Removing the background image in album view Photos App iPadOS 18.4

I finally found a solution on a macrumors thread and thought I would share here (first time posting so hopefully I'm within the guidelines of linking to an outside webpage - I wanted to credit the poster for the solution)..

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/photo-albums-background-another-ios18-blunder-solution.2456456/

Seems it happens when Reduce Transparency is turned on while using Dark Mode, but there is a way to turn it off for just the Photos App.

Basically.. go to Settings > Accessibility,

scroll down and select > Per-App Settings,

select > Add App, then scroll down and select the Photos App,

then Select Photos (on the Per-App-Settings page) and turn OFF Reduce Transparency

It worked for me. I had been taking screenshots of a black screen to put in albums, but I had to repeat that often for the screenshots album to keep it at the top. It was worth it, though kind of a pain.. so really glad to have a better solution!

j

I found the answer in a Reddit Post.

I did this and it worked !!

No more background photo in album view !!

I copy/pasted this from the post.

This happens when you have dark mode and reduce transparency turned on.

Easiest way to fix if you want to leave them on at a system level is to go to settings > Accessibility > Per-app settings and add Photos with reduce transparency turned off (or dark mode).

tony.d. wrote: …the background of my album of photos to be very distracting.

I'm not sure what you are meaning about the background. Do you mean the sometimes obnoxious slideshow at the top of the Album? In that, you're not alone, and you have some options. In albums and some collections you can turn off the preview movie by going to the sort menu at the bottom, and choosing View Options,

and then unchecking "Movie Preview."

This is what my Album view looks like:

With the movie preview turned off.

By using "Dark Mode" in Settings or Control Panel

you can have a black background.

Does this work for you?

Have you tried the fix posted by jannowe earlier? https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256030166?answerId=261492311022&sortBy=oldest_first#261492311022

Turning off "Reduce Transparency" fixed it for me, because the background image is supposed to be transparent.

i'm 100% sure its a bug. when i turn dark mode off it goes back to normal but as soon as its on theres an image in the background that cannot be moved... it has to be an error if it isn't consistent between modes as i can't see a single reason why needing a darker screen (usually because white hurts the eyes) means you need even more visual stimulation and confusion with a messy background...

This solution is the correct one. As many of you might have already surmised, you can also turn this setting off across all apps, although in my experience this has only been a major issue with the Photos app.

To turn off for all instances (best option for Dark Mode users like me):

Go to Settings —> Accessibility —> Display and Text Size —> Reduce Transparency

OR

Use pulldown search to find “Reduce Transparency” and this will take you directly to this setting which you can turn OFF.

Since many of us don't see this effect, it seems unlikely that a version change in the OS will affect it. I wonder if there is a 3rd Part app that's interfering. Certainly, try a forced restart: 

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

This is different from a simple Power Off. I had to continue holding the button down past the "slide to power off" message, and then I released the button only after  the Apple Logo appeared indicating a re-start. 

There's only one "answer." Got to

Settings>Accessibility>Display&Text Size>Reduce Transparency

and turn off "Reduce Transparency."

from jannowe

Take a blank, black photo and add it to every album. Adjust its position in the album so it is the one that shows behind the thumbnails.

Ah— it appears at night! (My iPad is set to auto.) So I did get it to work (or fail, actually.) it’s awful— worse than I thought! Thanks for clarifying all the requirements of this bug! Have you reported to Apple?

Feedback - Photos - Apple

Oops-- I was showing an iPhone rather than iPad. But on my iPad, I really looks the same, as long as I have Movie Preview turned off.

With Movie Preview turned on, I get half the screen with the preview image, but it shrinks to that title bar as soon as I de-select Movie Preview.

I tried the iPad in Landscape (my usual locked mode) and in Portrait, and it worked both ways.

I do not like light mode for Photos at all. The white background is hard on the eyes and makes it hard to view the colors properly, so switching to light mode would not help for me. While this problem persists, I am picking key photos for the albums, that are showing a dark background in the upper part, but still allow me to recognize the album in the sidebar by the key photo.