Some live photos no longer live after import and sync to iphone

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Level 1

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Some live photos no longer live after import and sync to iphone

Hey there,

I recently realized that after importing my live photos to the mac photos app, organizing them by adding them to an album, re-syncing back to my iPhone, some of my live photos are no longer live on my iPhone. They work fine on the mac photos app but most on my live photos are no longer live on my iPhone. Oddly enough, maybe 15% of the synced photos are still live. Anyone with any insight on this issue?

iPhone 12 Pro, iOS 14

Posted on Sep 7, 2021 9:12 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

195,661 points

Sep 8, 2021 12:51 AM in response to Daylooo

How are you syncing the Live Photos to the iPhone? If you sync Live Photos back using the Finder, they will lose the Live effect. The best method to sync Live Photos and keep them alive is iCloud Photos, see: Sync your photos manually using the Finder – Apple Support (UK)

"Live Photos will keep their effects when you import them to Photos in OS X El Capitan and later, but they will lose their effects if you sync them back to your device via your computer. Use iCloud Photos so that Live Photos keep their effects, no matter what device you use."

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Answer 2

Daylooo Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 8, 2021 5:25 AM in response to léonie

Yes I am syncing the photos via the finder back to my iPhone. It seems odd how the photos lose their effect when you sync back when it works perfectly fine on the Mac. I hope this is something that's fixed soon. Anyways how is it that a select few photos are still live after import and then syncing? I have icloud photos turned off right now. My latest icloud backup was March 2021 but I have some photos from before (maybe like 20%) that are still live. Is there anyway to manually do this?

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Answer 3

Daylooo Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 8, 2021 8:05 AM in response to léonie

I see thanks for the solution. The work around is so inconvenient. I think I am just going to significantly reduce the number of live photos I take instead :(. Hopefully this becomes much easier in the future.

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Answer 4

léonie

Level 10

195,661 points

Sep 8, 2021 5:55 AM in response to Daylooo

You could add your Live Photos to Shared Albums, share them with yourself. Shared albums do not count against your free 5GB Cloud Storage, and Live Photos will be staying alive. This would be the easiest way to get them back to the iOS devices. But save the high resolution versions on your Mac. Alternately you could export the Live Photos as animated GIFs. That would save the Live Effect, and you can see them animated, but you will not be able to edit them further.

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Some live photos no longer live after import and sync to iphone

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