When you take a picture with a modern iPhone, you might notice that the resulting image isn’t completely static. If you press and hold on the photo in your gallery, it briefly plays a short video clip with sound. This is Apple’s “Live Photos” feature. It captures 1.5 seconds of video before and after you hit the shutter button. While great for capturing the feeling of a moment, Live Photos take up nearly double the storage space of a standard photo, and the slight delay in capture can sometimes result in blurry shots. If you prefer traditional, static photographs, you can easily turn this feature off.
How to Turn Off Live Photos Temporarily
You can toggle Live Photos on and off directly within the Camera app. This is useful if you generally like the feature but want to disable it for a specific shot.
- Unlock your iPhone and open the Camera app.
- Look at the top-right corner of the screen (or the top-left if holding the phone horizontally). You will see an icon that looks like three concentric circles.
- If the circles are yellow and do not have a line through them, Live Photos is ON.
- Tap the concentric circles icon.
- The icon will briefly show a diagonal line crossing through it, and the word “Live Off” will flash at the top of the screen.
You will now shoot standard, static photos.
How to Turn Off Live Photos Permanently
If you use the temporary method above, the Camera app will often aggressively turn Live Photos back on the next time you open the app. If you want Live Photos to stay off forever, you must change a specific setting.
- Open the main Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Camera.
- Tap on Preserve Settings.
- Look for the toggle switch labelled Live Photo.
- Tap the toggle switch to turn it green (ON).
Wait, why am I turning the toggle ON to turn the feature OFF?
This menu is often misunderstood. The “Preserve Settings” menu does not turn features on or off; it tells the Camera app to remember your last choice.
By turning the “Live Photo” toggle green in this menu, you are telling the iPhone: “Whatever setting I choose for Live Photos in the Camera app, preserve it for next time.”
- Now, exit Settings and open the Camera app again.
- Tap the concentric circles icon to ensure it has a slash through it (Live Off).
Because you enabled “Preserve Settings,” the Camera app will now remember that you turned it off. It will remain off permanently until you explicitly choose to tap the icon and turn it back on.