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Nov 11, 2016, 04:58pm EST |

How (And Why) To Turn Off Live Photos On Your iPhone

Brad Moon

Reviews and guidance for Apple gear, audio systems and consumer tech.

This article is more than 5 years old.

Live Photos was introduced in iOS 9 as a special feature for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. It's also the default camera setting for the iPhone SE, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7Plus.

The way Live Photos works is to capture a MOV video file every time you snap a photo with your iPhone. The MOV file includes three seconds of video and sound, so when viewed on a supported device, the image seems to come to life.

Pretty cool, but there are some downsides.

For one, all that extra data makes for image file sizes that are roughly double that of a standard photo. If you snap a lot of pictures, that can quickly add up and cause you to run short on storage space.

If you take low light pictures, Live Photos can result in grainy images because the camera is forced to continue shooting video so it can't use a longer exposure to capture more light. Turning the feature off can result in a significant improvement.

Finally, if you upload your iPhone photos to software that doesn't support the feature, you can end up with a collection of photos plus unrecognized files. Using the software to delete the photos on your iPhone --as is typically done after import-- leaves a mess of blank video files on the iPhone that then must be manually deleted (see below).

Orphaned Live Photos MOV files on iPhone after the associated photos were deleted (Credit: screen... [+] capture by Brad Moon)

So how do you turn off Live Photos?

Unlike many iOS features, there's no Setting for Live Photos. Instead, you have to open the Camera app itself. At the top of the frame there are a series of icons. The one in the center --a circle with concentric rings-- is the toggle for Live Photos. If the icon is yellow, Live Photos is active. Tap the icon and it turns white to indicate Live Photos has been turned off.

The yellow icon means Live Photos is on, white means Live Photos is turned off (Credit: screen... [+] Capture by Brad Moon)

That's it. With the preference located with in the Camera app itself, it's much more convenient for toggling Live Photos on and off, as needed. Whichever setting you leave it on remains, even after you quit out of the camera app.

Brad Moon