Some shared album photos not uploading to one user

I have a workaround that was successful though it is a bit of a hack. Export your photos to JPEG, import them, and share the duplicate JPEG versions. I'm guessing the issue is with the HEIC file format or metadata.

From Photos on MacOS 12.0.1 (Monterey):

• From your Library, select the original portrait mode photo(s) that are NOT showing up for other devices
• File -> Export X Photos (NOT unmodified originals)
  • Choose Photo Kind: JPEG
  • Click the Export button and save them to an appropriate location
• File -> Import
  • Locate and select the photos you just exported
  • Click Review for Import
  • Click Import All New Photos
• Look under Imports for the latest and you should see them
• You can verify the filetype is JPEG by selecting a photo then select Info form the Window menu at the top
• Drag and drop the JPEG versions of the photos to your Shared Album

Same thing happening to us. We noticed that it is only the case with photos that have been edited. Once you go to the phone where the photo was taken and revert to the original, you can upload it again and it will show in the shared album for the other person. Clearly a bug that needs to be fixed. Come on Apple, this is big deal!

Problem has been resolved in 15.2. However photos posted under 15.1. will not get fixed. You would need to re-post them after upgrading to 15.2.

It's also not Raw photos. I have both HEIC and Raw off and have never had them on. I have tested this issue extensively on my own and with Apple Support. It's a problem on the iCloud side of things displaying the portrait photos in Shared Albums on the devices.

To test what I'm saying, go to any of your Shared Albums that aren't showing the portrait photos properly, turn on the Public URL feature and then go to that URL in a browser. You'll see the portrait photos just fine in a browser window of that Shared Album. So they're there, they're just not displaying properly on devices (e.g. iPhone Photos App, iPad Photos App, Mac Photos App).

The reason @bbotti's workaround works is because on the export, Apple recreates the image with all the "Apple-ness" of it completely embedded in the jpeg rather than as edits to the original photo. You can verify this by following @bbotti's steps above but then clicking on Edit on that newly imported portrait photo copy. Notice how you can no longer turn on/off portrait mode. If you made any other edits, you can also no longer "revert". That's because it's a completely new jpeg, with all previous edits (including anything Apple-y, like being a portrait mode photo) embedded in the new photo. Therefore, when uploaded to a shared album, it's no different than a non-portrait mode photo.

I have discovered a "fix" for this. It unfortunately came to me downgrading back to iOS 15.0.2. Once on that version I was able to upload portrait mode photos without the grey square appearing. I have contacted apple about this, but have not heard back.

I have discovered a "fix" for this. It unfortunately came to me downgrading back to iOS 15.0.2. Once on that version I was able to upload portrait mode photos without the grey square appearing. I have contacted apple about this, but have not heard back.

Delete the picture and re-post it when running iOS 15.2. The issue occurs in 15.1.

Found a workaround for human portraits including a second device:

1. Took a picture in portrait mode of our kids and wanted to share it with the Family (iPhone SE 2, iOS 15.1)
2. Putting it directly into the shared album resulted in grey pictures on the family’s devices. So I deleted it from the shared album and instead…
3. …I took my iPad Pro (9.7”, iOS 15.1), searched for the same picture synced to My Photo Stream and put it in the shared album from there. Worked (for me).

I am having the same issue with ‘Portrait’ mode images on my iPhone 7Plus. My operating system is up to date. We do need a fix from Apple…however for the present time I am going to try taking a screenshot of the photo and posting that to the shared album. It should no longer be in Portrait mode.

15.2 fixed the bug for me 🎉🎉🎉

Did you update your phone? The latest update fixed the issue for me.

Try updating to 15.2 and reshare the photos taken in portrait mode.

Further update - I have spent a couple of hours with Apple support on Wed and today and tried couple of things. It appears the issue may be linked to portrait shots taken on older iPhones running IOS 15.1. We have tried my wife's iPhone 12 and it appeared to share portrait fotos fine while photos from my iPhone XS do not. It also works fine in iCloud library where all the meta data of an editable (f - depth) portrait shot is stored across all my own devices, but when it is shared (in shared albums) I assume it is meant to be converted into a single static image with the last settings, which is where the problem may be.

Apple escalated the issue and meant investigate further and hopefully get back with some solution (or an IOS update?).

I see iPhone 8 listed above, could I ask all those who posted about this issue to let me know the iPhone models affected?

Thanks

I have also contacted Apple Support via Apple Business Chat. You can do so too by downloading the Apple Support app on your iPhone. Under Topics, choose More, then scroll down and choose Photos, then under Contact choose Message (or Call if you prefer). Choosing Message will open up a chat in iMessage with Apple Support.

Keep it simple. "When I upload portrait photos to a Shared Album from my device, the people I shared it with see only a grey box with a cloud. They see non-portrait photos just fine."

or as I said "When I upload portrait photos to a Shared Album from one device, I only see a grey box with a cloud when I look at that Shared Album on other devices. I see non-portrait photos just fine."

I HIGHLY suggest as many of us contact Apple as possible. Create a small test Shared Album and send them screen shots. They were really trying to narrow in on it being a problem on my device. Asking me about iOS version, turning off/on Shared Albums, etc. Even though I specifically said it worked fine 2 weeks ago.

In the end, they are escalating and I'm waiting on a call back because they want to remote into my device. Which means to me they are completely unaware of the issue. I highly doubt remoting into my device is going to do anything as it happens to me, my husband, all of you, etc. But I'll go through the motions because I have the time today.

The call is in about 10 minutes, I'll report back after.

Hello again with an update...

No one called me back at my scheduled time, so after about 20 minutes of waiting I called myself 1-800-275-2273 and asked for a Senior Advisor (mostly because I already had a case number and knew it needed to be escalated).

I got a Senior Advisor who was awesome (Thanks Brenda!). She completely understood the nuance of this issue and didn't make me jump through a bunch of hoops, mostly because I described a bunch of different things I had already tried.

While we were talking she must have been looking through cases and she eventually found one that was the same issue. The notes on that one said to do these steps:

1. Turn off Shared Albums on the device you are uploading from.
2. Wait until all the Shared Albums clear.
3. Wait another 10 minutes (this was emphasized).
4. Restart the device.
5. Turn back on Shared Albums
6. Wait until all the albums and photos in them reappear

Can you see the portrait photos now?

In my case the answer was no. In fact, since this is the device I was uploading them from, I had been able to seem them there before turning off Shared Albums, and now I couldn't. I also tried sharing a new portrait photo to that album to see if it was fixed going forward, but no, same problem. I can see it on the device, but no other device can.

So she took a bunch of notes and escalated it to engineering and will get back to me next Saturday and I will let her know if it just magically fixes in the mean time.

Again, I highly recommend taking the time to message or call (ask for a Senior Advisor LOL) so they understand it's effecting everyone. I've tried posting portrait photos to Shared Albums from multiple devices (iPad, Mac Mini m1, MacBook, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone X) and can not ever get it to work. Well, with one exception, if I take a portrait photo of a non-person (i.e. dog, cat, object), then it works fine. 🤷‍♀️