iPhone 16 Pro photographic styles can't be edited after photo taken BUG

[bluedoggiant]

I'm on 18.1 and experiencing an issue I've had since Sept 20 with my 16 Pro.

Completely randomly, I sometimes cannot edit photographic styles in Photos even if the photo very obviously has the photographic style applied and is listed in the meta data. Not night mode photos, not Live Photos, not any special mode photos, just regular photos with any of the cameras. It's completely random. Sometimes I can edit, sometimes I can't.

More often lately, most of the photos I am taking clearly have a photographic style applied (and in metadata) but cannot edit.  has not listed any exception to this feature so I am confused and wondering why more people aren't talking about this bug.

I know I'm not the only one, how many people have noticed this? I might have noticed it more in photos with a lot of reds.

Attaching photos. While I'm at it, so weird how if you screenshot the edit screen, the photo looks washed out where it doesn't in real life. Oddness

 

[vizzerx]

Have you tried to disable Apple Intelligence?

I face same issue that suddenly all pictures I take cannot change photographic style. I tried every setting still not working until I disable the Apple Intelligence setting and enable again. Now it’s working!!!.

I think this is the bug of iOS 18.1. For old pictures that taken with this bug still cannot apply style.

 

[JBinPDX]

Yes. See my post here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/camera-problem-new-styles-not-available-consistently.2441403/

As you said, it’s completely random. It will be OK for a while… and then not. I don’t think it has anything to do with Apple Intelligence. I’ve been having issues since 18.0.1.

 

[JBinPDX]

Here’s an example from today. I reported this through Apple Feedback. I was really hoping it would be fixed with 18.1.

 

[bradman83]

I noticed it was doing it to me and I do think Apple Intelligence had something to do with it. Photographic styles were working fine for pictures I took during a walk in the park yesterday, but after I used the Clean Up tool for the first time suddenly all the pictures I took didn't have the ability to edit the style after shooting.

Oddly enough simply restarting my phone solved it. I did a test shot and new photos have the photographic style information embedded in it to edit. Photos I took during the "blackout" period between first using Clean Up and restarting still do not have the style information, so I suspect the metadata was never saved to the file (also evidenced by the fact that the affected photos lack the style data when opened on my Mac and iPad).

Curious if your experience with this also correlates to enabling Clean Up for the first time and if you've tried a restart.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the issues popped up on all photos I took after using Clean Up for the first time (there was a whole download/initialization process). It happened on photos regardless of whether Clean Up was used on the image or not. Post-restart the styles are available on all photos including ones I've used Clean Up on.

 

[JBinPDX]

I noticed it was doing it to me and I do think Apple Intelligence had something to do with it. Photographic styles were working fine for pictures I took during a walk in the park yesterday, but after I used the Clean Up tool for the first time suddenly all the pictures I took didn't have the ability to edit the style after shooting.

Oddly enough simply restarting my phone solved it. I did a test shot and new photos have the photographic style information embedded in it to edit. Photos I took during the "blackout" period between first using Clean Up and restarting still do not have the style information, so I suspect the metadata was never saved to the file (also evidenced by the fact that the affected photos lack the style data when opened on my Mac and iPad).

Curious if your experience with this also correlates to enabling Clean Up for the first time and if you've tried a restart.

EDIT: Just to be clear, the issues popped up on all photos I took after using Clean Up for the first time (there was a whole download/initialization process). It happened on photos regardless of whether Clean Up was used on the image or not. Post-restart the styles are available on all photos including ones I've used Clean Up on.

I don't think I've even used Clean Up. But I restarted my phone this morning, just for grins, before heading to the farmers market. No dice. Two pictures that I took 5 minutes apart both have styles available. A picture I took in between those two does not have styles but only the old-style filters. All three photos were taken with the same lighting on the same side of the same vendor's booth. Two of them were side by side, and had the same colors, even. Of all of the photos I took at the market, I'm guessing it was about 50/50 whether styles were available. And I don't see anything different between the photos that have it and the photos that don't. The photos that don't have it say they do. Lying jerks.

 

[bluedoggiant]

Yeah this bug has been present since Sept 20 on all public releases of iOS 18 so far.

Like I said it happens regardless of lens, mode, white balance metering, or really anything. I’ve even tried to frame photos for 3-5 seconds before shooting to see if it makes a difference

The most frustrating thing, in my testing, is I took two photos, one after another with different styles, both obviously applied and in meta data, and neither editable.

I can also confirm equal behavior on my Mac or iPad. Some photos I can edit the Style on those devices, some I can’t.

Starting to feel like false advertising if these styles are not editable after the fact as promised.

