How to turn off Live Photos on iPhone step by step

Do you want to know how to turn off Live Photos on your iPhone? This handy guide will help you.

Live Photos capture 1.5 seconds of real-time action before and after you take a picture, bringing your images to life when viewed on supporting devices. Live Photos can also be turned into Loops, Bounces, or even videos. They sound great, right? But many users who are wondering why their snaps are taking up so much of their precious storage space might be surprised to discover that Live Photos are probably why.

We'll show you how to turn them off and optimize your iPhone; let's get started.

Why you need to know how to turn Livve Photos off

The number one reason for knowing how to turn off Live Photos on an iPhone is to save storage space.

Live Photos are actually made up of a still image and a video clip, so they essentially double the file size of a regular photo. If you take a lot of Live Photos, your storage space will quickly fill up. We all know this hampers performance and opens the gateway for glitches and bugs, like freezing, crashing, and stalling.

Thankfully, turning Live Photos off is pretty simple; let's take a look.

How to disable Live Photos

It's super easy to turn off your Live Photos while taking an image straight from the Camera — all it takes is just one tap. Just follow these three simple steps:

1. Open the Camera app on your iPhone.
2. Along the top, tap the Live Photo icon (circles inside a circle)
3. See the Live off message.

That's it. Nothing complicated, and if you decide you want Live Photos back on, just follow these steps again to turn them back on.

Ok, so now you know how to permanently turn off Live Photos, let's talk about how you can recover consumed space and ensure your iPhone performance isn't affected.

How to convert Live Photo to still image on iPhone

You can turn live to still in Photo library, but if you want to convert multiple photos at once, there is a perfect app – CleanMy®Phone. 

1. Download CleanMy®Phone.
2. Choose the Organize module.
3. Then tap on Turn Live to Still.
4. Choose your photos for conversion and tap Convert. 

The benefits of using CleanMy®Phone: 

• You can convert live to still in batches — up to 200 photos per batch 
• The same Organize feature can compress videos — up to 10 videos per batch
• Comes with other tools to keep your iPhone tidy — e.g., the Declutter feature can merge similar contacts

Free up space on your iPhone

Turning off Live Photos will help with future storage consumption, but what can you do to free up already consumed space? Try removing duplicates and similar images, clearing large files stored by apps and Safari cache, and deleting unused apps.

1. Remove duplicate images and similar photos

Getting rid of duplicate and similar images is the quickest way to free up space on iPhone. 

The problem is, who's got the time to sort and sift through them all? Well, you can also use CleanMy®Phone. This powerful AI-backed app can locate all your doubles and similar photos in just a few simple clicks, making it easy for you to select and remove what you no longer need; here's how:

How to delete your duplicate pics instantly:

1. Install the app on your iPhone.
2. Wait until it scans your photos, press Declutter.
3. Select Duplicates from the categories.
4. Select images and press Clean.

Now, here's how to remove similar-looking pics to reclaim even more storage: 

1. Along the bottom, press Organize > Scan.
2. Review any of the displayed categories, select photos under Similar, and press Clean.

Removing both similar-looking and duplicate photos from your iPhone will instantly free up space and improve performance, but that's not all you can do.

2. Remove old apps

Another quick way to reclaim storage is to remove apps you no longer use. Old apps hog space and impact performance. Here's a reminder of how to delete apps you don't want:

1. With your iPhone unlocked, hold your finger down on your iPhone screen until your application icons wobble and a minus sign appears in the top left corner of each app.
2. Press the - icon on the app you want to remove.
3. Tap Remove App > confirm.

Repeat his process for all the apps you want to delete.

3. Clear your Safari cache

Browser cache is another storage consumer; make sure you regularly remove it to keep your iPhone running glitch-free and your storage optimized; here's how:

1. Open the Settings app > Safari.
2. Scroll towards the bottom and select Clear History and Website Data.
3. Confirm to free up storage space.

4. Remove large files stored on your iPhone

Take a couple of minutes to review any large files you might have stored on your iPhone, then delete them or save them to cloud storage to free up space. Here's how:

1. Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Scroll down, and you can review and delete large files and attachments stored by the app.

All of these tips will help to reclaim storage space and improve your iPhone's output. So before we finish up, let's answer a couple of frequently asked questions.

Frequently asked questions

What to do if Live Photos won't turn off on my iPhone? 

If you encounter this issue, restart your iPhone and install any iOS updates. This should solve the problem, but if it doesn't, you may need to contact Apple for further support.

How do I know if Live Photos are turned off?

To confirm that Live Photos are disabled, you'll see a diagonal line slashed through the Live Photos icon, which is located in the top bar above the viewfinder when you're in camera mode.

Does turning off Live Photos save space?

Turning off Live Photos won't free up space on your iPhone; you'll need to use the tips above for that, but by switching to just a still image, the next time you use your camera, the image size will be much smaller.

Will turning off Live Photos affect the quality of my saved images?

Nope, you don't need to worry about damaging or changing the quality of previously taken photos; disabling Live Photos won't alter this.