You've probably been there. You have this perfect five-second clip of a campfire or a waterfall, and you just want it to play forever on your nightstand. Or maybe you're at a trade show and need a promo video to cycle endlessly without someone tapping "play" every two minutes. You look for a "Loop" button in the Photos app. You dig through settings. Nothing. It’s honestly baffling that in 2026, with all the titanium and AI shoved into these devices, Apple still hasn't given us a simple toggle to loop a video on iPhone without an app.
But don't toss your phone across the room just yet.
While there isn't a giant "Repeat" switch sitting in the middle of your screen, there are a few clever ways to trick iOS into doing exactly what you want. You don't need to go to the App Store and download some ad-filled "Looper Pro" garbage. You just need to know which hidden menus to poke.
The Slideshow Trick: The Most Reliable Method
This is the "old reliable" of looping. It’s a bit of a hack, but it works for almost any video file sitting in your camera roll. The trick here is that the Photos app treats a "Slideshow" differently than a standard video playback.
- Open your Photos app and find the video you’re obsessed with.
- Hit the Share icon (that little square with the arrow pointing up).
- Scroll down and tap Slideshow.
- The video will start playing with some weird music and a "Ken Burns" zooming effect. Ignore that for a second. Tap the screen once to bring up the overlay and hit Options in the bottom right.
- This is the magic part. Switch the Theme to "Origami" or "Single" (to avoid weird transitions) and, most importantly, toggle the Repeat switch to ON.
- Turn the music off unless you want to hear "Stock Acoustic Guitar #4" on a loop.
Now, your video will play, hit the end, and immediately start over. The only downside? It adds a tiny fade-to-black transition between loops. If you need it to be frame-perfect and gapless, you might want to look at the Live Photo method instead.
Live Photos: The "Secret" Infinite Loop
If your video is short—think under 10 seconds—you can actually turn it into a native loop that behaves like a GIF but keeps the high video quality. This is how people get those "infinite" moving backgrounds.
How to Loop a Video on iPhone Without an App Using Live Effects
Actually, this works best if you started with a Live Photo, but you can convert short videos too. Once you have a Live Photo:
- Open the image in your library.
- Look at the top left corner. You’ll see a little badge that says Live.
- Tap that badge. A dropdown menu appears.
- Select Loop.
Boom. Your iPhone just turned that clip into a continuous loop. It uses a "blur" transition to blend the end back into the start. If you want something more energetic, try the Bounce option. It’s basically Apple’s version of Instagram’s Boomerang, playing the video forward and then immediately backward.
The "Duplicate and Stitch" Strategy
Sometimes you don't want a "virtual" loop; you want a video file that is actually long enough to play for 10 minutes. You can do this natively in iMovie, which comes pre-installed on every iPhone (so technically, it’s not a new app you have to download).
Open iMovie and start a "Movie" project. Import your clip. Now, tap the clip in the timeline and hit Duplicate. Do it ten times. Twenty times. Honestly, do it until the timeline is as long as you need. When you export this, you have one long file that "loops" because you've manually stacked it. It’s a bit of a manual labor approach, but it’s the only way to get a file you can send to someone else that stays looped.
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Why Does Apple Make This So Hard?
It’s a fair question. If you open a video in the Files app or even through the TV app, there is no repeat button. Rumors about iOS 26 suggested a "Media Pro" mode might fix this, but for now, we're stuck with these workarounds. Some experts suggest Apple restricts background video looping to preserve battery life. Constant 4K rendering at 60fps is a massive power draw, and a "Loop" button is an easy way for a user to accidentally kill their battery in three hours.
Pro Tip: Looping YouTube Videos
Kinda related: if you're trying to loop a YouTube video on your iPhone, you don't need a hack. While the video is playing, tap the Settings gear in the top right of the player, go to Additional Settings, and toggle Loop Video. This is a relatively new-ish addition to the mobile app that people constantly miss because it's buried two menus deep.
Actionable Next Steps
If you need a loop right now, here is the fastest path based on your goal:
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- For a quick look: Use the Slideshow method with the "Repeat" toggle turned on.
- For a wallpaper or "vibe": Convert the clip to a Live Photo and select the Loop effect.
- For a presentation: Use iMovie to duplicate the clip multiple times and export it as a single, long "looped" file.
Whatever you choose, just remember to keep your phone plugged in if you're planning to let it run for hours. Those OLED screens are pretty, but they aren't magic—they'll eat your battery for breakfast if you leave a 4K loop running indefinitely.