Wondering, “How do I turn off Live Photos?” If a Live Photo you take captures a bit of video or audio you don’t want, you can convert the Live Photo to a still image in two different ways. You can turn off the live part of the live photo, or you can duplicate the photo as a still and keep or delete the original. We’ll teach you both ways to turn live photo off once you’ve already taken the photo.

Why You'll Love This Tip:

Convert a Live Photo to a still image if you don't like the video or audio captured.
Save iPhone storage when you convert a Live Photo to still and delete the Live Photo.

How to Turn Off Live Photo

System Requirements

The screenshots for this tip were taken on an iPhone 16 Pro Max running iOS 18, but it works on earlier models and software versions. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

Can you save a still from a Live Photo? Yes, you can! If you just want to turn off the live part of your Live Photo, it's actually super simple. Here's how to turn off live photos on iPhone:

On your iPhone, open the Photos app.
Swipe down to see your photo library in full screen, then tap on the Live Photo you want to turn to still.
Tap the Live button in the top left.
Tap Live Off.

And that's how to turn Live Photos off! Once you've turned the live part off, you can send or share the photo, and the live part will not be attached anymore. However, you can easily go back to the photo and turn Live Photo on again if you want the live part back. You can also turn it off via the Camera app, so you don't need to convert the photo later on. Check out our free Tip of the Day for more great Live Photo tutorials.

How do You Turn Off Live Photo via Duplicate

If you want to keep your Live Photo intact but duplicate the image as a still, follow the steps below. This is helpful if you plan to edit a Live Photo but don’t want to lose the live version or if you're not concerned about saving iPhone storage. Here's how to turn Live Photo off:

Open the Photos App.
Scroll down until you see your Media Types collection, tap Live Photos. If you don't see Live Photos as one of the options, tap the text that says "Media Types" and select Live Photos from there.
Open the photo you want to convert to a still and tap the More menu (three dots) in the top right.
Select Duplicate.
Tap Duplicate as Still Photo.

The photo will appear in your Recents tab right next to the original live photo. That means if you've converted a photo from a long time ago, you may need to scroll back in your recents to find the new still photo. It's important to note that you can also delete a Live Photo and keep the still version of a photo.

Now you know how to disable Live Photos on your iPhone by converting them into still photos via the Photos app. Next, learn how to make a GIF or video from a Live Photo on iPhones 16 Pro Max and earlier models.