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iOS live photos to Lightroom classic via Lightroom CC on iOS

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happygun

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Sep 30, 2010
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144
Location
UK
Lightroom Experience
Intermediate
Lightroom Version Number
iOS - Lightroom CC 4.2.1, OSX - Lightroom Classic version: 8.1 [ 1200465 ]
Operating System
  1. macOS 10.14 Mojave
  2. iOS
Hi, i have recently got an iPhone that supports live photos and am trying to find the easiest way to get them onto my desktop machine running lightroom classic.
It appears that Lightroom CC on iOS only imports the photo element of the live photo, I have tested with "high efficiency" and "most compatible" in the iOS settings. In Lightroom settings on the phone, auto-add from camera roll and importing of videos is enabled, and indeed videos import fine from my phone to lightroom classic, but not live photos.
Any advice on the easiest way to get the live photos onto my desktop?
 
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As far as I know there's no way to preserve the live part of a live photo outside of Apple's ecosystem. That's not Lightroom's fault, but probably a restriction set by Apple.

Maybe you can find an app that can export a live photo as a video out of the iOS Photos app? I've never searched for such an app, it's just an idea.

Personally, I've never had the desire to look at a live photo more than a couple of days later, and so I am fine with Lightroom mobile only getting the actual photo. While live photos are cool, do you really go back to look at them weeks or months later?
 
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five.photos said:
As far as I know there's no way to preserve the live part of a live photo outside of Apple's ecosystem. That's not Lightroom's fault, but probably a restriction set by Apple.

Maybe you can find an app that can export a live photo as a video out of the iOS Photos app? I've never searched for such an app, it's just an idea.

Personally, I've never had the desire to look at a live photo more than a couple of days later, and so I am fine with Lightroom mobile only getting the actual photo. While live photos are cool, do you really go back to look at them weeks or months later?
Click to expand...

Hi five.photos.
Ive done a couple of tests to work out what is happening.
  • When i export photos from Apple Photos on OSX they get exported as two files, a .jpg and a .mov. You can then import these files back into Apple Photos and they get merged back to a live photo.
  • I can import the jpg and .mov file into lightroom, and if I export them both as originals they can then be successfully imported back into apple photos as a live photo. SO a successful Apple Photos > Lightroom > Apple photos round trip.
  • However, if i export the photo as a jpg from lightroom and video as original, they are not recombined when imported into Apple Photos as a live photo. So something about the exported file is changed so that apple photos does not recognise the jpg and .mov as being a live photo. It isn't the file naming, but likely something in the metadata that is changed. What it is I dont know, yet...
Regarding do I look at the live photo part afterwards, for family photos i definitely do.
 
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Yeah, at the end a live photo is nothing more than a combination of a photo and a short video. Hence, it makes sense that you get those two files when exporting from Apple Photos.

So, you've just found your answer. Just export your live photos from the Photos app on your Mac and then import them into Lightroom Classic. You'll end up with two files for each live photo (i.e the photo and the video). It's up to you to decide if those extra steps are really worth it, but I think this is the only way as Lightroom doesn't (or probably is not allowed to) support Apple's live photo container.

It also makes sense that Apple doesn't recognize the live photo combo anymore once you exported the photo from Lightroom as a jpeg. This is because it's not the original file anymore and something in the metadata has changed for sure.
 
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After importing into Lightroom Classic (LRC), I click the box-like icon on the play control. I then capture the frame I want to keep.

The bad thing is that I need to do each image one at a time.

capture.jpg
 
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