Level 1

38 points

Since iOS 13 update. . JPG problem. Cannot Load Photo. There was an error loading this photo

I upgraded to iOS 13 and now if I try to edit photos which I've uploaded from my PC to iPhone via iCloud, I get an error saying "Cannot Load Photo. There was an error loading this photo".

I can view the photos fine but if I try to upload the photo to Instagram I get this message "Could not open photo. Please try again in a moment."

Photos that have been taken on my iPhone are fine. I can edit those as I've normally done. There are instances though which I need to upload images which were not taken with my iPhone.

I can reproduce the steps.

1. I've uploaded a photo to iCloud on the Desktop.

2. I go into my iPhone or iPad and in the Photo App press edit.

The message says - "Cannot Load Photo "- I cannot edit my photo in the Photo's own App.

3. I try to load it into Instagram to edit and get the error message - "Could not open photo. Please try again in a moment".

4. I then try another tactic.

I open the Snapseed App and load the same photo into Snapseed and I receive a message saying - "This image is read-only. Saving will create a copy." So I did that and it works fine from there. I can upload to Instagram and edit a copy of the original photo from which Photo App wouldn't do.

So I got to thinking deep about this peculiar problem.

I played around with the file formats in Photoshop and saving them different ways.

If I save the file as " Save As" and then save it as a "jpeg" file, then all is okay. I upload the photo to iCloud from my PC and all is fine. I can then edit the photo in the iPhone Photo App and upload to Instagram.

However if I save the same file from Photoshop as "Save As" and then save it as a "jpg" file, I then upload that "jpg" file to the iCloud from my PC, it's then that I cannot edit that photo and that is where the error messages come in - from the Photo App when trying to edit, to Instagram when trying to upload.

Snapseed tells me that the jpg file I've uploaded is a read-only image.

So the problem is with the file jpg not jpeg. Why?

So I've discovered that to upload images to my iCloud via PC and to be able to edit those photos or upload to Instagram then they have to be an actual "jpeg" file, not a jpg file.

I hope this makes sense and I hope someone can tell me what's going on.

Why the change? I can only surmise that it's with the latest iOS update.

Posted on Sep 29, 2019 7:23 AM

Top-ranking reply

pascalwhoop

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Dec 11, 2019 11:23 PM

OK I found a stable solution (for me)

rename to e.g. JPEG (not jpeg!).
change the file in a way that makes it *not* have the same hash as a file that was already uploaded to iCloud before!

if you take a file that doesn't work, download it and rename it to JPG JPEG jpg jpeg, uploading all of them, it won't work as it seems to always reuse the same file. This originally lead me to dismiss the file extension hypothesis. However, taking a defective file, renaming it to .JPEG and then rewriting just one field in the metadata (such as exiftool -copyright='contact ....@gmail.com' *.JPEG) solves it for me consistently. I just uploaded 5000 images of which more than half weren't editable. Now they all are.

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150 replies

m5zealot

Level 1

19 points

Nov 23, 2019 9:02 PM in response to Rosa07

Good news everyone. As of tonight I’m able to post pics from my Photos app on my iPhone again! All pics that would not load the last two months are magically accessible again. Was there a fix that I didn’t hear about? Good luck to all who have been suffering thru this bug. BTW, I didn’t do anything except install the last update to IOS 13.

Nov 24, 2019 6:30 AM in response to Rosa07

I just downloaded the update as well, and still no change. Can’t upload any images from my iCloud which is so frustrating as I have a photography business and I need to use my edited images taken with my professional camera and not my iphone. Still have not found a work around to this....

Nov 25, 2019 7:39 AM in response to Rosa07

I am curious if those that the latest update fixed your problem if it was only for the moment or is it still working for you?

The last 2 upgrades worked for about 15 minutes and then it started the error message again. There is no messaging a photo to myself because it automatically tells me there is an error and the photo cannot be shared.

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Nov 27, 2019 6:44 AM in response to Rosa07

The problem manifests itself in many ways when attempting to use, edit, or send photos, across iOS native & 3rd party apps. Mind blown how Apple has allowed this almost universal fail to fester for so long

Rosa07 Author

Level 1

38 points

Dec 4, 2019 8:51 PM in response to Rosa07

New communication re bug from Apple Case Number: 100916100678

Hi Rosa,

I don’t have an update yet from the engineers but necessary follow up has been made.

