an error occurred while loading a higher quality version of this photo

I just upgraded my phone to the 12 pro max today and everything went perfectly except for the fact i can’t see any of my pictures because it says it had an error trying to load the highest quality version of the picture? now i can’t use any of these pictures i just took took. how do i fix this?? i went from an iphone 11 pro max to the 12 pro max so why is this happening??

Same here! End up with a blank photo or the error message saying, “An error occurred while loading a higher quality version of this image.”

Is there something I need to do on my end, or are we waiting for a fix from Apple?

I was having this same issue and I finally figured out how to fix it! Close out the photos app, go to settings, Apple ID, iCloud, photos, and change “optimize iPhone storage” to “download and keep originals”. Make sure there is a check mark next to “download and keep originals”. Close out of all your apps and restart your phone. Once your phone is back on, turn on airplane mode for 10 seconds then turn it back off. Open photos and click on the photo or video that wasn’t loading and it should be downloaded now!

I have the same issue since the update. I can’t get my best photos, most of them are on my favorites album. I have iCloud back up but it’s so annoying that I have to and save those photos again everytime I need them. Hope this can be fixed

I saw this as well on videos that were taken using my new phone 12. I just did a force restart and this issue seemed to go away.

• iPhone 8 or later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
• iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPod touch (7th generation): Press and hold both the Top (or Side) button and the Volume Down buttons until you see the Apple logo.
• iPad with Home button, iPhone 6s or earlier, and iPod touch (6th generation) or earlier: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons until you see the Apple logo.

Hopefully that works for at least a few of you here. otherwise make sure to leave feedback to Apple.

This is a user to user forum and Apple does not monitor these threads.

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

I'm having the same issue but my use case is a bit different.

I'm having this issue with an iPhone 11 Pro when downloading a Live Photo from Google Photos. I get the error message and also a few gray frames at the beginning of the Live Photo, although the Live Photo is still playable the file seems corrupted somehow because I can't share on any social media for example. (Maybe the APIs can't read the supposedly malformed file?)

Some findings:

• Live Photos from March 8 2020 work just fine, while June 30 2020 does not.
• If you download the image iPhone X or 11 you get the same issue.
• If you take a Live Photos with iPhone X or 11, upload, delete from local lib, download again, it'll work just fine.

I'll be contacting Apple Support to understand what the error message means then Google can fix it on their side.

This is happening for my iphone 6s as well. I was on iOS 11 and the live photos were working then I updated to iOS 14.2 and the live photos don't work anymore. And to add insult to injury all of my photos are only stored on my phone and I can't send the old photos anywhere. I get an error message "unable to share. there was an error while preparing to share. please try again later." This type of issue is exactly why I was stubborn about updating. Please fix this problem apple.

I too encountered this problem today, but with a video. After I edited a tiny video (trimmed it, added some colour etc.) I saved it and it was only 4 seconds long, and it was playing fine, but the colour was off. I went back into editing, and adjusted it again, after that I saved it and it just gave me thus sane error. I am also on iPhone 12. Not pro, just iPhone 12.

also, when adjusting the colour on video, iPhone 12 sometimes show over adjusted colours (like in this screenshot for example) and then when you just tap on the photo - it will shop you the actual colours. A bit annoying if you ask me.

just saw new update, so I’m going to update the phone and see if the playing error will be fixed. Will update you later.

same problem here man, just updated to 14.4.1 & still the same problem. I have a lot of storage on both the phone and iCloud & it still cant seem to load the pictures... so weird!! obviously this needs to be fixed by apples part

Hi, caden46.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. We’re glad you decided to reach out about the issue you’re experiencing with your photos. If we understand correctly, you’re not able to view the photos on your iPhone, and you see a blank image instead of the photo. 

If we’re on the same page, do you have iCloud Photos enabled? This is typically an error that you see when your iPhone connection isn’t able to load the photo from iCloud.

Are you still experiencing the issue? If you are, do you see the missing photos when you log into the iCloud website? These articles may help:

Get help with iCloud Photos - Apple Support

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

All our best.

i have this exclamation error on one video only. I don’t use iCloud for photos. The video was taken on a cold mountain during which my phone battery died. I guess the file is damaged somehow and didn’t save properly. Is there anyway I can export it on a computer?

I fixed mine by Do I need to photos Clicked on cellular data I turn them both off and then turn them back on. Reboot my phone And the videos played without a problem. Make sure your iCloud isn’t full as well

I'm on iPhone Xs and having the same problem with multiple photos. Updating to 14.2 didn't fix it for me, and neither did "back up now."

this happened to my photos, too, when I transferred my iPhone X to the 12pro today. Once I clicked “back up now” under the iCloud, that was the final trick to getting the exclamation point to go away and get the good quality pics back. Hope that helps.

Is it the latest update? Or 14?

My problems started when I updated to 14 or 14.1 and then I updated to 14.2 and after the actual update when the phone switched on - everyone photo was loadable. No problems since.

Also, today I updated to 14.2.1 still no problems. Did you try updating or hard restart?