A few extra seconds of motion, a lot more storage used
Live Photos capture a short burst of video and sound around each shot, which makes them feel more alive when you look back at them, but also multiplies the file size several times over compared to a still image. On a phone with limited storage, or when you are shooting dozens of photos quickly, that overhead adds up fast.
Turning it off once versus every time
By default, iPhone resets the Live Photo toggle back to "on" each time you close and reopen the Camera app, which is why the setting seems to keep coming back. Enabling "Keep Setting" for Live Photo in the Camera settings menu is the one-time fix that makes your last choice β on or off β persist permanently.
Frequently Asked Questions
I turned off Live Photos but it turns back on every time I open the camera.
Go to Settings > Camera > "Keep Settings" and enable the toggle for Live Photo. This makes your last-used setting stick instead of resetting every time.
Can I convert an existing Live Photo into a regular still photo to save space?
Yes β open the photo, tap "Live" at the top of the screen to turn it off for that photo, or use "Duplicate" and then convert the duplicate, which keeps only a single still frame and discards the extra video data.