Disable Live Text on iPhone: Step-by-Step

Live Text on iPhone automatically detects text in photos and camera viewfinder, which can be handy but also annoying if you accidentally trigger it or prefer a cleaner photo experience. This guide shows you exactly how to turn off Live Text for the Camera app and Photos app, plus how to disable the related on-device text recognition features in iOS. You’ll need your iPhone with iOS 15 or later (the setting locations are the same through iOS 18).

What You’ll Need

An iPhone running iOS 15 or later
Your passcode or Face ID/Touch ID to access Settings
A few minutes – the changes take effect immediately

Step-by-Step

Open Settings. Tap the gray gear icon on your home screen or in your App Library.
Scroll down and tap General. It’s about halfway down the Settings list, near the top of the third group.
Tap Language & Region. This is where iOS stores all text-recognition and keyboard-related toggles.
Turn off Live Text. You’ll see a toggle labeled Live Text right under the region settings. Tap the switch so it turns gray (off). This disables Live Text in both the Camera app and the Photos app simultaneously.
Optional: Disable Live Text in the Camera viewfinder only. If you want to keep it in Photos but not in the camera, go to Settings → Camera → Settings (or just Settings → Camera on older iOS versions) and toggle off Show Detected Text. This stops the yellow text-detection boxes from appearing when you point your camera at text.
Optional: Disable Live Text in the Photos app only. If you want the camera to still detect text but not the Photos app, go to Settings → Photos and toggle off Show Detected Text. This removes the little scan icon from the bottom-right of any photo that contains text.
Check that it’s off. Open the Camera app and point it at a sign or document – no yellow boxes should appear. Then open a photo with text – the scan icon should be gone.

Common Mistakes

Only turning off one toggle. The main Live Text switch in Language & Region is the master control. If you only turn off the Camera or Photos sub-toggle, Live Text still works in the other app.
Looking for Live Text in the wrong place. It’s not under “Display & Brightness” or “Accessibility.” It’s always under General → Language & Region.
Forgetting that Live Text is on by default. If you never turned it on, it’s still active – you need to explicitly turn it off.
Confusing Live Text with Visual Look Up. Visual Look Up (the feature that identifies plants, pets, landmarks) is a separate setting under Photos. Turning off Live Text does not disable Visual Look Up.

Tips

Turn it back on easily. If you miss Live Text later, just reverse the steps – the toggle is in the same place.
Use the keyboard shortcut instead. If you only want to copy text occasionally, you can still use the manual selection tool in Photos (long-press on text) even with Live Text off – it just won’t auto-detect.
Save battery and privacy. Disabling Live Text stops iOS from running on-device text recognition every time you take a photo, which can slightly improve battery life and reduce background processing.
Keep it off for specific apps. Some third-party apps have their own text detection – this setting only affects Apple’s built-in Camera and Photos apps.

Troubleshooting

Live Text still appears after turning it off. First, make sure you toggled the master switch in Settings → General → Language & Region. If it’s off but you still see detection boxes, restart your iPhone (press and hold the side button and either volume button, then slide to power off). If that doesn’t work, check that you’re not in a third-party camera app – those have their own settings.

You can’t find the Live Text toggle. On iOS 15 and 16, the toggle is exactly where described. On iOS 17 and 18, it’s still there but sometimes you need to scroll down a bit more. If you truly can’t find it, update your iPhone to the latest iOS – Apple occasionally moves settings.

Live Text is off but the camera still shows a yellow outline. That might be the “Show Detected Text” camera toggle. Go to Settings → Camera and turn that off as well. The master switch should have disabled it, but a bug or a previous setting can cause it to persist.

You turned it off but text selection still works in Photos. That’s expected – the manual selection tool (long-press to select text) is separate from Live Text’s automatic detection. To disable manual selection too, you’d have to turn off all text recognition, which isn’t possible without disabling the feature entirely – and even then, iOS still allows manual selection in some contexts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does turning off Live Text affect copy-paste from photos?

Yes. When Live Text is off, you can no longer select and copy text directly from a photo by tapping on it. You’ll need to use a third-party OCR app if you need that functionality.

Will disabling Live Text stop the camera from recognizing QR codes?

No. QR code scanning is a separate feature in the Camera app and is not affected by the Live Text toggle.

Can I turn off Live Text only for the camera, not Photos?

Yes. Go to Settings → Camera and toggle off “Show Detected Text.” That disables the camera viewfinder detection while keeping Live Text in Photos.

Does Live Text work in screenshots?

Yes, Live Text works on any image in your Photos library, including screenshots. Turning off the master toggle disables it there too.

Will this setting sync across my Apple devices?

No. The Live Text setting is per-device. You need to turn it off separately on your iPad and Mac if you want it off everywhere.

Is there a way to temporarily disable Live Text without going into Settings?

No, there’s no quick toggle in Control Center. You have to go through Settings each time.

General steps for current mainstream versions; menus can differ by device and version. See the disclaimer or report an error.

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