Live Photos and motion photos in a Takeout

An iPhone Live Photo comes out of Takeout as two files: IMG_0010.HEIC and IMG_0010.MOV. Pixel motion photos can come as PXL_….MP.jpg plus PXL_….MP. Usually only the still image gets a JSON.

Open Rollmend – free scan

What Rollmend does

It pairs files in the same folder that share a base name (ignoring .MP and “(1)”), and gives the video the still image’s date, location and caption. The report counts these as “live/motion photo pair”.

Formats

MOV/MP4 videos: QuickTime creation time is written; location is added as a ©xyz tag when missing.
.MP and .MV files: copied unchanged with the correct file time plus an .xmp sidecar.
HEIC stills: date patched in place.

Questions and answers

Will my photo app show them as one Live Photo again?

That depends on the app. Rollmend gives both parts the same date, which helps, but it does not rebuild Apple’s Live Photo pairing identifiers.

Last updated: 2026-10-26