As soon as I got an update from them, I will call you.

Regards,

**** (Name left out for privacy reasons)

On Dec 4, 2019, 15:21 Rosa

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Dec 13, 2019 6:13 AM in response to Rosa07

very welcome, & VERY overdue news. Very few specifics posted by Apple, wonder if it finally addressed email truncating issue as well? (maybe many in this thread have experienced that break as well, i sure have.. Extensive cov’g in another thread..)

Dec 15, 2019 7:00 PM in response to Rosa07

Thank you so much for your help to date. Unfortunately nothing seems to be working for me. Have deleted photos, upgraded and reloaded to no avail.

The other problem is that previous jpeg photos downloaded from icloud that have been previously edited on the iphone ( not sure about photoshop) won’t revert to the original even though the ‘revert’ button is active

I haven’t downloaded any recent photos from icloud as now I load direct from my SD card to the phone. It is only my older folders pre i-phone that I am unable to load.

fortunately I didn’t upgrade to ios13 on my ipad so I now edit through that and then airdrop to the phone. Otherwise editing on snapseed which makes a copy also works but very tedious and VERY annoyed with apple who don’t perceive this as a problem when most of us buy the iphones for photography!!!

Rosa07 Author

Level 1

38 points

Dec 15, 2019 7:06 PM in response to PhysioJan1

PhysioJan1 It's a bit of a mess isn't it?

I really think they stuffed up photos with iOS 13. Everything was working fine before then. Now we have to find workarounds to fix problems caused by Apple.

Why fix things that weren't broken! It's a big shame! I know from reading comments in other forums, including the Photoshop forum, that iOS 13 has stuffed up majorly with importing etc. I'm sure Apple is hearing, but they're not giving out any information. . . as you know, I'm still waiting to hear for an outcome from Apple Engineers.

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Dec 16, 2019 4:49 AM in response to Rosa07

Very frustrating that the “fix” only addresses new photos & has continued to drag on for what, 2-3 mo’s now, at least? This has been one of Apple’s biggest software blunders ever, much more of a daily impediment than their famous Maps blunder...

mhyk3

Level 1

4 points

Jan 1, 2020 3:25 AM in response to Rosa07

I have been following this specific thread as I too started to experience issues editing most of my photos, I later found out that;

This only occurs to Live Photos, all other photo formats are editable.
It is possible to download the same photo from iCloud to Windows PC, but I will get a zip file which contains a JPG and a MOV of that photo, and still no option to access the Live features
Once I change the extension of that same downloaded file to jpeg, then send to phone again, it will lose the Live features and will end up like those other photo formats I have

Rosa07 Author

Level 1

38 points

Jan 1, 2020 3:29 AM in response to mhyk3

mhyk3 I think there is a whole lot wrong with iOS 13 and Photos and iCloud.

Users have different issues with photos and file types and it's so wrong on many levels when Apple won't address the issues.

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Jan 8, 2020 5:01 AM in response to mhyk3

Unbelievable that this continues to be an issue even after the latest 13.3 update (as well as the email truncation issue). These two major, but basic, functionality issues for months have made my iPhone an ineffective, hassle-ridden tool to use.

Jan 8, 2020 5:57 AM in response to kyleness

Not only have I lost my past photos but any I take now I can only access for a few hours and then they are also lost. I am now having issues with running out of storage space on the phone and have had to delete almost every app. Pretty soon the whole phone is going to be useless.

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Feb 12, 2020 9:21 AM in response to sherian226

APPLE WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU???? I HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO USE PHOTOS FOR MONTHS!!! WHY HASNT THIS BEEN ADDRESSED/FIXED?!??! ALL PHOTOS/SCREEN SHOTS/ETC GO IMMEDIATELY TO THE CLOUD & BECOME UNUSABLE BY ANY NATIVE OR 3rd PARTY APP!!! FIX THIS BULLSH*T!!!! MY PHONE IS A BRICK!!!!

kyleness

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2020 6:35 AM in response to Kal2020El

This thread seems to have gone completely asleep w Apple having done zero to resolve the issue in updates, & the problem worsening. Has *anyone* found a fix?? (A full resolution to the issue, not the afore-mentioned workarounds for specific scenarios, apps, etc)

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Since iOS 13 update. . JPG problem. Cannot Load Photo. There was an error loading this photo