How to Set a Video as Live Wallpaper on iPhone

Updated August 4, 2026

iOS won't let you choose a video file in the wallpaper picker — the lock screen only animates Live Photos. So the trick is one extra step: convert your clip into a Live Photo first, then set that as your wallpaper. With LiveMaker, a video-to-Live-Photo converter for iPhone, the conversion takes about a minute and happens entirely on your device.

Why you can't pick a video in the wallpaper picker

When you open Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper → Photos, iOS shows your photo library — but videos are filtered out. The lock screen has never played video files. What it does play is a Live Photo: a full-resolution still image bundled with a short clip of motion, the format the Camera app produces when Live is switched on. iOS treats that pair as a photo that happens to move, which is why it's allowed on the lock screen while an ordinary .mov is not.

Apple gives you no built-in way to build that pair from footage you already have. The Camera creates it only at capture time. That single missing step — video in, Live Photo out — is the whole reason converter apps exist, and it's the only thing standing between your clip and a moving lock screen.

What you'll need

An iPhone running iOS 16 or later (the version that introduced the redesigned lock screen), the free LiveMaker app, and the video you want to use, saved in Photos or the Files app. No Wi-Fi, no account, and no desktop software: the conversion runs on the phone itself, so it works in airplane mode.

Step by step

1. Convert the video to a Live Photo

   Open LiveMaker and pick your clip from Photos or Files. Drag the timeline handles around the few seconds you actually want to see on the lock screen — a wave curling over, a candle being blown out, a dog turning its head. Then move the marker to choose the still key frame: on a wallpaper this matters more than anywhere else, because it's the frame your lock screen shows whenever the motion isn't playing.

   Before you export, crop the clip to a vertical shape. Most footage is landscape, and a landscape frame stretched onto a tall screen gets badly cut off. Cropping inside LiveMaker lets you decide which part of the scene survives.

2. Save it to your photo library

   Choose whether to keep the clip's audio — lock-screen wallpapers don't play sound, so this is only relevant if you also plan to share the Live Photo. Tap Convert & Save and the new Live Photo lands in your camera roll with the familiar Live badge.

3. Choose it in Settings

   Open Settings → Wallpaper → Add New Wallpaper and tap Photos at the top. Your new Live Photo is in your recent items; there's usually a Live Photos album in the picker if you'd rather filter. Tap it to open the wallpaper editor.

4. Turn on motion and set it

   In the editor, pinch and drag to position the frame, and check the Live Photo toggle — the small icon that enables playback. If it's off, iOS keeps your wallpaper as a still image. Tap Add, then Set as Wallpaper Pair to use it on both screens. Lock your phone and wake it, or press and hold the lock screen, to see the motion play.

Framing a clip that works as a wallpaper

A great Live Photo and a great wallpaper aren't quite the same thing — the lock screen puts a clock over the top third of your image and app-free space at the bottom. A few habits that make the difference:

• Crop vertical, and leave the top clear. Keep faces and the main subject in the middle band so the clock and date don't land on them.
• Pick a short, calm motion. Something that moves gently — steam, water, hair in wind — feels alive every time you glance at your phone. Rapid, chaotic movement gets tiring fast.
• Choose a key frame that stands on its own. Your lock screen is a still image most of the time. If the key frame is motion-blurred, that's the wallpaper you'll actually see.
• Use steady footage. Camera shake that's invisible in a long video is very obvious in a two-second loop right in front of your face.
• Watch the brightness. Very bright clips make the white clock hard to read; slightly darker, lower-contrast scenes look better behind lock-screen text.

Where the motion actually plays

Live wallpaper motion is a lock-screen thing. When you set a wallpaper pair, the Home Screen shows your image as a still — that's normal iOS behaviour, not a failed conversion. On the lock screen the clip plays when you wake the phone or press and hold the screen, and whether it plays automatically on wake depends on your iPhone model and iOS version. If it stays frozen, the troubleshooting section below covers the usual causes.

How LiveMaker fits in — and what it doesn't do

LiveMaker does exactly one job: it turns a video into a Live Photo, with trimming, key-frame selection, cropping, and an audio on/off choice. That's the missing piece iOS doesn't provide. Everything runs on your iPhone — your footage is never uploaded to a server, which is the real difference between an app and the browser-based converter sites. It also means conversion works offline and doesn't depend on your connection speed.

What it doesn't do is just as important. LiveMaker doesn't set your wallpaper for you — no app can; that final step lives in Settings, by Apple's design. It's not a video editor, so there are no filters, text overlays, or multi-clip timelines; edit your video elsewhere first if you need that. There is no Android version and no web version — Live Photos are an Apple format and LiveMaker is an iPhone/iPad app. And it's free to use, with a small watermark on free exports that a one-time $3.99 LiveMaker Pro purchase removes. No subscription.

Troubleshooting

My wallpaper won't animate

Three things account for almost every case. First, the Live Photo toggle in the wallpaper editor may be off — go back to Settings → Wallpaper, tap Customise on the lock screen, and check it. Second, Low Power Mode pauses motion effects to save battery; turn it off in Settings → Battery. Third, press and hold the lock screen rather than just glancing at it — automatic playback on wake depends on your iPhone model and iOS version.

The Live Photo isn't in the wallpaper picker

Confirm it saved as a genuine Live Photo: open it in Photos and look for the Live badge, then press and hold to play it. If it's missing entirely, check that LiveMaker has permission to add to your library under Settings → Privacy & Security → Photos, and that your storage isn't full.

My subject is cut off or zoomed in

The wallpaper editor only lets you pan and zoom, so heavy re-framing has to happen before export. Convert the clip again and crop to a vertical shape in LiveMaker, keeping your subject in the middle band of the frame.

It looks soft or grainy on screen

A Live Photo can only be as sharp as the frames it came from. Clips recorded in low light, heavily zoomed, or re-compressed by a messaging app will look noisy blown up to full screen — start from the original file at the highest quality you have.

Frequently asked questions

Next: the full walkthrough of how to make a Live Photo from a video on iPhone, or browse all our Live Photo guides.