Can a photo vault keep Live Photos and play long videos?

Why video and Live Photos break in other vaults

Video is a common reason people leave a vault app. In the 836 App Store reviews we studied, 48 are about video. In 17, playback failed or waited on a download. In 13, long or large videos never finished importing or uploading. 10 asked for a scrub bar. One Keepsafe user wrote in capitals: “DO NOT STORE VIDEOS LONGER THAN 10 MIN ON THE APP.”

Live Photos break in a different way. A Live Photo is two files, a still and a short clip. Apple says it “captures what happens just before and after you take a photo, including the audio.” An app that keeps only one part turns it into a still or a plain video. A LockMyPix user wrote: “Imports and exports Live Photos as videos”.

What York Vault does

Live Photos stay live. York Vault keeps both parts when you add from Photos, and from the share sheet when iOS hands over both parts. Export sends a real Live Photo back to Photos.

Live Photo playback. Press and hold to play with sound. A switch turns on autoplay.

A full video player. Playback starts in under half a second. You can jump to any point without waiting for the whole file to decrypt. You get a scrub bar with thumbnails, sound, landscape, swipe to the next video, pinch to zoom, and a 10-second skip. Sound follows your silent switch setting.

Local playback only. York Vault plays the copy on your iPhone. It never waits on a cloud download.

Original quality. Every item stays byte for byte in its original format: HEIC, HEVC, ProRAW, ProRes and RAW. A save-space option exists for each import, but it is off unless you choose it. To send a HEIC photo to someone whose device cannot open it, our free HEIC to JPG converter makes a JPEG copy in your browser.

Dates and details stay. The capture date, location, camera data and original file name stay inside the encrypted record. York Vault sorts by the date you took the photo, not the date you added it.

Speed and loop. Play at any speed from 0.5x to 2x. Loop off, loop all, or loop only clips under 30 seconds. Both are free.

Trim. Trim a video or mute it. York Vault saves the result as a new version and keeps the original.

Live Photo capture. The York Vault camera takes Live Photos too, and keeps both parts.

More formats on Plus and Pro. Plus and Pro play formats that iOS does not, such as MKV, AVI and WebM, inside the app. Every format is stored and exported in its original form on every plan.

How adding a long video works

1. In York Vault, tap Add and pick videos from Photos.
2. If the original is only in iCloud Photos, York Vault downloads it with a progress bar. If you are offline, it says so.
3. York Vault checks free space first.
4. Each item shows its own progress. You can lock the iPhone, and the add continues.
5. If the app stops, the add picks up where it left off.
6. York Vault checks each copy, then offers to remove the originals from Photos.

The steps for removing originals and emptying Recently Deleted are on import and cleanup.

How the player stays fast

Videos stay encrypted on the iPhone in small chunks. The player asks for only the chunks it needs, and York Vault decrypts them as they play. So a 2-hour video starts as fast as a 10-second clip, and a jump to 1:30:00 does not wait for the first 90 minutes. Before each release, a 2-hour 4K HEVC video must start in under half a second and jump to any point in under half a second.

Picture in picture is off, because it would show your video outside the lock. AirPlay, screen mirroring and connected screens show a plain cover instead of your items, until you tap Show on TV for that session. See quick exit.

How other apps handle Live Photos and video

App	Live Photos	Video	Where we read it
Keepsafe	“Live photos will convert to static images” in some cases. Live format stays only “if you open Keepsafe to import them.”	“Space Saver: Compresses photos and saves originals to the Cloud” (Premium). Reviews report videos stuck on “Downloading Original”.	App text, App Store listing, reviews
LockMyPix	Choose Photo, Live Photo or Video when adding. Its share extension saves “a still image” only.	Playback speed is Premium.	App text
Private Photo Vault	“Live Photos can only be saved as copies”	“Space Saver” offloads videos to its cloud (paid).	App text and App Store listing
Vaultaire	“Still image only”	Stores media “Optimized” by default.	Comparison page and app text
Privault	Not stated	Plays “up to 150 media formats”	App Store listing

We read each App Store package in September 2026 and checked the listings and Vaultaire’s page on 2026-10-02.

A Keepsafe user described what cloud-only originals feel like: “only about 5 of them are playing. The rest of them keep showing “Downloading Original” and never finish loading up” (5 stars, 2026-09).

Backup covers video too

Every video and Live Photo backs up to your own iCloud, or Google Drive on Android, encrypted on the phone first. Large videos upload in the background and continue after a restart. See encrypted backup. Long video takes a lot of space, so check your cloud storage before you add a large library.

For Apple’s own way to hide a video, read how to hide a video on iPhone. To compare whole apps on video, read the best photo vault apps for iPhone.