Blurry After Editing

I noted that these raw photos also failed to upload. I also could not duplicate the photos as apple said the items could not be downloaded. The photos are available on my machine. I reverted to original, eliminating the edits and they uploaded. After editing again problem resolved. Seems some kind of bug as after editing they look like an incompatible format and apple will not upload. Guessing if you let synch before editing you may not have problem. Same problem also prevents these photos from being added to a shared album.

Speculating here that the problem lies with some type of iCloud synching issue. That the editing of the raw photo some how register as an incompatible format with iCloud, some form of perceived corruption. My observation is that these same photos cannot be added to a shared album. I also note that they show up as unable to synch with iCloud. If I revert to original the photos will eventually synch with iCloud. I can then edit them , share them and the blurry problem is gone. So I am speculating that if you load the photos in to iPhoto, wait perhaps 24 hours, for iCloud to synch, then edit, the problem will go away. I see this as a workaround to a problem. But interested if any on else finds this workaround solves the problem. This results in a delay if you are like me you import your raw photos, edit them and then want to share them right away. You cannot you need to let iCloud synch the unedited versions and then edit and share.

So you are using the photo app but storing all the photos locally with no backup ?

I am storing all my photos locally with iCloud backup. What confuses me is this lack of synch seems to cause the problem.Trying to understand the different configs.

It works intermittently for me. The latest batch of photos it doesn't seem to work. I'm not using iCloud.

Curious how many people here have contacted Apple support and what responses they got. The CS guy I spoke to just kind of blathered on and then asked his manager who said it was fixed in the latest update, which obviously isn't true.

Same issue here. I experienced similar issues on my Intel (i5) Mac and recently upgraded to an Apple M2 Max Powerbook. I am using iCloud, but have it set to "Download Originals to this Mac. / Store original photos and videos on this Mac." so that I will have access to full-resolution versions of my photos on my Mac.

I hope this is resolved by Apple soon. In the meantime, I used Brian Hartmann's suggestion to rotate the photos and then rotate them back. That worked for me. Thank you Brian.

I contacted Apple again on Friday and spoke to a Senior Advisor. He asked me to send screenshots and said he will be in contact with their engineers so hoping this moves forward and gets resolved soon. I hope everyone who has this problem contacts Apple and asks to speak to someone higher up. The more the better.

The photos I took on Friday were fundamentally broken, blurry and could not be exported after editing. I got a 3306 error message if I tried opening them in Preview. Now they are usable and sometimes stay crisp after editing so there does seem to be a time lag. Some still revert to blurry after editing though. A very strange and frustrating bug.

It looks like the more edits I apply to a photo the more likely it is to go blurry. So there's definitely a correlation between the amount of editing + the overall resolution of the photo (so I guess the overall amount of processing required), and this bug occurring.

The blurry thumbnail is presumably a placeholder of sorts until the photo has been processed, but clearly the underlying bug here prevents the photo from ever finishing processing (which is exacerbated by RAW/large files and some thorough editing). This obviously isn't a solution at all, just my extra 2 cents in case somebody at Apple ever sees it.

Ever think that, having spent £10k+ on camera gear, using a top of the range Sony, that you might not get the best results using give-away software? Or that if you're going to spend that kind of money on your gear that it might be worth spending a little on software that is equal to the camera? The issue here isn't the laptop, it's that Photos is aimed squarely at folks shooting with a phone and sharing across devices. It will do other things, but that's not what it is optimised for. I've said before you can write a doctoral thesis in TextEdit. It is possible. But is it the appropriate tool for the job? I see post after post on this forum from folks who are serious about their photography, have invested heavily in it, and the obvious is that they are using the wrong software. Photos is a give-away app. That's its price point. It does what it is intended to do, at that price point. I suggest that you'll have much better experience exploring apps that are optimised for what you're doing and the gear you're using.

I am utterly convinced that Apple have no real interest in serving high-end photographers with their software. Actions (or inactions) speak loudly.

So are you saying it’s okay for this long-standing bug to go unfixed because of my choice of camera? Like I said, I’ve also experienced this issue over the years using photos taken with various other cameras.

Nope. I'm saying you're wasting your time. Why?

Also, what exactly makes Apple Photos give-away?

Because you don't pay for it. And that is key. The only income it generates via the iCloud Photo Library. So it's a net cost to Apple. That tells you how much interest they have in it. And the old waffle about paying a premium for for Apple computers is only waffle. You'll find it hard to get a laptop as capable as your Mac for the same price. You will get cheaper, but it won't be as capable.

Further to that, I have over a decade of personal photos in my Photos library, sorted into albums, geo-tagged, with various Photos-only metadata applied. Migrating everything into another app isn’t trivial. 

Didn't say it was.

I’m not interested in the bloatware that comes with Adobe Lightroom and often don’t need to make more than a few adjustments to my photos. When I do need to, I’ll use other software that I have available. 

There are other apps than Lightroom. And it is undeniably a better organiser - in fact most other things are. You pay for them They have to be. Not sure what you're calling bloatware.

And where does Apple say that Photos is "aimed squarely at folks shooting with a phone and sharing across devices”? I must’ve missed that bit.

It's in front of your eyes.

There’s no reason to be an Apple apologist. A bug fix is all that’s required here.

An apologist? I'm exactly the opposite - and suggesting that you don't hold your breath waiting for that fix.

Or, you know, keep using Photos. Keep getting cross with it. My point is there are other options.

Same issue here and same frustrations; even more so after learning how long this glitch has been documented without getting resolved by Apple. I've spent hours researching, updating and trying various suggestions and nothing works. Every photo becomes blurry after editing and only reverts back to clear when enhancements are removed. Frustrating to say the least but I do appreciate the direct link to report the bug.

I have the blurry edited photo issue as well. When I hit edit again the photo is back to clear. It started after I upgraded the OS to Ventura 13.1.2.

4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7/Radeon Pro 580 8 GB

Rotating worked on some and not others. The problem seems to be worse if I use the Retouch tool - which has been a consistent problem in one way or another in photos with my Mac (2019 version with lots of storage and speed). Apple really needs to get on top of this. Originally I thought it might be slow upload problems but even after I upgraded to the fastest wi-fi and broadband, it's not fixed.

Same thing. Just discovered bug today. Panasonic camera. Not expecting this to be fixed in my lifetime. Am looking for macOS RAW photo editing app. Will edit/export RAW files with it when necessary or just use the matching jpeg as is or with minor edits. Will continue to store images in Photos library.

M2 MacBook Air

Ventura 13.2.1

I've just taken over 1,000 RAW photos of a sporting event on a Canon EOS90D and uploaded them via SD card into a brand new M2 Max Macbook Pro, 64Gb RAM, 4Tb of storage and after a marathon editing session found everyone of those that I'd retouched/cropped/lightened etc was blurred and effectively unusable. Photos would also take it upon itself to intermittently crash whilst trying to unpick this mess by reverting each image to its original unedited status and to also corrupt some photos with psychedelic lines and colours

This blurring does NOT happen if I use a photo library containing edited RAW photos from my previous Macbook.

I don't have iCloud switched on, this is a new bug and one Apple need to get serious about resolving. I don't spend almost £5k on a laptop for it to be so fundamentally flawed.