100 Live Photos
500 MB
Illustrative video storage to reclaim at 5 MB of motion each.
Live Photo Cleaner
iPhone storage guide
Do Live Photos take up more storage?
Yes. A Live Photo is a photo and a short video, so it generally takes more space than a still photo alone.
Live Photo Cleaner removes the motion component while keeping the photo you shot. You reclaim storage without having to delete the moment or settle for a lower-quality image.
One Live Photo
What you see
1 still photo
What adds storage
~3 seconds of motion
A clip captured around the moment you press the shutter.
Live Photo Cleaner
Keep the still. Remove the video.
The storage math
A few megabytes at a time becomes gigabytes.
The exact size of a Live Photo varies. As a simple example, if the motion portion averages 5 MB, removing it from 1,000 Live Photos can free about 5 GB. Your library may be higher or lower—Live Photo Cleaner shows your actual potential savings before you convert.
500 Live Photos
2.5 GB
Illustrative video storage to reclaim at 5 MB of motion each.
1,000 Live Photos
5 GB
Illustrative video storage to reclaim at 5 MB of motion each.
Example only: image and video file sizes vary by device, settings, subject, and compression. The app calculates savings from your own library.
Why Live Photos need more space
They are two files working as one memory.
When you take a Live Photo, your iPhone captures a high-resolution still image and a short video clip around that image. Photos presents the pair as one item, but the additional video data is why a Live Photo normally occupies more storage than a standard photo.
This is useful when a quick movement, a laugh, or a wave is worth keeping. But if you have years of Live Photos that you never play back, the motion clips can quietly consume a meaningful share of your iPhone storage. The same larger library also syncs through iCloud Photos, so it can affect iCloud storage plans as well.
Turning Live Photos off in Camera stops future photos from including motion. It does not reduce the space already used by the Live Photos in your library. To reclaim that space, you need to convert existing Live Photos to still photos or remove the video component.
The better way to clean up
Make room without throwing away your photos.
Live Photo Cleaner makes the tradeoff clear: retain the photo, remove the motion you no longer need, and see the storage impact before making a change.
- 1
Scan your Live Photos
Review your library and see how much storage the app can help you reclaim before you change anything.
- 2
Choose what to keep
Keep the original still photo untouched, or select HEIC or JPEG when smaller files or compatibility matter more.
- 3
Convert with confidence
Batch-convert the photos you choose while preserving dates, locations, camera metadata, and—with Original or HEIC—HDR.
Frequently asked questions
Live Photo storage, answered.
How much more storage does a Live Photo use?
There is no single file size: it depends on the iPhone camera, image format, scene, and video compression. The extra video component is often a few megabytes per Live Photo. Across hundreds or thousands of Live Photos, those small files can add up to gigabytes.
Does turning off Live Photos delete the ones I already took?
No. Turning off Live Photos in the Camera app only changes future shots. Existing Live Photos remain in your library until you edit them, convert them to still photos, or delete them.
Do Live Photos use iCloud storage too?
Yes. When iCloud Photos is enabled, your library syncs the complete Live Photo pair: the still image and its video component. Reducing the size of your library can help with both device storage and iCloud storage.
Will I lose HDR, dates, or locations when I remove the motion?
Not with Live Photo Cleaner in Original mode. It keeps the original still photo intact while removing the Live Photo video, preserving the photo’s full resolution, HDR, colors, date, location, and camera metadata.
Keep the photo. Free the space.
See what your own Live Photos are using, then choose the memories that deserve motion.
Download on the App Store