How do I permanently convert “Live Photos” into stills within my iPhone, in order to save storage space, (as such I would not be able to revert them back to Live Photo’s)?

Hey there,

you can permanently convert live picture to a still one by selecting the picture, open the menu (the “…” at the top right), select “duplicate” and then choose “duplicate as a still photo”. After that you can delete the original Live Photo if you don’t need it.

hopefully this helps!

Although it’s convenient to screen shot, the max resolution will be that of your screen resolution. If that isn’t an issue, that’s fine. But, the shortcut will save the photo in its original resolution. So if resolution is an issue I use the shortcut.

Screen shot it then delete it ;)

Hi there kel501,

As it stands, there isn't a way to reduce the amount of storage a Live Photo uses on your iPhone after you've already taken the photo. In the future, you can turn off Live Photos to avoid this:

How to turn off Live Photos

From the Camera app, tap the Live Photos button  to turn off Live Photos. A slash through the Live Photos button means that the feature is off.

The Camera app turns Live Photos on again automatically. To keep Live Photos off permanently, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings.

2. Tap Camera > Preserve Settings.

3. Make sure that the switch next to Live Photo is turned on.

You'll find those steps here: Take and edit Live Photos - Apple Support

For more information about how to best manage the photo and video storage on your device, have a look at the guidance and suggestions in this support article: Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support

Take care.

Hello dmark, I did as you suggested however the duplicate is the same size as the Live Photo, 2.7 MB. It is definitely no longer live and I have permanently deleted the live version.

I am starting to think that Apple are doing this to keep us using-and paying for-a lot more storage!

If this doesn’t happen with you please let me know.

Thanks

I figured out a way to do this in bulk using Shortcuts. This is my shortcut. Feel free to modify it.

When the shortcut saves a photo to an album that already contains the photo, it duplicates any live photos as stills.

Thanks, before I try this shortcut can you tell me if this will erase the time or date or location of the photo? I'm printing a photo album and I'll be lost without this information. I too used Live Photos for many photos on a trip, on an Iphone 13 ProMax, never again... Is there any way to avoid deleting the time/date/location when converting to JPG? I don't mind changing them over one by one if that's the only way. Thanks!

It looks like none of the metadata changes when you flatten the live image. It does add the newly created images to the top of your camera role tho.

If you are still concerned, you can run it the shortcut using one photo and then decline during the prompt to delete it. But here's a (choppy) gif of a live photo and its flattened version, which was flattened a minute later.

Hi you’re a life saver!

is there any way to duplicate all photos and videos as well (still keeping videos as videos) while it’s flattening Live Photos, so that the recents album still stays in order?

Not sure if that makes complete sense haha

we are trying to convert BULK live photos to steel shots. The live photos take 10 times more data. Thousands of photos at once . How do we do this ??

[Edited by Moderator]

Thank you for this. The Live Photo ‘feature’ is a total pain!

I’m trying to set up this shortcut - tricky! But many thanks for the suggestion.