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GIFS not playing, why?

ChaseJ

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Feb 12, 2016
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Why Why Why - Gifs

Here is my problem. I can save gifs to the camera roll and of course nothing happens. The only way I have gotten them to remotely work is to copy the link to the gif from Chrome (the browser i use) paste it in Safari, then hold down and copy it, paste it into an imessage and send it to myself. After that, even if I save it, i can not watch it unless i use i message or upload it to Google Drive and watch it on my laptop. I recently switched to using the Google Photos app and i can see a gif i saved before play in the app. I go to save a different gif and it does nothing. It doesnt play no matter what I do. Even saving directly from Chrome or Safari and then uploading to Google Drive to view on my laptop doesnt work. Can someone explain why this is such a problem and how to fix it. I would greatly appreciate it.
 

metllicamilitia

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Dec 25, 2011
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Re: Why Why Why - Gifs

Apple doesn't allow the saving of gifs in Camera Roll for some reason. That's why there's GIF Keyboard. I know, it's a pet peeve of mine too. I started on Blackberry and Android before moving to iOS and on Blackberry and Android you could save and view gifs in your photos. Not on iOS though.
 

Massie

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Feb 9, 2010
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Re: Why Why Why - Gifs

I'm assuming you both know that iOS does actually allow saving gifs to the Camera Roll, it just doesn't support viewing them there for some reason. If you message/mail a gif from Photos, it will animate on the receiver's side. (Try sending yourself a saved gif in a text to see it in action.) And if you use Twitter, gifs will be labeled as such when you open the photo picker in the Twitter app.

Definitely a pain that it doesn't support viewing them (when I was jailbroken I always installed a tweak that made it possible) but it does let you keep them there at least!
 

lightning8888

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May 30, 2015
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Re: Why Why Why - Gifs

I'm assuming you both know that iOS does actually allow saving gifs to the Camera Roll, it just doesn't support viewing them there for some reason. If you message/mail a gif from Photos, it will animate on the receiver's side. (Try sending yourself a saved gif in a text to see it in action.) And if you use Twitter, gifs will be labeled as such when you open the photo picker in the Twitter app.

Definitely a pain that it doesn't support viewing them (when I was jailbroken I always installed a tweak that made it possible) but it does let you keep them there at least!

Would make a good enhancement request to apple on feedback. To have Animated GIF viewing in Photos
 

Ledsteplin

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Oct 2, 2013
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Re: Why Why Why - Gifs

Gifs don't work in the camera roll. They're still good though. You just use them where they do work. Like in messages or emails. They're not broken in the camera roll, just don't work there.
 

cfdilley

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Aug 15, 2016
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I believe what the OP is pointing out is a change since the last iOS update wherein GIFs save as still images in your Camera Roll when saved from Chrome (We know they don't animate when viewing in the Camera Roll - they never have).

Historically when saving a gif from a Google search, I'd do the following: Tap+Hold image to 'Open image in new page' Then I'd Tap+Hold the moving gif to save to camera roll. Image is now saved in my photos. I then go to use gif as I please, whether to post on social media or send in iMessage and it posts as a still image.

The only workaround is to open the image in Safari and save it from there now.
 

Dude 001

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Jan 30, 2017
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I'm sorry, but I do not believe the iPad allows saving the animated gif. It seems to save just one of the static pictures which make up an animated gif. Like what you would see under windows picture viewer when looking at an animated gif. But from what I've seen, the iPad will strip out the animations. Leaving you with just the first or last (I guess) of the many pictures which once comprised the animation.
 

cfdilley

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Aug 15, 2016
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That is the issue.

Historically, one could save a GIF from any browser they use on their iPhone OR iPad (Chrome OR Safari) just by holding it and hitting 'Save to Camera Roll.' It will not animate in your camera roll but if you text or put it in an email, it will animate.

In recent iOS updates, you are only able to save animated versions on Safari. This no loner works on Chrome for iPhone/iPad.
 

cfdilley

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Aug 15, 2016
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Re: Why Why Why - Gifs

You're right! Just tested and it works now.

This was not working for a few months around the launch of iOS 10 (I'm trying to locate the thread I started in the Google forums where they didn't seem to understand the inquiry then I spoke to friends at Google who tested and saw it wasn't working there.)

So glad I don't need to use Safari anymore on my phone.
 

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