Is there a way to revert photos app after IOS 18

Cy. I am not clear whether you are referring to the "movie" feature or the "autoplay" feature but both can be turned off. Select "photos" instead of "movie" when viewing an album. You can turn off the "autoplay" feature in settings. Unfortunately, Apple has made a number of stupid changes to Photos that cannot be overridden but the unwanted addition of music can be turned off. Jim

pat 1951 wrote:

Just the absolute worst—literally no thought behind what they did with photos. And on top of the disorganized mess, the freaking thing no longer works.

Or, they thought about it very hard but chose a path with which you disagree. I find the new version much better. I can remove the items I don't want to see resulting in a much cleaner and more personalized interface.

Is it possible you haven't taken the time to learn how it works?

Get started with Photos on iPhone - Apple Support

STOP THE FREAKING UPGRADES.

You are always able to chose not to upgrade iOS. Of course, you'll miss out on inportant security updates. But, it's still your choice.

You can let Apple know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Hello~ No…downgrading is not supported.

~Katana-San~

EllenIR wrote:

I Really dislike the new photos update!!! Can I revert??

Sorry, but reverting your iOS is not an option.

Heya guys! Someone said to turn off LOCATION SERVICES in SETTINGS and then on again and now I can look up things again! :)

Again, you could use Recent Days to sort, which may make it a bit easier to separate images.

Recent Days doesn't work on my phone. If I look at Recent Days then the most recent pics shown are from May this year. I've taken pics with all my cameras, including iphone, since then and they are all on my phone, but according to Recent Days, the last pics I took were in May. I've checked and all the pics I've taken since then have got valid dates but the app doesn't acknowledge them. If I search "11 Nov" it shows me the pics I took with my phone on that date but, according to Recent Days, they don't exist.

Sure I can search by iPhone or by date etc. but now I've got to hit half a dozen buttons to do what I used to be able to do with one click.

My theory is that they're making the app as difficult to use as possible so that when they come along with AI to 'help' with photos organization we'll all greet it with joy and rapture.

Zurarczurx, sorry to hear that. I don’t understand why some people have no issues and others have lots of issues. When I updated to iOS 18, I had about 15,000 images on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and about 100 Albums and 3 Folders, one with 78 Albums in it. Fortunately, I had none of the issues I have read about here. All my Albums and Folders stayed in tact. Other than my not liking the new Photos format, the only issue I have had is when I upgraded to my new iPhones 16 Pro, Photos created 3 new Albums for me with no photos inside. I simply had to delete them.

If it is just your iPhone that is having the issues and not your Photos app on your Mac, I try Turning Off all of the things in customization, Close all your apps, Turn off your phone, Wait 30 seconds, Turn your phone back on, Wait 5 minutes, then go to Photos and try customizing a few things at a time to see if that may help getting your photos back in order. I can’t see where this could be any worse than what you are dealing with now. Just a suggestion. I don’t have your issues so I can’t know if this will help, but I have had other issues where doing things like this has helped. Please, anyone, let me know if this helps at all. Others may find it helpful.

NOTE: I have no idea if this has any relevance, however, I do not use the Photos app on my MacBook Air. I have never been a fan of the Photos app on the Mac, so I keep all of my photos on my computer and backup drive by downloading them from my phone, mostly by Airdropping or using the Image Capture app, to import them. I use a system year/month/event. Therefore, I do not having any idea if some of the issues that people are having could be linked to the fact that their iDevices are talking to the cloud and talking to the Photos app on the Mac.

Best to you!

Thanks Gar. I've done everything with the phone bar a full restore - which I'm not doing I've re-dated a few pics to see if it helps, but it doesn't. For some reason Recent Days can't see past May. I only use Photos on the phone to either search my synched from Mac folders (where my 'proper' photos are) or look in Recents for pics I've taken recently. Fortunately Search still works, but I'm half expecting that too to be removed or downgraded so AI can be pushed. My workround when I take a pic with my phone that I know I'll need down the line is to save it in Files so I know where I can find it when I need it.

I too never use Photos on Mac - I've got better image management software. I had wondered if the fact that I don't use it on Mac was causing the problems with Recent Days. Seems not.

ARI0912- wrote:

I hate the new photos app in Update 18.1.1, too. Apple should always provide an option for a user to revert back to previous layouts of an app.

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

You have many options in the App Store for a Photos app. They have the same access to the Photos Library and have limited features that makes the UI much simpler and may be perfect for your Grandparents.

