Photos app automatically crops live photo when changing key photo

[felixen]

Recently I started noticing that when I change my “key photo”, the photo will become a little cropped / zoomed in. This is super annoying and it ruins a lot of photos (I actually often end up disabling Live Photo on a photo where I’ve changed the key photo even though I love the Live Photo clips). Must be a bug and I’m curious if anyone else has this issue.

Basically, let’s say I change the key photo on photo #2. Then I view photo #1 in full screen and slide over to photo #2 which will initiate the Live Photo clip. The clip plays zoomed out as it should be, but when it finishes on my new key photo, it will zoom in a bit. Super ugly. It gives the same effect as if you actually zoom in while taking your photo and you then play your Live Photo.

Do you guys see this as well?

 

[felixen]

No one else has this bug? It literally happens 100% of the time I change the key photo on a Live Photo

 

[sunsetrunner]

This has always been like this. There’s no way you can fix it. Camera’s algorithm captures only the key photo in full size. Other stills are coming from captured motion. So the shots other than the key photo are always cropped. This is the way how Apple’s Live Photo feature works.

 

[felixen]

This has always been like this. There’s no way you can fix it. Camera’s algorithm captures only the key photo in full size. Other stills are coming from captured motion. So the shots other than the key photo are always cropped. This is the way how Apple’s Live Photo feature works.

Appreciate the reply but that’s not true. This is recent behavior. None of my older Live Photos that I’ve edited does this. Furthermore, when I edit a photo and slide between frames I can see the full image, uncropped. It’s only after I save it that it will crop. And it’s only the key photo frame that will crop, meaning that all other Live Photo frames remain uncropped when the Live Photo plays.

EDIT: The plot thickens. I just changed the key photo on a Live Photo to reproduce the bug. After confirming it still happened, I changed the key photo back to the original one and saved. However, now the Live Photo will still zoom/crop when the animation comes to an end even though I reverted back to the key photo (which of course did not zoom/crop before). So I had to completely disable Live Photo on this picture as well to get rid of the auto-zoom.

It is definitely a bug and I seriously don’t like it. Very strange

 

[IowaLynn]

Ever notice how it will automatically fix, straighten photos? Not even Live Photo. And I never ever want the changes, so I have to revert. This is a old feature still present that needs a setting - to turn it off.

 

[felixen]

Sounds like this Live Photo auto cropping bug isn’t too widespread.

I’m dealing with this bug as well another bug that will automatically re-enable the zoom Accessibility feature, which is also quite annoying as I’ll frequently get a zoom rectangle on my screen if I accidentally hit the screen with 3 fingers.

Strange and frustrating bugs ?

 

[Cherzy]

YES! Felixen, this happens to me too. So annoying that I also turn off the Live Photo feature. I don’t think it is an iPhone X issue. I think it must be an upgrade in one of the newer software versions because it was not like this for previous versions of Live Photo on my X. I wish I could pinpoint the update...

 

[felixen]

YES! Felixen, this happens to me too. So annoying that I also turn off the Live Photo feature. I don’t think it is an iPhone X issue. I think it must be an upgrade in one of the newer software versions because it was not like this for previous versions of Live Photo on my X. I wish I could pinpoint the update...

Glad to hear it's not just me (not that I want to bring you down with me lol). It's crazy. I'm curious how widespread it is. It looks horrible ?

 

[Tum Ware]

Yeah same thing happening to me. Choosing other photos in the live photo stream automatically crops them by about 15%.
Just updated to from 13.3.1 to 13.4.1 and it still occurs.

 

[felixen]

Yeah same thing happening to me. Choosing other photos in the live photo stream automatically crops them by about 15%.
Just updated to from 13.3.1 to 13.4.1 and it still occurs.

Bummer! We can only hope this bug gets more widespread so that Apple will notice it and fix it ?

 

[tobold]

this has always happened for me and I hate it. I just turned off Live photos

 

[Jack Wazzu]

Happens to me also @felixen

 

[felixen]

Seems to be at least a bit widespread. Fingers crossed Apple is on to this bug. It’s quite massive IMO

 

[50bbx]

I’ve noticed this too, iOS 14 Beta 1. Very strange bug.

 

[felixen]

Bummer, would have hoped they’d solved it on iOS 14 ?

