How to Convert Live Photos to Still – 2 Best Ways Available

What’re the best ways to convert live photos to still to make them easier to share with others? In this tutorial, 2 practical ways will be mentioned. Also, you will learn how to transfer the live photo’s .mov file to PC and turn live photos into Gifs.

Updated Oct 10,2018 | by Micky

iPhone live photos literally blew up everyone’s mind when it first debuted. By combining a .mov and a .jpg file, this feature makes every single photo we take vivid and dynamic with sound and motion. Once you tap on the photo, it will come to life.

You can share these photos with others on social media like Facebook easily. However, only those with iOS social media Apps will be able to view the live photos and you can’t share them with Android owners. Meanwhile, because it’s made of both a .mov file and a .jpg file, it can be a little bit bigger than a regular photo.

So, how to convert live photos to still so that people with different devices can view them and at the same time, you can make more storage space for your iPhone? This is what we’re going to discuss next.

Method 1 Convert iPhone Live Photos to Still by Editing

Without using any third-party software for the conversion, you can directly change live photos to JPEG via “Edit”.

Step 1

Navigate to the target live photo, open it and tap on “Edit” on the upper right.

Step 2

Tap on “LIVE” on the top. Then, it will turn into “OFF”. Tap on “Done” on the lower right.

Step 3

Now, the live photo has been turned into still and no “LIVE” sign can be found on it anymore.

Learn More about How to Edit Live Photos on iPhone/iPad

Method 2 Turn Live Photos to JPEG via Duplication

Step 1

Similarly, go to the photo App on your iPhone and open the live photo you want to convert. Tap on the arrow icon on the lower left.

Step 2

Tap on “Duplicate” and you will see a new panel pop up. Tap on “Duplicate as Still Photo” to save it as a JPG photo. Later, you can find it in Camera Roll.

Method 3 How to Extract the MOV Files from Live Photos and Transfer Them to PC

If you want to save your vivid memory and keep the photo dynamic instead of turning them to static JPGs, it’s almost impossible. However, you can split the .mov file from a live photo and save it to PC via a USB cable.

1. Connect your iPhone to PC via a USB cable and wait until the device is recognized. Go to “This PC” and click on “iPhone” under the tag “Devices and drives”.

2. Go where the photos you take are. Right click on the blank area and select “Sort by” > “Type”.

Now, the files suffixed by .mov will be clearly displayed.

3. Copy them all and paste them to the target folder on your PC. Then, you can view them with media players like WMP and VLC directly.

You’re Recommended to Read How to Transfer iPhone Pictures to PC for Backup

Method 4 Convert Live Photos to GIFs to Make Them Sharable

Another way to keep your live photos dynamic and also sharable is to convert them into GIFs.

For 2 years after the launch of the live photo feature, it didn’t seem to be as popular as it should have been. So, later, Apple added a new feature – live photos to GIFs conversion in an attempt to make people use the feature more.

Let’s see how it works.

1. Launch “Photo” App on your iPhone and navigate to “Live Photos” album

2. Tap on the photo that you want to convert to GIF.

3. After opening it up, swipe the photo up and you will see 4 Gif animation options respectively – Live, Loop, Bounce, and Long Explore.

4. Choose any of them and the Gif photo will appear in an album called “Animated”.

Bottom Line

Have you understood how to convert live photos to still and make them more sharable across devices? Hopefully, this tutorial has more or less helped you.

If you have any questions about iPhone photo manage and backup, always feel free to contact us or leave your message in the comments section.

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