Foxfire64, (addressing what you wrote 12/25)

I doubt that we will ever be assured that everyone will have a smooth transition from iOS 17 to iOS 18 Photos or any other upgrade. You have to understand that with millions of users, no one (company/developer) can anticipate how every user will use their product(s). Different users using different apps in different ways and combinations. So we have to trust that we are the norm and protect ourselves and our data by approaching an upgrade with caution and with this understanding.

My experience was smooth and effortless. At the time, I owned an iPhone 15 Pro Max when I upgraded. To protect my data, I was very cautious. I closed all my opened apps, turned my iPhone off, waited one minute (to eliminate any residual charge in the phone), turned on my iPhone, backed up my iPhone to my iCloud backup. After the backup was completed, I turned off my iPhone, waited another minute, turned it back on and went straight to Settings and upgraded to iOS 18 before doing anything else. (Always a good idea to have your phone plugged in during a major upgrade.)

You do understand that this thread only represents a small percentage of users, that not everyone is having issues. Also know that upgrades happen differently for everyone. Some automatically, some manually, some at night, some during the day, some with a few apps open, others with a lot of apps open, etc.

By making sure there was no residual codes, data, charge in the phone during an upgrade, it is smart to use a procedure similar to what I discussed above.

After I had upgraded and got the hang of iOS 18, I traded in my 15 lPro Max for a new iPhone 16 Pro. The 16 Pro already had iOS 18 installed, however, I installed my new phone from my iPhone 15 Pro Max backup and all is find. My point being, things can go smoothly when you approach the upgrade/backup with caution and understanding.

I do understand your concern with your 300 plus albums, however, I doubt that anyone in their right mind will ever tell you the bug is gone or fixed, there is always a chance something can go wrong. Always proceed by making sure your iPhone is backed up and all residual charge, data, lingering energy in your phone is gone, before proceeding.

I trust this may give you more confidence in making the move to iOS 18.

Happy New Year!

tony.d. wrote:

These other Photo Library apps, would the edit apps have access to them. Or will this be like a duplicate library?

They access the same photos from your Library, but can choose to display them any way they wish. When you first launch one of those apps, if will ask for permission to access your Photo Library. Of course you would have to grant permission, otherwise you would not see the photos in your Library. If the app you choose allows editing, then you can perform those edits and save the photo back to your Library. No duplication of photos is necessary.

random-user-name,

You do need to realize that even if there are 5,000 articles on the net and 5,000 people here concerned about upgrading, that that is a minuscule amount of people compared to the actual number of people using iOS 18.

To answer your question, most of the chatter here (mine included when this article first posted) was surrounded by the fact that most people don’t like change, myself included to a certain extent. I did not know anything about the change in the Photos app when I upgraded to iOS 18 (automatically). I was pretty upset when I found out how much the Photos app had changed. However, after reading a few articles and reading what some of the people have said here, I’ve learned that there is a lot of value in the new Photos app. Yes, it’s not exactly like the old one, however, it’s better in many ways. It’s customizable.  I’m not sure how much of the thread here you have read, however, I would encourage you to read every single post.  You may find there’s a lot of encouragement also.

I would also like to suggest that you to back up your “camera phone” to your computer when not using the cloud. If you’re going to  use a separate phone for taking pictures, if for some reason, something happened to that phone, you would lose everything.  

I have thought about suggesting the scenario you alluding to, to buy an older phone, like an X or an 11 and not updated to iOS 18. Then, on your newer phone, update to iOS 18 and play with the Photos app and learn how to best use it to your advantage.  After a bit of time, I’m pretty sure you would not be as horrified by the update as it seems that many people are here.  Take contributor Foxfire64 for instance.  He waited a long time only to find out that everything worked for him.

BTW, if you don’t want your phone to automatically update, you can go to Settings, General, Software Update, and tap on Automatic Updates at the top of the page.  On the next page, turn Off “Automatic Updates”.

Leave On “Security Response & System Update”

And you can choose to turn Off or leave On “iOS Updates”.  If you leave this On your phone will simply download the new software to your phone, but will not install it until you choose to update. If you turn it Off, when you are ready to update your phone, it will take a little bit longer for it to download and then update.

I trust this has helped you and anyone else concerned about the new iOS 18 and the new Photos app. 

Thank you!

Not sure if this will help but the Ai search feature in the photos app has actually been working for me. I’m not a big fan of all the Ai features Apple added in iOS 18 but the Photos Search has actually worked as they said. I literally can type in a description of the photo and it produces good results. My library has over 60k photos. Not a hundred percent perfect but way better than it be. It’s the only reason I haven’t shut off the Ai feature.