What is the Export GIF feature in Photos?

"Export Gif" will export a Live Photo as an animated GIF, so you can share it as an animated gif with users who do not have a Mac or iPhone, or can publish it on a web site. You cannot use this command to export JPEGs as GIFs, because the JPEGs do not have a video component, so exporting them as an animated GIF makes no sense.

Léonie:

Just thought I'd check my live photos and none of them activate the Export as Gif menu. They all play OK in the library but are unable to be exported as GIFS. I did find that if I drag them from the library to the Desktop the still and movie portions are separated and available on the Desktop. That way I can share the movie portion with others if desired.

That is strange. All the Live Photos in my library can be exported as an animated gif. The photos have been taken with my iPhone X or created from video clips by the app "intoLIve"

The gifs are playing beautifully, but the file size is horrendous.

As a test I just exported four Live Photos as a GIF, but I cannot post them here, because they are way to large:

The first Live Photo in the list, that will result in a 11.1MB GIF, has in Photos a size of just 392 kB.

The second Live Photo has in Photos a size of 1.9 MB for the still frame and 2.4 MB for the video component. The GIF export is blowing it up considerably.

Do you know a nice tool to reduce the size of animated gifs, so we could post them here?

The live photos from my iPhone 7 are only 2 - 2.7 MB in size. When Option-dragged to the Desktop the video portion is 3 MB and the still is 2.7 MB. The info pane in Photos is only showing the image size.

Do you know a nice tool to reduce the size of animated gifs, so we could post them here?

Yes, but it only will reduce about 40%. I use ImageOptim. I use it to reduce the annimated gifs I post here. But we need to get it down to 1 MB or less before it will work in a post. If one Control (right) - clicks on the image and selects Open in New Window it will almost always work.

Same here - and I have an iPhone 7 so my guess is that the GIF feature requires an iPhone 8 or newer - I do have one live photos that I animated with some process do it plays continuously and it will activate the GIF option but the export does not give me an animation but 48 separate GIF images

LN

I'm not sure, Larry. I created some of the live photos on my iPhone 5s , using the application IntoLive. The source of these Live Photos were video clips, that I stabilized and trimmed in iMovie, and then I converted them to Live Photos.

no idea

none of my live photos activate the GIF export and the one animated image I have (do not remember how I created it) activates it but exports weird

You have more platforms to test (I have one MBA and two iPhones a 6 and a 7 and an old iPad)

LN

I think you nailed it. That makes sense. 🙂 An animated GIF is looping, and if we edit a Live Photo and loop it or use the bounce effect, it will be stabilized and will play a lot better as an animated GIF. I turn all my Live Photos either into loops or bounce versions, so I did not notice, that "Export as GIF" is missing for standard Live Photos.. They will wobble less up and down. If possible, I use bounce, because Loop will add transitions, and the transitions will create ghosts - people appearing out of the nowhere and vanishing in thin air.

The restriction to edited Live Photos should be explained in the user guide.

None of my Live Photos (taken with an iPhone X) can be exported as GIFs unless I edit them and enable looping or bouncing.