The Live Photo Format Explained (.livp, HEIC + MOV)
A Live Photo isn't a special image format at all — it's two ordinary media files that Apple ties together with a shared identifier. Understanding that pairing explains everything else: why Live Photos play on an iPhone, why they often "break" into a flat still when you AirDrop them to anyone else, and why extracting either half is straightforward once you know what's inside. This doc breaks down the .livp container, the metadata that links its pieces, and how to pull out the parts you actually want.
What is a Live Photo at the file level?
A Live Photo is a still image (HEIC or JPEG) paired with a short HEVC video (.MOV) that captures roughly 3 seconds of motion — about 1.5 seconds before and 1.5 seconds after the moment you press the shutter. Apple links the two files using a shared content identifier in their metadata. Neither file is unusual on its own; the "live" behavior comes entirely from that pairing.
When you tap and hold a Live Photo, iOS plays the .MOV. When you do nothing, you just see the still. There is no single proprietary "live photo file" doing magic under the hood — it's two standard files plus a bit of glue metadata. For a deeper conceptual walkthrough, see the Live Photo format docs.
The .livp container: what's actually inside
When you export a Live Photo from the Photos app for sharing or backup, iOS wraps the pair in a .livp file. Despite the custom extension, a .livp is just a ZIP archive — rename it to .zip and most desktop unarchivers will open it.
Inside, you'll typically find exactly two files:
What is inside a .livp
| File | Format | Role | Rough size |
|---|---|---|---|
IMG_xxxx.heic (or .jpg) | HEIC/HEIF still, HEVC intra-coded | The "key frame" you see when not playing | ~1–3 MB |
IMG_xxxx.mov | HEVC video, ~3s, often with audio | The motion that plays on press-and-hold | ~2–5 MB |
The still is usually HEIC, which uses HEVC intra-frame coding and is roughly half the size of an equivalent-quality JPEG. (More on that tradeoff in the HEIC guide.) The .MOV is HEVC video — the same codec family, which is why both halves need an HEVC-capable decoder to be viewed losslessly.
Note that .livp is the export/transfer container. Inside your iPhone's photo library the two files live separately in the photo database — the ZIP is created at export time, not how they're stored natively.
How does iOS pair the still and the video?
iOS writes a matching Content Identifier (a UUID) into both files' metadata: in the HEIC/JPEG it lives under the Apple maker-note / kCGImagePropertyMakerAppleDictionary entry (key 17), and in the .MOV it sits in a QuickTime metadata atom (com.apple.quicktime.content.identifier). When the UUIDs match, the OS treats the pair as one Live Photo.
A second QuickTime atom, com.apple.quicktime.still-image-time, marks the timestamp within the video that corresponds to the still frame — the moment the shutter "fired." That's how the still and the motion stay visually aligned during playback. If either the matching UUID or that still-image-time marker is missing, iOS falls back to showing a plain photo with no playback.
Why do Live Photos break when sent off Apple?
They break because the pairing depends on Apple-specific metadata and an HEVC-capable viewer — neither of which most non-Apple destinations preserve or support. The motion silently drops away, and you're left with a single static frame.
Specifically, several things go wrong off-platform:
- Stripped metadata. Many messaging apps, web uploaders, and email clients re-encode images and discard the Apple maker-note. Once the content identifier is gone, nothing knows the
.MOVbelongs to the still. - The two files get separated. Send a Live Photo through a channel that flattens it and the
.MOVis simply never transmitted. - HEIC/HEVC decoding gaps. Windows ships without an HEIC codec by default (it needs the HEVC Video Extensions and HEIF Image Extensions). Some Windows/Chrome setups can't decode HEIC in the browser at all — a real limitation, not a quirk. If the still itself won't open, the motion is moot.
.livpis unrecognized. Hand a.livpto a non-Apple device and it usually treats it as an opaque blob, not a viewable photo.
Android's equivalent — Google and Samsung Motion Photos — sidesteps some of this by embedding an MP4 inside a single JPG, but that's a different format with different metadata, so it doesn't round-trip with Apple's scheme either.
How to extract the parts you want
Because a Live Photo is just two standard files, you don't need iOS to pull them apart. You have two clean options depending on what you're after.
Keep the still as a flat image. If you only want the photo — to upload somewhere, print it, or send to someone on Windows — extract the key frame and convert it. Use the Live Photo to JPG converter to get a universally compatible still without the HEIC decoding headaches. If you're starting from a loose .HEIC instead of a .livp, the HEIC to JPG tool does the same job.
Keep the motion as a shareable clip. If the movement is the whole point, convert the Live Photo to a video (or to a looping GIF) so it plays anywhere — in a browser, on Android, in a chat app — without depending on Apple's playback path.
All of this runs entirely in your browser via FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. Nothing is uploaded — you can confirm that yourself in your browser's DevTools Network tab — there's no watermark, and it's free.
The honest limit: extracting is easy, re-installing is not
The asymmetry worth knowing: a browser can reliably take a Live Photo apart, but it can't put a working one back onto an iPhone. Saving a true, playable .livp into the iOS photo library — or setting a Live Photo as a wallpaper — requires iOS itself. A web tool or PWA can generate correctly paired files, but installing them as a functioning Live Photo is something only the operating system can finish. (If your goal is a moving lock screen, see the live wallpaper maker for what's possible from the browser side, with that caveat in mind.)
Quick reference
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
Is .livp a special format? | No — it's a ZIP holding a still + an HEVC .MOV |
| What links the two files? | A matching content-identifier UUID in both files' metadata |
| Why does motion vanish when shared? | Stripped Apple metadata, separated files, or no HEVC/HEIC support |
| Want just the photo? | Extract the still → Live Photo to JPG |
| Want just the motion? | Extract the clip → Live Photo to video |
| Can a browser re-install a working Live Photo? | No — that requires iOS |