iOS 18.7 / 26: Broken Live Text

When images (hundreds of them) featuring text are synced from a Mac (macOS 26) to devices using either iOS 18.7 or iOS 26, Live Text immediately works on every one of them. Hours later, though, Live Text just stops working on all but, at most, one or a few of them. 

This used to work consistently before iOS 18.3, and after that, stayed completely broken on newly-imported images until the iOS 18.7 and 26 releases, on which it’s instead just mostly broken. 

Live Text works fine on images in the iOS library (formerly “camera roll”), just not ones directly synced from a Mac.

I’ve pretty much lost my patience with this. I had plans to buy newer iPhones, Macs, and HomePods (whenever they get around to refreshing those) soon, but not if I can’t rely on basic functionality within that ecosystem that I used to be able to use dozens of times per day. 

(Yes, I’ve already left a bug report on Apple’s feedback site.)