Photo with white circle in corner with iCloud for Photos off.

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desertturtle Author

Level 1

9 points

Photo with white circle in corner with iCloud for Photos off.

iPhone 12 Pro Max - iOS14.6

iCloud for Photos is off.

No photos are currently saved to iCloud.

iCloud Drive is off.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a solid, white circle in the lower right-hand corner of one of my photos. Now, a majority of the time, I am able to recreate this situation by doing the following:

Take 3 to 5 photos with the stock Camera app
Go to my photos and flip left to the first photo taken then flip right to the last photo taken.
Normally, the last photo taken has the white circle in the lower right-hand corner but sometimes it is the second to last. (And I do not see the white circle without flipping to the first photo first.)
White circle does not go away if I view the photo for a long time or if I flip to another photo then come back to the photo with the circle.
White circle does go away if I close the app then view my photos again (and following the same process of flipping to the first then flipping to the last again).

This happens if the wifi and cellular data are both on or if they are both off or if either one is on and the other is off.

If iCloud for photos was on then the white circle means the photo is loading or being uploaded to the cloud, to my understanding.

But why does this happen with iCloud for photos off?

Can the white circle represent something else like HDR adjusting the photo?

Is another user downloading my photos?

I have tried changing my passcode, my Apple password, power cycling the iPhone, restoring to a previous backup, and finally formatting the iPhone without restoring it with a backup.

Something seems to be happening at the Apple account level or something tied to my phone service, since these are the only consistent variables.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Jun 21, 2021 12:13 PM

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Answer 1

desertturtle Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 22, 2021 12:51 PM in response to Brittany1416

Reproducing the problem was mostly consistent with 3-5 photos but there have been instances with other numbers. Just today, I saw the issue after taking one selfie photo and viewing it.
The photos that display the circle have not been edited. (In the Photos settings, View Full HDR is off, Transfer to Mac or PC is set to Automatic) (In the Camera settings, in Formats, High Efficiency is checked and Apple ProRAW is off.) (Also in Camera settings, Smart HDR is on, among other settings being on.)
After restarting the iPhone I do not notice any change.

The white circle also does not noticeably "fill up".

There was also an issue with a video displaying an animated spinning hashed circle in the triangle in the center of the video when viewing the video without playing it. But I have not been able to consistently reproduce this problem.

Brittany1416, thank you for your help.

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Answer 2

Jun 22, 2021 12:05 PM in response to desertturtle

Hello desertturtle,

We understand that you're seeing a circle icon on some of your photos intermittently, and we'd like to look into this with you.

We appreciate all the work you've put into this so far, and we’d like to ask a few questions to help narrow the issue down more.

Does the issue only happen after taking 3-5 photos? For example, if you only take one photo, and view it, does the same behavior occur?
Have the photos that display the circle been edited using Markup? Use Markup on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
You mentioned that you tried power cycling your iPhone; did you use these steps to restart it? Restart your iPhone If so, does restarting correct the issue temporarily, or is there no change?

Thanks!

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Answer 3

Jun 22, 2021 1:47 PM in response to desertturtle

desertturtle,

Thanks so much for letting us know more about the situation, and for answering those questions for us.

From here, we'd like to get you in touch with Apple Support for further assistance. Please reach out to Apple Support here: Get Support

Take care!

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Answer 4

desertturtle Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 22, 2021 5:07 PM in response to Brittany1416

Thanks again, Brittany1416.

According to Apple Support Tier 2 reps, this appears to be a glitch when the Camera app camera roll tries to automatically load the pictures to the Photos app. The white circle normally does not appear because it is so quick but due to the glitch the white circle appears and freezes.

So it appears to be an annoying but harmless problem.

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Photo with white circle in corner with iCloud for Photos off.

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