How can we help?
Most questions are answered below. If yours isn't, email us. A real person reads every message.
Making movies
How do I make my first movie?
- Tap New Movie on the My Movies screen.
- Stand the iPhone or iPad somewhere steady, pointed at a toy, a puppet or some clay. A tripod or a phone stand works best.
- Press SNAP! to take a picture.
- Move the toy just a little, and press SNAP! again. Keep going: move, snap, move, snap.
- Press Play any time to watch it move.
- To add words, sounds and songs, tap the pink magic wand (Decorate), then tap Save. Or just press Done twice to save the movie to Photos as it is.
About 12 pictures make one second of movie at the medium speed, so a short movie is a few dozen pictures.
What is the ghost?
The ghost is your last picture, shown faintly over the live camera (animators call it onion skinning). It shows where everything was, so you can move things a small, even step each time. Press Ghost to show or hide it.
I took a picture I didn't want.
Press Oops. It takes back the last picture. Press it again to take back the one before that.
How do I make the movie faster or slower?
Tap the speed button at the top of the camera screen (it shows an animal and a number) and pick 🐢 Slow, 🐇 Medium or 🚀 Fast: 6, 12 or 24 pictures a second. In Studio mode you can pick any frame rate.
My movie flickers. How do I stop it?
After the first picture, the app locks the camera's focus, exposure and white balance so every picture matches (look for the 🔒 on the camera screen). Most remaining flicker comes from the light changing:
- Use steady lamp light, and keep away from windows, where clouds and sunshine come and go.
- Stand where your shadow doesn't fall on the stage.
- Keep the phone still. A stand, a tripod or Auto Snap means nobody bumps it.
How does Auto Snap work?
Turn it on from the + menu on the camera screen. Then move something, take your hands away, and Auto Snap takes the picture once everything holds still, with the camera sound.
- It won't take the same picture twice. If nothing changed, it waits.
- It waits while a hand is still in the picture. The hand check runs on the device.
- If the camera gets bumped and the whole picture changes, it doesn't snap, and asks you to press SNAP if you want that picture.
- SNAP and Oops keep working the whole time.
In Grown-up Settings › Auto Snap you can choose how long it waits (½, 1 or 2 seconds), how big a change counts, and whether to check for hands. Show what Auto Snap sees colors the live picture: yellow is moving now, blue is where hands have been, pink is a change that counts toward a snap, and purple is a change it ignores.
Can I use photos or videos I already have?
Yes. Add Photos in the + menu turns pictures from Photos into movie frames (part of Stop Motion Pro). In Studio mode, a video can be added to your movie as a clip, or turned into pictures.
Decorating and saving
How do I add words, sounds, music or credits?
Tap the pink magic wand (Decorate) on the camera screen. The buttons along the bottom add words and speech bubbles, sound effects, music, an opening title, looks, a voice-over and an ending. Stickers are part of Stop Motion Pro.
For the ending, choose “The End” or rolling credits (“Directed by”, “Starring” and the rest). The credits pick up the song by themselves.
How do I use my own music?
Add songs to My Songs, once, and every movie can use them. You can add them from Grown-up Settings, or from the Music sheet while decorating:
- Files, including iCloud Drive.
- The Music app, for songs stored on the device that aren't copy-protected.
- Any app's Share button, or AirDrop.
Songs from an Apple Music subscription are copy-protected, so iOS doesn't let them go into movies. Songs you made, bought, or have as files work. A song used in a movie is copied into it, so taking it off My Songs never breaks a movie.
Where do my movies go?
Every movie saves itself in My Movies as you go, so you can stop any time and pick up later. When you press Done twice, or Save while decorating, the finished movie is also saved to your Photos app.
In Studio mode, Save opens Save & Share (after a grown-up math question), with sharing, animated GIFs, every frame as pictures, and a project backup you can restore later.
How do I rename, copy or delete a movie?
On the My Movies screen, touch and hold a movie, then choose Rename, Make a Copy or Throw Away. Movies already saved to Photos stay there until you delete them in Photos.
Why does my movie say “Made with Stop Motion Movie Maker”?
Free movies save at 720p with that badge in the bottom-right corner. Stop Motion Pro removes it and saves movies in 1080p HD or 4K.
The big screen and buttons
How do I show the stage on a TV?
Connect a TV or monitor with a USB-C (or Lightning) to HDMI adapter, or use AirPlay Screen Mirroring. The TV shows the live picture, the ghost and playback, and the iPhone or iPad becomes the remote.
How do I change which button does what?
Open Grown-up Settings › Buttons, keyboards & controllers. Pick a ready-made setup (Everything, Big button box, Foot pedal or Game controller), or teach any action a new key. A live test panel shows each press as it arrives.
How do I set up a station for a museum, library or classroom?
- Mount the phone on a tripod, pointed at the stage, with steady lighting away from windows.
- Connect an Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter: HDMI to the TV, USB-A to the button box, and USB-C to power, so the phone charges all day.
- In Grown-up Settings, turn on Museum mode. It hides My Movies and photo import, and opens straight into a fresh movie.
- Turn on Guided Access (Settings › Accessibility › Guided Access) and triple-click the side button (or the Home button) to keep the phone in the app.
- Do one test run and press Done twice, so iOS asks for permission to save to Photos while a grown-up is there.
After that, each kid presses Done twice. The movie plays on the TV while it saves to Photos, then a fresh movie starts for the next kid. The screen stays awake while the camera is on.
Grown-ups, Pro and privacy
Where are the settings?
Tap the ⚙️ gear on the My Movies screen, or choose Grown-up Settings from the + menu on the camera screen. That's where you'll find Studio mode, Museum mode, Auto Snap, buttons and controllers, My Songs and Stop Motion Pro.
What is Studio mode?
A switch in Grown-up Settings that adds power tools: manual camera controls, Camera Control sliders, a self-timer, time-lapse, shooting on twos, scenes, a frame editor, a timeline you can move and trim, keyframes and “record path” motion, transitions, speed, reverse and boomerang, split, color adjustments, video import, and more export choices.
What does Stop Motion Pro include? Is it a subscription?
No subscription. Pro is a single, one-time purchase that unlocks 1080p HD and 4K movies, movies without the badge, stickers, adding photos as frames, and animated GIFs. Everything else is free.
Pro works on every iPhone and iPad signed in to the same Apple Account. On a new device, open Grown-up Settings and tap Restore Purchase. If Ask to Buy is on, Pro turns on by itself as soon as the request is approved.
Can my child buy Pro by accident?
On kid screens, locked buttons show a PRO tag and an “ask a grown-up” sheet that only a grown-up math question gets past. Like every App Store purchase, buying Pro also needs your Apple Account's confirmation (Face ID, Touch ID or your password), or your approval with Ask to Buy.
Does the app collect any data?
No. There are no ads, no analytics, no tracking and no account, and the app makes no network connections of its own. Movies stay on your device until you save or share them. The Privacy Policy has the details.
Which devices does it work on?
iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or later, with a camera. The app is in English.