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Stickers completely broken?

P

ps3zocker

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 3, 2012
522
1,232
I've seen a few reports on Reddit and forums where people had the same issue over the course of the iOS 18 beta. Anyone knows of a fix? This is on 18.0

From my Feedback report to Apple (FB15232205):

I’ve just set up my new iPhone 16 Pro and had a lot of issues with stickers, resulting in a state that prohibits me from using stickers at all. I’ve provided a screen recording showing all the issues.

1. Existing stickers do not sync to the iPhone. They appear as usual on my iPad and Mac. If I create or delete one on either of those devices, the change is reflected immediately. The iPhone does not do anything.
2. The Stickers sheet on iPhone has invisible stickers. I can start dragging them into an app, but nothing happens. I can long press on them and bring up the menu. Deleting them does not do anything.
3. When creating a new sticker on the iPhone, it will appear in the Stickers sheet for a second and then disappear into thin air.

When looking for the issue, I’ve seen quite a few posts on forums and Reddit with the same issue since sometime in the iOS 18 beta cycle. I don’t think I had this issue on my old iPhone, it just started now with the new one (setup with Quick Start).
Click to expand...

 
Same here after transferring from a 13 pro to 16 pro. Have tried to reset all settings and perform the transfer again but no luck yet.
 
I just did an encrypted backup to pc, erased all content and settings, went through setup to confirm stickers working, then restored from the PC backup. It worked.
 
vccowan said:
I just did an encrypted backup to pc, erased all content and settings, went through setup to confirm stickers working, then restored from the PC backup. It worked.
Click to expand...
I'll wait for 18.0.1 to see if that fixes it, then I'll try that.
 
Since setting up a new iPhone 16PM from new, I've noticed that my stickers had synced over from my old iPhone, but they all appear super tiny in the stickers panel. When I drag them out onto a message, they are much smaller than they were before.

When I try and use them by tapping, the white border around them goes away and it only sends the rough cut out (as if it were on the "original" effect). Same goes for comic effect, but the puffy and shiny ones seem to work.

Oddly enough, when someone sends me stickers with the outline effect, it does not show on my phone. It only shows with the "original" effect. Same on my macbook pro w/Sequoia. Cant seem to get the white border to work anymore.
 
vccowan said:
I just did an encrypted backup to pc, erased all content and settings, went through setup to confirm stickers working, then restored from the PC backup. It worked.
Click to expand...

Edit: Did you make the encrypted backup on your iPhone 13 and used that to restore the iPhone 16? I have a suspicion that this is caused by the iOS 18 version the phone ships with. Only after setup I was offered another 18.0 update with a different build. Maybe the database corrupts with the shipping version, so the backup is broken too unless you're able to get one from the old phone.

---

Just did the same with a different result.

Clean setup without backup works fine.
After restoring from encrypted backup, the issue returns.

Updating to the latest 18.1 beta did not fix it either, other than that I can now see empty gray circles on the keyboard where the stickers should be.

Logs show a possible database corruption:
 

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For science I've restored my iPhone *again*. This time I used my iCloud backup from the iPhone 15 and stickers work fine. So it was the iOS 18.0 build the phone came with that broke it. It works if you do restore only after you install the presented new iOS 18.0 build or on 18.1.
 
Exact same problem here. New iPhone 16 with iOS 18. Looking on line this seems to happen a lot over a long period of time with multiple iOS versions. I hope it gets fixed in an update but I am not willing to lose all settings and try multiple backups to try fixing it myself.
 
DenverEd said:
Exact same problem here. New iPhone 16 with iOS 18. Looking on line this seems to happen a lot over a long period of time with multiple iOS versions. I hope it gets fixed in an update but I am not willing to lose all settings and try multiple backups to try fixing it myself.
Click to expand...

The fix for you should be easy. Setup the iPhone 16 as new, make sure you're updated to the latest iOS 18 version (not the one the phone comes with) and then restore your previous iPhone backup. That should work.
 
Thanks for replying. I appreciate your suggestion which makes sense. :)🙏, but for me even the backup and restore as new seems too big a hassle.😩. Also, I don’t want to have to log in to apps again (and fix a CarPlay issue) as I did when I transferred from old phone to new with Quick Start. I’ll just wait and hope that an update fixes it.
 
ps3zocker said:
The fix for you should be easy. Setup the iPhone 16 as new, make sure you're updated to the latest iOS 18 version (not the one the phone comes with) and then restore your previous iPhone backup. That should work.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I did this. I got my new 16PM, set it up without connecting to any of my accounts to test and make sure everything works. Then I connected to my Mac and did a restore, then set up everything as new, no backup restore (only inputting iCloud credentials, etc.)

The issue still happens for me, so I'm not entirely convinced that this is the solution to the issue.
 
ps3zocker said:
Edit: Did you make the encrypted backup on your iPhone 13 and used that to restore the iPhone 16? I have a suspicion that this is caused by the iOS 18 version the phone ships with. Only after setup I was offered another 18.0 update with a different build. Maybe the database corrupts with the shipping version, so the backup is broken too unless you're able to get one from the old phone.

---

Just did the same with a different result.

Clean setup without backup works fine.
After restoring from encrypted backup, the issue returns.

Updating to the latest 18.1 beta did not fix it either, other than that I can now see empty gray circles on the keyboard where the stickers should be.

Logs show a possible database corruption:
Click to expand...
I used the 16 pro to make the back up.
 
I can’t create stickers on my iPhone 16 Pro iOS 18.1, when holding an area on a photo and clicking ‘Add sticker’ I see it drop into my sticker drawer but then it instantly disappears.

Checked with a mate at work and it works perfectly on his iPhone 15 iOS 18.1
 
and still broken in 18.1 RC... looks like i'm just going to have to suffer through a reset all settings and restore from icloud.
 
christian.terra said:
and still broken in 18.1 RC... looks like i'm just going to have to suffer through a reset all settings and restore from icloud.
Click to expand...
Make sure the iCloud backup is from your old phone or from a time before the stickers broke, otherwise you will just sync the broken database back.
 
ps3zocker said:
Make sure the iCloud backup is from your old phone or from a time before the stickers broke, otherwise you will just sync the broken database back.
Click to expand...
I restored before reading this and used a backup where the stickers were broken (from today) and it’s totally fine now after restoring. I think you just can’t use a post-break local backup; but iCloud backup is fine.

Edit: just kidding, stopped working again after about an hour of working
 
Last edited:
Interestingly too on iPhone (not iPad) on 18.0.1 under Privacy, then files and folders, there is a broken stickers icon toggle. No such toggle on iPad. (Stickers still words on iPad.)
Wonder if related to the issue we have 🤔
 
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