Is there a way to save a Live Photo to the Photo Library?

Question

I'm passing stored image and video files to: PHLivePhoto.requestLivePhotoWithResourceFileURLs and getting a PHLivePhoto object that I can display in PHLivePhotoView. But I am wondering, once I have a PHLivePhoto is there a way to save it to the Photo Library?

Switzer

I am wondering the exact same thing. The documentation says "To instead import a Live Photo to the Photos library, use the PHAssetCreationRequest class." However, the creationRequestForAsset method doesn't seem to take a PHLivePhoto. developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Photos/… – Cruciform

Answer 1

    NSURL *photoURL = ...;
    NSURL *videoURL = ...;   

    [[PHPhotoLibrary sharedPhotoLibrary] performChanges:^{
            PHAssetCreationRequest *request = [PHAssetCreationRequest creationRequestForAsset];


            //These types should be inferred from your files

            //PHAssetResourceCreationOptions *photoOptions = [[PHAssetResourceCreationOptions alloc] init];
            //photoOptions.uniformTypeIdentifier = @"public.jpeg";

            //PHAssetResourceCreationOptions *videoOptions = [[PHAssetResourceCreationOptions alloc] init];
            //videoOptions.uniformTypeIdentifier = @"com.apple.quicktime-movie";

            [request addResourceWithType:PHAssetResourceTypePhoto fileURL:photoURL options:nil /*photoOptions*/];
            [request addResourceWithType:PHAssetResourceTypePairedVideo fileURL:videoURL options:nil /*videoOptions*/];

        } completionHandler:^(BOOL success, NSError * _Nullable error) {
            NSLog(@"success? %d, error: %@",success,error);
        }];

Highstrung

Awesome! Last night when I was trying to get this to work I got up to addResourceWithType and expected there to be PHAssetResourceTypeLivePhoto. When there wasn't I figured I was missing something. I completely glazed over the pairedvideo type section... – Cruciform

This solution works fine, but I received Cocoa error -1 (The operation couldn’t be completed.) error until metadata was added to my .mov and .jpg files. Reproduced it on iOS 11 devices. – Raker

same as Stacy Smith, also on iOS 12, Anyone knows why? – Nievelt

@StacySmith can you explain how you fixed the issue? – Marbles

Answer 2

Swift 3:

PHPhotoLibrary.shared().performChanges({ 

        let request = PHAssetCreationRequest.forAsset()

        request.addResource(with: .photo, fileURL: photoURL, options: nil)
        request.addResource(with: .pairedVideo, fileURL: videoURL, options: nil)

    }) { (success, error) in

        print(success)
        print(error?.localizedDescription ?? "error")
    }

Sargeant

It is possible to add resources with Data as well instead of using a file. Also, the "print(error" will always print something, even if it worked. Thanks for this example. – Gunrunning

This solution works fine, but I received Cocoa error -1 (The operation couldn’t be completed.) until metadata was added to my .mov and .jpg files. Reproduced it on iOS 11 devices. – Raker

Seems not working now on iOS17 – Bixby