How-to · iPhone & iPad

How to reduce the size of Live Photos

A Live Photo is a photo plus a short clip with sound. Here is how to stop taking them, what turning Live off in Edit does and doesn't do, and how to keep just the still.

Why Live Photos are bigger

A Live Photo captures what happens just before and after you take the picture, including the audio. So each one is a photo and a short video kept together, and takes more space than the same photo taken as a still. Live Photo is on by default in the Camera app.

1. Stop taking new ones (free, built in)

  1. Open Camera in Photo mode.
  2. Tap the controls button, or swipe up from Photo mode at the bottom of the screen.
  3. Tap Live, then choose Off.

To make the camera remember Off instead of going back to on, go to Settings → Camera → Preserve Settings and turn on Live Photo. This affects only new photos.

2. Turn an existing Live Photo into a still (free, built in)

  1. Open the Live Photo in the Photos app and tap Edit.
  2. Open the Live Photo tools and, if you like, move the frame and tap Make Key Photo to choose which moment stays.
  3. Tap the Live button at the top to turn it off. The Live Photo becomes a still of its key photo.

This is an edit, and Photos lets you revert edits — so it changes how the photo plays, and Apple doesn't say it makes the file smaller. Don't count on it to free space. The Live button's menu also has Live Off, which turns off playback for that photo in the same way.

3. Keep only the still — with Oxid Photos

To actually get the space back, the clip has to go, which means a still copy plus deleting the Live Photo. Oxid Photos (not released yet) does exactly that, carefully:

  1. It lists your Live Photos and estimates what keeping only the still would save (marked as an estimate).
  2. It makes a new still copy — the photo as you see it, with your edits, without the moving part — and copies its date, location, favourite mark and albums.
  3. It checks the copy: that it opens, that it is smaller, and that the date, place, favourite mark and albums match.
  4. Only then does it put the original Live Photo on the Review Pile. If the check fails, the original is left alone and the failed copy goes on the pile instead. Nothing is deleted until you delete the pile and confirm.

Live Photos whose original is only in iCloud, or that are in a shared album, are skipped rather than downloaded or changed. The deleted originals go to Recently Deleted for 30 days, so the space comes back when they leave it — see how to empty Recently Deleted.

One photo at a time is free; Pro ($2.99 once) does a whole batch. About Oxid Photos.

Related

Free up iPhone storage · Delete duplicate photos

Sources

The iPhone steps on this page were checked on 13 October 2026 against Apple's own support pages. Menu names can move between iOS versions; if yours differs, Apple's page for your version is the one to follow.

iPhone & iPad · coming to the App Store

Oxid Photos

A careful photo cleaner and photo tools in one app: nothing is deleted until you review it and confirm, and photos are compressed, resized or converted on your iPhone. Not released yet. Free to use; Pro is $2.99 once.

About Oxid Photos → · More how-to guides