 

[JBinPDX]

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple Support this afternoon. I was passed from first level to second level to someone who is a "camera expert." The problem is hard to describe with words, but fortunately all three support people were able to share my screen so I could show them the problem. The last guy — the expert — said that, of all of the support calls he takes, more than half of them are for the camera alone.

If this wasn't on their list before, it is now. It's almost certainly a software issue because it's so random. There was no workaround noted yet. So I guess we just cross our fingers that it gets fixed in 18.2. Or 18.3. Or sometime.

FWIW, rebooting my phone will bring styles back for a while, as will resetting standard styles in settings. But nothing keeps it for long.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I spent an hour on the phone with Apple Support this afternoon. I was passed from first level to second level to someone who is a "camera expert." The problem is hard to describe with words, but fortunately all three support people were able to share my screen so I could show them the problem. The last guy — the expert — said that, of all of the support calls he takes, more than half of them are for the camera alone.

If this wasn't on their list before, it is now. It's almost certainly a software issue because it's so random. There was no workaround noted yet. So I guess we just cross our fingers that it gets fixed in 18.2. Or 18.3. Or sometime.

FWIW, rebooting my phone will bring styles back for a while, as will resetting standard styles in settings. But nothing keeps it for long.

Thanks for that detail. I do wonder if it is in fact on Apple’s radar. It’s so random but consistently random.

 

[PsykX]

I know if I edit a photo in an external app such as Photomator, yes I lose many options such as Photographic Styles.

 

[JBinPDX]

I know if I edit a photo in an external app such as Photomator, yes I lose many options such as Photographic Styles.

That is not the issue here. The problem occurs with photos that do not use any external app.

 

[PsykX]

That is not the issue here. The problem occurs with photos that do not use any external app.

It happened to me last week and I had to reboot my phone. Every photo I'd take, the Photographic Styles weren't there. After a reboot, it was fixed, and the photos I took before had Photographic Styles again.

 

[bluedoggiant]

This bug is frustrating. I really do suspect it happens more with photos with a lot of yellows/reds/oranges.

I keep my default style on Amber and sometimes when I’m taking photos with that color subject, it comes off as too orange and I want to change the style but the app won’t let me edit in post.

Pretty pathetic and blatant miss on Apple’s part as one of the hallmark features of styles is they can be edited in post

 

[ManuCH]

I never experienced this bug, but a couple of things to try out I'd like to suggest:

• does it still happen on iOS 18.2 beta?
• what happens if you sync the photos via iCloud Photos to a Mac or an iPad? Can styles be applied there, or does the bug carry over?
• what happens if you edit the photo, do some other edit (like a crop) and save it? Does the style setting appear then?

 

[JBinPDX]

I never experienced this bug, but a couple of things to try out I'd like to suggest:

• does it still happen on iOS 18.2 beta?
• what happens if you sync the photos via iCloud Photos to a Mac or an iPad? Can styles be applied there, or does the bug carry over?
• what happens if you edit the photo, do some other edit (like a crop) and save it? Does the style setting appear then?

1) I'm not on a beta, so can't answer this one.

2) No. The metadata in all locations shows the style as being applied, but the style is not available.

3) No. At least I've never found anything that makes the style setting appear.

I keep my default style on Amber and sometimes when I’m taking photos with that color subject, it comes off as too orange and I want to change the style but the app won’t let me edit in post.

I have exactly this problem also, and it's really frustrating.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I never experienced this bug, but a couple of things to try out I'd like to suggest:

• does it still happen on iOS 18.2 beta?
• what happens if you sync the photos via iCloud Photos to a Mac or an iPad? Can styles be applied there, or does the bug carry over?
• what happens if you edit the photo, do some other edit (like a crop) and save it? Does the style setting appear then?

I echo the above posters answers. I cannot figure out a workaround to get these styles to be edited in post.

I took some photos in Gold and it's the same issue. Too many reds/yellows/oranges in a photo and its not editable.

 

[rcapple]

I'm on 18.1 and experiencing an issue I've had since Sept 20 with my 16 Pro.

Completely randomly, I sometimes cannot edit photographic styles in Photos even if the photo very obviously has the photographic style applied and is listed in the meta data. Not night mode photos, not Live Photos, not any special mode photos, just regular photos with any of the cameras. It's completely random. Sometimes I can edit, sometimes I can't.

More often lately, most of the photos I am taking clearly have a photographic style applied (and in metadata) but cannot edit.  has not listed any exception to this feature so I am confused and wondering why more people aren't talking about this bug.

I know I'm not the only one, how many people have noticed this? I might have noticed it more in photos with a lot of reds.

