointing up).
- Choose Duplicate from the menu.
- Select Duplicate as Still Photo.
- A still duplicate will be saved while the original Live Photo remains.
See the steps in action:
Now you have the best of both worlds – the original Live Photo plus a still version!
Live Photo File Size vs Still Images
If you‘re looking to save space, you‘re probably wondering how much room Live Photos take up compared to standard photos.
Here‘s a breakdown:
- Live Photo – An average of 15-20 MB
- Still photo – An average of 3-5 MB
So a single Live Photo takes up around 5x more storage than a still photo! No wonder disabling the feature can help free up room on your phone.
If you have 200 photos on your camera roll, switching to still images could save ~1 GB of storage!
6 Key Live Photo Facts
Before you make the switch, here are 6 key facts to know about Live Photos:
- Live Photos capture a 3 second video with sound along with the photo.
- The feature is turned on by default on newer iPhone models.
- Only iPhones after the 6s/6s Plus support Live Photos.
- You can view and share Live Photos even with the feature off.
- Effects like Loop, Bounce and Long Exposure can be applied to Live Photos.
- Live Photos bring your pictures to life, but take up more storage space.
So in summary, while Live Photos is a creative way to add motion and sound to your photos, the feature isn‘t for everyone.
If you‘re looking to save space on your iPhone or simply prefer still photos, you can easily disable Live Photos through your Settings or Camera app.
You can also convert existing Live Photos to still images. Give it a try to see which style you like best!
I hope this guide gave you a detailed overview of how to turn off Live Photos on your iPhone. Let me know if you have any other questions!