"Loop a video on iPhone" can mean two different things. Sometimes you only want a clip to keep replaying while you watch it on your phone. Other times you want a video file that repeats wherever it goes: in a message, on a TV, in a Story or on a website. The Photos app handles the first case on its own. The second needs the repeat built into the file, which you can do in iMovie or in Safari with LoopVideo.
LoopVideo is not affiliated with Apple. The steps below follow Apple's current iPhone User Guide; menus can move between iOS versions, so if a label differs on your phone, look for the nearest match.
Which method do you need?
| You want to | Use | Changes the file? |
|---|---|---|
| Watch a clip on repeat on your iPhone | Photos, Loop Videos | No |
| Turn a Live Photo into a short looping clip | Live Photo Loop or Bounce | Creates a short video if you save it |
| Make an MP4 that plays the clip several times | iMovie, or LoopVideo in Safari | Yes |
| Hide the jump where the clip restarts | LoopVideo AI seamless loop | Yes |
Loop a video in the Photos app
On current versions of iOS, the Photos app replays a video automatically until you pause it or close it. There is nothing to switch on: open the video and press play.
If your videos stop at the end instead, the setting may be off. Apple's guide describes it like this: open Photos, tap your account in the top-right corner and turn on Loop Videos. The same menu has Auto-Play Motion, which controls whether videos and Live Photos start playing on their own. Earlier releases kept the switch in the Settings app under Photos, so check there if you do not see it in the account menu.
Remember that this only changes how Photos plays the video on your phone. If you send or upload the clip, it plays once wherever the other app or person opens it.
Loop a Live Photo with Loop or Bounce
Live Photos record a moment of motion around each photo, and Photos can turn that motion into a repeating clip:
- Open the Live Photo in the Photos app.
- Tap Live in the top-left corner.
- Choose Loop to repeat the action continuously, or Bounce to play it forward and then backward.
To share the result outside Apple devices, tap the More button in the top-right corner and choose Save as Video. The clip is only a few seconds long, so this works for quick moments, not for videos you have already recorded.
Make a looping MP4 with iMovie
To repeat an existing video inside the file, you can duplicate the clip in an iMovie movie project:
- Create a movie project and add the video.
- Tap the clip in the timeline, tap the Actions button and choose Duplicate. The copy is placed right after the original.
- Repeat until the clip plays as many times as you need, then tap Done and use the Share button to save the video.
iMovie is a free Apple app; if it is not on your phone, get it from the App Store. Check the joins before saving: a transition between the copies changes how each repeat starts.
Make a looping video in Safari with LoopVideo
LoopVideo runs in Safari, so there is nothing to install. Open the LoopVideo workspace, tap the upload area and choose the video from your photo library.
- Choose how many times it should play. Pick from 1 to 5; the default is 2. The repeat runs in your browser, without sign-in or credits.
- Watch the join. In the After preview, look at the moment the clip starts over. If the last frame is very different from the first, every repeat starts with a visible jump.
- Download the MP4. It keeps the original sound, which plays again with each repeat. Safari usually saves downloads to the Files app, where you can share the video or save it to Photos.
Uploads can be MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 5 minutes and 300MB. On a phone, short, lower-resolution clips process more reliably, so trim long recordings first. If the video is landscape and you need it vertical, crop the video to 9:16 before repeating it.
Hide the jump with an AI seamless loop
Repeating a clip does not fix its loop point. When the jump is obvious, choose the AI seamless loop in the same workspace. LoopVideo creates a transition of about five seconds from the clip's final frame back to its first frame and joins it to your clip, so the end flows back into the start. To repeat it, download that cycle, upload it again, and repeat it up to five times.
- AI requires sign-in, and email accounts must be verified.
- The one-time free AI trial, where available, adds a visible LoopVideo watermark. One paid credit produces a watermark-free result.
- Only the first and last frames are uploaded for the AI step; the video itself is processed in your browser.
- iPhone videos recorded in HDR are converted to standard colour for the AI loop, so bright highlights can look less intense than in Photos.
- Very wide clips beyond 2.5:1 are not supported, and requests can be declined by content checks.
For the details of this step, read how to make a video loop seamlessly.
FAQ
Why does my iPhone video keep replaying?
Photos loops videos by default on current iOS versions. To stop it, open Photos, tap your account in the top-right corner and turn off Loop Videos.
Can I loop only part of a video on iPhone?
Trim the video first in Photos by tapping Edit and dragging the ends of the frame viewer, then loop or repeat the shorter clip.
Does a video looped in Photos stay looped when I share it?
No. Loop Videos only affects playback in the Photos app. To share a video that repeats, repeat it inside the file with iMovie or LoopVideo.
How do I loop a video for an Instagram Story?
A Story plays each video once, so repeat the clip inside the file before you post it. The full steps are in how to loop a video on Instagram.
How else can I loop a video?
On a computer, most video players have a loop setting of their own. See how to loop a video on any device.