Attaching photos. While I'm at it, so weird how if you screenshot the edit screen, the photo looks washed out where it doesn't in real life. Oddness

I see the same issue as well and it persists in iOS 18.2 as well. Also another weird issue I see is I turned off the preserve settings for Photographic Styles but when I close and open the Camera app it still preserves the Photographic style without resetting it back to standard.

It's really annoying with all these bugs.

 

[bluedoggiant]

I see the same issue as well and it persists in iOS 18.2 as well. Also another weird issue I see is I turned off the preserve settings for Photographic Styles but when I close and open the Camera app it still preserves the Photographic style without resetting it back to standard.

It's really annoying with all these bugs.

Totally, this has been the most pathetic year in my memory of buggy software releases.

If I’m following your issue correctly though, you may have Photographic Styles set in settings, regardless of whether you enabled preserve settings, so double check that. Secondly, I think there is a sort of time out period where it will preserve your settings, regardless of what’s in your preserve settings, if you re open the app within a brief time.

 

[bluedoggiant]

These phones have been out for 3 months now, should be a lot of iPhone 16 pro photos taken now. Has anyone else noticed that they cannot edit photographic styles in Photos sporadically? I would say at least 80% of my photos cannot have their photographic style edited. That’s a pretty staggering failure rate for a feature that was heavily advertised

 

[JBinPDX]

Still having this happen in 18.2. It cropped up again yesterday. Around 30 pictures in a row had styles unavailable. Rebooting fixed it. For now. But it's really annoying that it appears to be working when I take the picture, and it's only later when I try to edit it that I find it didn't.

 

[ManuCH]

These phones have been out for 3 months now, should be a lot of iPhone 16 pro photos taken now. Has anyone else noticed that they cannot edit photographic styles in Photos sporadically? I would say at least 80% of my photos cannot have their photographic style edited. That’s a pretty staggering failure rate for a feature that was heavily advertised

80%?? I edit the photographic styles in most pictures I take and never had a single failure so far. There must be something that makes it happen in some specific cases.

 

[bluedoggiant]

Still having this happen in 18.2. It cropped up again yesterday. Around 30 pictures in a row had styles unavailable. Rebooting fixed it. For now. But it's really annoying that it appears to be working when I take the picture, and it's only later when I try to edit it that I find it didn't.

Meaning when you went into Photos to change the photographic style of photos you took with a photographic style, it wasn’t possible, but then rebooting fixed it? This makes no difference for me, the issue persist across all devices. It’s as if some photos apply the photographic style, but for some reason don’t save with the metadata to adjust it later. It’s so random.

80%?? I edit the photographic styles in most pictures I take and never had a single failure so far. There must be something that makes it happen in some specific cases.

Do you take all your photos with a photographic style by default?

Mine is set on Amber with some tweaks. The photographic style is properly applied to all photos, but for about 80% of them I cannot edit in Photos, regardless of the device I use. There is really no rhyme or reason to it but I feel like it happens most with food photos with lots of red colors but honestly, it can happen with any kind of photo, its most of my photos. Extremely frustrating

I have a call scheduled later today with “senior advisor” at  customer support to discuss .

Despite results of poll above, close enough where I suspect the majority of people are not experiencing this issue except for the vocal minority and I think 3 months in, those experiencing the issue need to be more vocal.

 

[ManuCH]

Do you take all your photos with a photographic style by default?

Mine is set on Amber with some tweaks. The photographic style is properly applied to all photos, but for about 80% of them I cannot edit in Photos, regardless of the device I use. There is really no rhyme or reason to it but I feel like it happens most with food photos with lots of red colors but honestly, it can happen with any kind of photo, its most of my photos. Extremely frustrating

Oh, right, no, I have my photographic style set to the default. So that may be the difference.

Are you saying that if you remove your default setting and put it to factory default, then your issue does not appear?

 

[mneves25]

I had the same issue: High Efficiency was enabled, and the Style option was visible in the Camera app but missing in Photos. Here’s what worked for me:


1. Open Settings > Camera > Format. Make sure “High Efficiency” is selected. Take a photo
2. Switch to “Most Compatible.” Take another photo.
3. Go back and re-select “High Efficiency.” Take a final photo.

This resets the Style function so that the Photos app will show the Styles option in Edit mode. Hope this helps!

 

[JBinPDX]

Meaning when you went into Photos to change the photographic style of photos you took with a photographic style, it wasn’t possible, but then rebooting fixed it? This makes no difference for me, the issue persist across all devices. It’s as if some photos apply the photographic style, but for some reason don’t save with the metadata to adjust it later. It’s so random.

Sorry I wasn't clear. Rebooting fixed it on new photos, but not on the old ones that don't have styles available for editing. Nothing that I've found fixes the ones that are hosed.