How to Transfer Live Photos from iPhone to PC [Surprisingly Easy!]

What is "Live Photos"?

Live Photos is an iPhone camera tech that bring movement to your photos.  You can shoot 1.5 seconds of video before and after the shutter is released. That is 3 seconds of video, and is available on iPhone 6s and later. 

The photo image is saved as a video, and it is fun to tap and move. It is very convenient because it can be set as wallpaper and lock screen. 

Can you transfer Live Photos from iPhone to PC?

The effect of Live Photos is composed by combining .jpg, and .mp4 files. It can occupy much storage on your iPhone. If you take Live Photos a lot, you will find your iPhone storage full quickly. So you will want to backup some Live Photos on your computer. Then you can delete them to free up storage space.

Besides, if you love long-exposure pictures, you can save your Love Photos to computer to create a stunning long-exposure photo by Photoshop, Lightroom, or something like that.

However, you may ever try some way to send your live photos but find the saved photos are still. The because you didn't transfer the mov files. Don't worry,  you can refer to the next part to know the detailed of how to save Live photos with 3 methods.

How to transfer live photos from iPhone to PC easily

Here are 3 commonly used methods of how to save  Live Photos to a PC. Choose one according to your need.

• Method 1. The Easiest and fastest way to upload live photos from iPhone to PC
• Method 2. Save Live Photos to computer with iCloud
• Method 3.  Save Live Photos from PC with File Explorer

Method 1. The easiest and fastest way to put live photos from iPhone to PC / external drive

To easily save your photos, you can rely on FoneTool, which is an iPhone-to-Windows PC transfer software. It allows you to easily transfer Live Photos (including MOV files) from iPhone to a computer. It gives you a flexible selection to meet your needs. It is an ideal and extremely useful solution to protect your important iPhone data from loss or damage. If you use Windows PC, FoneTool is your best choice.

When you transfer data, you can specify a location to save the files. And you can also transfer your live photos from iPhone to an external hard drive.

Now we will show you how to import live photos from iPhone to PC with FoneTool. First, download and install FoneTool on your computer for free.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable. Then tap Trust This Computer on your iPhone.

Step 2. On the home screen, click the "Phone Transfer" on the main interface. Choose the "iPhone to PC". Click "Start Transfer".

Note: Also, you can click "Photos Backup" to save your live photos as backup iPhone photos as backup image on your PC

Step 3. Check the Photos icon. Please you want to choose the specific items to transfer, click the icon. 

Step 4.  You can click Transfer Settings. And you can choose any location on your computer or external hard drive as the Transfer Path.Then click "Start Transfer" to save your live photos.

When the transfer process is completed, all your photos will be saved in the chosen location.

Method 2. Save live photos to computer with iCloud

As you know, when you turn on "iCloud Photo Library" on iPhone, a large number of photos taken by iPhone would be automatically uploaded to iCloud and can be downloaded and saved on your computer. Because it supports Live Photos, you can save Live Photos to your computer using iCloud.

However, keep in mind that iCloud has a maximum storage period of 30 days and a maximum of 1000 copies. And please make sure there is enough free space on your iCloud storage. If your iCloud storage is full, iCloud will fail to save photos to a computer.

Step 1. iPhone “Settings”> Apple ID> “iCloud”> “Photos” and turn on iCloud Photo Library. Then all photos and videos including Live Photos will be uploaded to iCloud.

Step 2. Access “icloud.com” on your PC browser, enter the same Apple ID as your iPhone and log in.

Step 3. Select the "Photos" icon, find the Live Photos you want to backup to your computer, and download the two files, JPG and MOV, to your computer. Then you complete importing Live Photos to PC with iCloud.

You can upload iPhone Live Photos to iCloud Photos, then import them to your computer and save them.

Method 3. Save Live Photos to PC with File Explorer

Live Photos can be imported to a computer on File Explorer.

However, you need to install iTunes on your PC. Since photo data is arranged in a row, it is difficult to find a large number of photos. Also, it is not recommended because there are frequent errors that can't import photos from iPhone to PC when using this method.

Step 1. Connect iPhone to PC with a lightning cable. Then you will see the iPhone icon in Windows File Explorer.

Step 2. Click iPhone> Internal Storage> DCIM> 100APPLE. When you enter the folder 100APPLE, you can see the JPG and MOV files and also Live Photos.

Step 3. Find the Live Photos you want to save on your computer and copy the two files JPG and MOV to your computer. Then, backup of Live Photos to PC is completed.

Conclusion

This is how to transfer Live Photos from iPhone to PC. You can perform it with File Explorer, iCloud, and FoneTool.  By contrast, FoneTool can do this in a fast and efficient way without missing any images. It's useful software to protect your iPhone from data loss disasters. Besides, this tool can also help you to make a full iPhone backup on the computer.