Have you ever wondered what those small moving photo icons are on your iPhone camera roll? Or perhaps you‘ve accidentally enabled a setting that makes your photos come to life as if by magic? Well, my friend, you‘ve discovered Apple‘s Live Photos feature!
In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll dive deep into Live Photos – what they are, how they work, why you may want to disable them to reclaim storage or get better images, and exactly how to turn off Live Photos on your iPhone with simple step-by-step instructions.
So whether you‘re a long-time iPhone user baffled by newer camera options or simply want to snap pictures without any motion effect, you‘ll learn everything there is to know about controlling Live Photos. Let‘s get started!
What Exactly Are Live Photos?
Introduced in 2015 alongside the iPhone 6S, Live Photos are a special effect that brings your images to life by recording 1.5 seconds of video before and after you press the camera shutter button.
So when you view a Live Photo later, you‘ll see a mini video clip playing the moments immediately before and after the shot. It‘s almost like having Harry Potter style moving photos on your iPhone!
Here are the key features that make up Apple‘s Live Photos technology:
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Motion Effect – Live Photos add movement to otherwise still scenes, creating a dynamic look and feel.
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Audio Capture – Video clips have sound, so Live Photos replay audio from the captured moment when viewed.
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Storage Usage – Live Photos take up more space than regular photos given the added video component. On average, a Live Photo uses about twice the storage of a standard JPEG photo. See a detailed comparison:
| Photo Type | File Size |
|---|---|
| Standard Photo | ~3 MB |
| Live Photo | ~6 MB |
A Live Photo icon indicating the motion effect is enabled
- Compatibility – Live Photos can be viewed with motion intact only on iPhone models 6S and above running iOS 9 or later. On incompatible devices, they appear as still images.
Now that you know exactly what Live Photos are, when might you want to switch this nifty camera feature off? Great question! Let‘s discuss why disabling Live Photos can be helpful.
Why Turn Off Live Photos on iPhone
While fun to capture and view, the Live Photos setting isn‘t ideal for every iPhone user or photo-taking scenario.
Here are the most common reasons for turning off Live Photos on your iPhone camera:
1. Save Storage Space
As shown in the table above, Live Photos occupy almost double the storage capacity compared to standard JPEGs. All that extra video footage adds up quickly!
So if you take lots of photos and want to conserve storage, disabling Live Photos is an easy way to free up room on your iPhone.
2. Avoid Blurry or Bad Photos
The short video clip in a Live Photo captures any movement happening in the 1.5 seconds before/after your snap. Rapid motion can easily become blurred or distorted.
Say you‘re photographing a basketball game. The player you shoot may appear fuzzy as they run across the court. Or when taking candids of kids who tend to wiggle around, arms and faces can distort unflatteringly in Live Photos.
Similarly, unexpected moments right before or after you click may be captured that you‘d rather not save – like someone blinking or making a goofy face.
By turning off Live Photos, you avoid any undesirable movement ruining or distracting from otherwise good photos.
3. Edit Images More Easily
Working with non-moving images makes all the tools built into Apple‘s Photos app much simpler to apply.
With Live Photos disabled, you can smoothly crop frames, auto-enhance with filters, or fine-tunebrightness without dealing with a playing video behind the scenes.
There are other advanced editing functions like long exposure effects that also won‘t work properly on Live Photos in the iPhone‘s native editing suite. So you‘re better off snapping non-motion photos if you want to heavily process images after shooting.
Now let‘s get into the step-by-step nitty gritty of actually disabling Live Photos on your iPhone!
How to Turn Off Live Photos in iPhone Camera
You have two options for switching off Live Photos – through Settings for a permanent change, or directly in the Camera app to toggle on and off while shooting.
Let‘s go through both methods:
Disable Live Photos in Settings
- Open the Settings app and tap Camera
- Turn on the switch for Preserve Settings
- Below, toggle the switch off for Live Photos
With Preserve Settings enabled, your iPhone will remember the disabled Live Photos setting going forward. So new photos will remain standard JPEGs until you manually re-enable the function in Settings.
Temporarily Disable Live Photos in Camera App
- Open the Camera app
- Tap the Live Photos yellow icon ← so it turns white
- Take photos without any motion effect
- Tap the icon again to turn Live Photos back on
Tapping the icon lets you quickly toggle Live Photos on/off for the current shooting session. Your setting in Settings remains unchanged.
And that‘s all there is to disabling Live Photos on iPhone to save space, avoid undesirable captures, and simplify photo editing!
Now I‘ll run through some extended tips on working with Live Photos.
Converting Existing Live Photos to Still Images
Already using Live Photos and now want to remove the motion effect on those memories? Here are the simple steps to convert Live Photos videos to standard JPEGs right from your camera roll:
- In Photos, tap a Live Photo thumbnail to open it
- Tap Edit → Tap Live Photos icon to disable effect → Done
A duplicate still image copy gets saved, while the original Live Photo is retained as is. Rinse and repeat!
Troubleshooting Live Photos Issues
Sometimes Live Photos act glitchy with videos not playing correctly. Before disabling the feature entirely, try these fixes:
- Restart your iPhone
- Check iOS for updates
- Turn off/on Live Photos in Settings
- Clear unused apps and media to free storage space
If problems persist, turning off Live Photos is recommended to prevent saving error-prone images and video.
I hope after reading this extensive walkthrough, you feel empowered to take full control over the Live Photos setting on your iPhone. Let me know if any questions come up!