 

[AlisterS]

Damn! Just found this page when I was looking for a solution. I had a terrific photo, but wanted to change the key frame, sounds like it's now irrevocably cropped? This sucks!

 

[felixen]

Damn! Just found this page when I was looking for a solution. I had a terrific photo, but wanted to change the key frame, sounds like it's now irrevocably cropped? This sucks!

I think you should be able to hit edit on the photo and move the key frame back to the original state. There should be a dot below the original frame so you can see where it is. Going back to the original frame should remove the crop

 

[rwbock38]

Happening to me too, Felixen. And going back to the proginal Key Photo doesn't help: both the crop and the ;ow resolution are still there (using Photos on a Mac).

 

[felixen]

Happening to me too, Felixen. And going back to the proginal Key Photo doesn't help: both the crop and the ;ow resolution are still there (using Photos on a Mac).

Strange, you also cannot fix it by going back to the original frame on iOS? That works for me, so as much as this bug sucks, at least I can always revert by changing back to the original frame

 

[eurika23]

I have noticed this problem only recently. The crop often takes out part of my subject, so ai haven’t been able to change key frames. It also appears to crop with effects, like “bounce”, which is also super annoying!

 

[ash_mayhew]

Hi! So I also have had this issue SO many times, but I discovered this app that works to export any frame you want without cropping: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/motion-stills-gif-collage/id1086172168. It’s called Motion Stills, in case that link doesn’t work or something.
Hope that helps! ?

 

[felixen]

Hi! So I also have had this issue SO many times, but I discovered this app that works to export any frame you want without cropping: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/motion-stills-gif-collage/id1086172168. It’s called Motion Stills, in case that link doesn’t work or something.
Hope that helps! ?

That’s a good tip, thank you. I just tried it. I can confirm it works. The downsides are the extra hassle (but that’s worth it to fix a good pic IMO), and also that it seems to disable the small animation when scrolling through Live Photos in the Photos app. Like, each time you swipe to a new pic, the Live Photo animation will normally briefly play. But for the pics you save via this app, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Minor detail and still way better than the cropped bug the native Photos app has

 

[ash_mayhew]

That’s a good tip, thank you. I just tried it. I can confirm it works. The downsides are the extra hassle (but that’s worth it to fix a good pic IMO), and also that it seems to disable the small animation when scrolling through Live Photos in the Photos app. Like, each time you swipe to a new pic, the Live Photo animation will normally briefly play. But for the pics you save via this app, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Minor detail and still way better than the cropped bug the native Photos app has

That’s very true! If you’re looking to keep the “live” aspect about it, then this isn’t necessarily a good solution. For me, I wanted a different “still” from somewhere else in the live photo, so the app worked well for me.

 

[alina_argo]

Recently I started noticing that when I change my “key photo”, the photo will become a little cropped / zoomed in. This is super annoying and it ruins a lot of photos (I actually often end up disabling Live Photo on a photo where I’ve changed the key photo even though I love the Live Photo clips). Must be a bug and I’m curious if anyone else has this issue.

Basically, let’s say I change the key photo on photo #2. Then I view photo #1 in full screen and slide over to photo #2 which will initiate the Live Photo clip. The clip plays zoomed out as it should be, but when it finishes on my new key photo, it will zoom in a bit. Super ugly. It gives the same effect as if you actually zoom in while taking your photo and you then play your Live Photo.

Do you guys see this as well?

hi, i know i'm a little late. but i seemed to find a way around that issue!
so, what works for me is - before trying to adjust the live photo. click on the crop icon instead, and i just crop it a smidge (unlike how much it automatically take a chunk out the photo if you just try adjusting it yourself)
then once it's even a 1/10th of a hair cropped - go back to the live photo adjuster and it shouldn't try to crop it automatically

 

[felixen]

hi, i know i'm a little late. but i seemed to find a way around that issue!
so, what works for me is - before trying to adjust the live photo. click on the crop icon instead, and i just crop it a smidge (unlike how much it automatically take a chunk out the photo if you just try adjusting it yourself)
then once it's even a 1/10th of a hair cropped - go back to the live photo adjuster and it shouldn't try to crop it automatically

Awesome. That’s a very nice workaround! Will definitely try this