How to Turn Off Live Photo Permanently and Finally Reclaim Your Storage

It happens to everyone. You open your iPhone camera to capture a fleeting, perfect moment of your kid blowing out birthday candles or a sunset over the Pacific. You tap the shutter. Later, you look at the photo and it’s... moving? It’s a three-second video clip that starts with you adjusting your grip and ends with you putting the phone back in your pocket. Honestly, Live Photos are a polarizing feature. Apple introduced them back with the iPhone 6s in 2015, and while they can be whimsical, they are often just a nuisance that eats up twice the storage of a standard JPEG.

The biggest frustration isn't just the movement. It’s the "zombie" setting. You tap the little yellow concentric circles in the camera app to disable it, think you're good, and then two days later, it’s back on. Apple likes to reset your preferences to what it thinks is best. If you want to turn off live photo permanently, you have to go deeper than just the camera interface. You have to dive into the "Preserve Settings" menu, which is tucked away where most casual users never look.

Why Live Photos Keep Coming Back to Life

Live Photos aren't actually videos in the traditional sense. They are a proprietary Apple container—a combination of a 12-megapixel High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) or JPEG and a 3-second MOV video file. Because of this dual-file nature, they take up a significant amount of space. If you’re rocking a 128GB iPhone, a few hundred Live Photos can start to squeeze your available room for apps and system updates.

Most people try to fix this by tapping the "Live" icon in the top right of the camera app. It turns white with a slash through it. Problem solved, right? Wrong. By default, the iOS camera app resets to "Auto" or "On" every time you close the app or lock your phone. It’s like a light switch that flips itself back on when you leave the room. This is the "feature" that drives most users up the wall.

The Storage Math Nobody Tells You

Think about it this way. A standard photo might be 2MB to 3MB. A Live Photo? You’re looking at 5MB to 8MB. It adds up. If you take 1,000 photos a year, you’re looking at a difference of 5GB versus nearly 8GB. For iCloud users on the free 5GB tier, that’s the difference between a successful backup and a "Storage Full" notification that haunts your dreams.

The Step-by-Step to Turn Off Live Photo Permanently

To actually win this battle, you need to tell iOS to stop "helping" you. You need to force the phone to remember that you hate Live Photos. This isn't done in the Camera app; it’s done in the System Settings.

First, grab your phone and open the Settings app. Scroll down—past General, past Display—until you find Camera. Once you're in the Camera menu, look for a section called Preserve Settings. This is the secret vault for all your camera preferences. Inside, you’ll see a list of toggles like Camera Mode, Creative Controls, and Exposure Adjustment.

📖 Related: What Was Invented By Benjamin Franklin: The Truth About His Weirdest Gadgets

Look for the Live Photo toggle at the bottom.

Here is where it gets counter-intuitive. You want to turn this toggle ON.

Wait, what?

Yes. By turning the "Live Photo" preserve setting to ON, you are telling the iPhone: "Remember whatever I did last." If you turn this on, and then go into your camera app and turn Live Photo off, it will stay off. If you leave this setting off in the menu, the camera will continue to reset to "Auto-Live" every single time you launch the app. It’s a bit of Apple-logic that catches people off guard.

Once You've Toggled the Settings

After you've enabled "Preserve Settings" for Live Photo, go back to your actual Camera app. Tap the yellow Live Photo icon so it has a line through it and says "LIVE OFF" in a little grey box. Now, kill the app. Swipe it away. Lock your phone. Open it again.

Magic. It’s still off.

👉 See also: When were iPhones invented and why the answer is actually complicated

Dealing With the Photos You Already Have

Stopping the bleeding for future photos is great, but what about the 4,000 moving pictures already sitting in your library? You can’t exactly go back in time, but you can strip the "Live" part out of existing images to save space.

Apple doesn't make this a "one-click" batch process in a way that’s obvious. You can select a photo, tap the "Live" menu in the top left, and select "Off," but that doesn't actually delete the video data. It just hides it. To truly convert a Live Photo into a still and reclaim that storage, you have to "Duplicate as Still Photo."

1. Open a Live Photo.
2. Tap the three dots (or the Share icon on older iOS versions).
3. Choose Duplicate.
4. Select Duplicate as Still Photo.

Now you have two versions: the moving one and the still one. You have to delete the moving one and then empty your "Recently Deleted" folder. It’s tedious. Honestly, it’s a pain. If you have thousands, you’re better off using a third-party app like Lean or Metapho. These apps are designed specifically to scan your library and strip the video component from Live Photos in bulk. They’ve been around for years and are highly recommended by tech experts like those at MacRumors and The Verge because they solve a problem Apple refuses to fix natively.

The Case for (Sometimes) Keeping Live Photos

Look, I get it. You want them gone. But before you turn off live photo permanently for the rest of your life, consider the one thing they’re actually good for: Long Exposure.

If you take a Live Photo of a waterfall or a busy street at night, you can open that photo, swipe up (or tap the Live menu), and choose "Long Exposure." The iPhone will use the three seconds of video data to blur the water or the car lights into a professional-looking smear. It’s a neat trick that you can’t do with a standard still.

Also, Key Photos. Sometimes you take a picture of a group and one person has their eyes closed. With a Live Photo, you can tap "Edit," hit the little bullseye icon, and scrub through the three-second clip to find a frame where everyone’s eyes are open. You can then set that as the Key Photo.

✨ Don't miss: Why Everyone Is Talking About the Gun Switch 3D Print and Why It Matters Now

If those features don't sound worth the storage headache, then proceed with the permanent shutdown.

Common Misconceptions About Live Photos

Many people think that if they share a Live Photo with an Android user, it will show up as a video. That’s usually not true. Most of the time, the receiving phone just sees the high-quality JPEG. However, if you share it via a platform like WhatsApp or Telegram, it might send as a small video file depending on your settings.

Another myth is that Live Photos reduce the resolution of your picture. They don't. You still get the full 12MP or 48MP (on newer Pro models) resolution for the static frame. The "video" part is recorded at a lower bitrate and resolution, typically around 1440x1080, so it doesn't affect the quality of the main shot. It only affects the weight of the file on your disk.

Actionable Steps for a Cleaner Camera Experience

If you’re ready to simplify your photography, here is the final checklist to ensure you never see a moving photo again unless you want to.

• Audit your Preserve Settings: Go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings and ensure the Live Photo toggle is green (enabled).
• Kill the icon: Open the Camera app and tap the Live Photo icon until it is white/slashed.
• Check your existing library: Go to your Photos app, scroll down to "Media Types," and tap "Live Photos" to see how many you've accidentally accumulated.
• Use a tool for bulk removal: If the number is over 500, download an app like Lean to strip the video data and free up GBs of space in minutes.
• Consider HEIC: While you're in the Camera settings, make sure your format is set to "High Efficiency." This uses the HEIF format, which is much better at compressing both stills and Live Photos than the old-school JPEG.

By following these steps, you take control back from the "smart" defaults that Apple imposes. You'll find your storage lasts longer, your photo library feels more intentional, and you’ll stop accidentally recording the sound of your own heavy breathing as you try to line up a shot of your lunch. It’s a small change, but for anyone who values a clean, static photo gallery, it’s a life-changer.

To ensure your settings stuck, try restarting your iPhone after changing the Preserve Settings. Occasionally, iOS needs a quick reboot to firmly "lock in" the preference. Once that's done, your camera will behave exactly like a traditional camera every time you pull it out of your pocket.