How to remove a sticker from a photo?

Rachel, so sorry to hear this happened to you with such a precious photo. It's annoying that Apple doesn't make it easy to jump back to a previous version of a single file on the iPhone like you can with Time Machine on the Mac.

All I can suggest at this stage is that we both submit feedback to Apple about this and hope they introduce a fix at some stage. I am slightly hopeful, as I said before, because it does seem as though the sticker is on a separate layer.

Also, if you have an Apple Store near you, maybe it would be worth booking a Genius Bar appointment to see what they say?

Thanks for the reply Richard. Interesting that you can't reproduce the issue on your phone.

I'm currently on iOS 17.4.1, with an iPhone 11 Pro. Yes, the image is stored in iCloud, but it happens to photos stored on the phone too.

Here are the steps in more detail, in case we're doing something different:

1. Open a photo (that includes at least one person) in the Files app.
2. Touch and hold the person until the glowing outline effect appears and the background darkens.
3. Drag your finger until a smaller duplicate copy (sticker) of the person appears. (If you lifted your finger after step 2, you will need to touch and hold it again for a moment before dragging.)
4. Lift your finger. A blue rectangle with corner anchors appears, allowing you to resize the 'sticker'.
5. If you click on the little blue circle with a white ellipsis, there is the option to 'Delete' the sticker. Otherwise, if you click 'Done', the sticker is permanently attached to the photo.

Yes, I did try markup mode, but it doesn't allow me to select the sticker. Those instructions are for deleting a sticker from your sticker collection (a feature I don't use), not from the image itself.

Well, thanks for trying Richard. I appreciate it.

@camsauce, you're a legend! That pointy tool with the diagonal grey lines (whatever that is supposed to be) is the key. You don't even have to draw around the sticker—just clicking on the sticker selects it too.

Many thanks!! I'm sure @RachelAnn9883 will be delighted too!

PS. Is there no way to mark that as the correct answer (like on Stack)? Looks like all I can do is give it one upvote. I've never understood the Apple forums and how they work (or don't).

Thanks Richard. There appears to be no way to select an answer as being correct or even best. In any case, after receiving two upvotes, it's been automatically labelled as 'Best reply' by Apple's magical algorithm.

Thanks Richard. There appears to be no way to select an answer as being correct or even best. In any case, after receiving two upvotes, it's been automatically labelled as 'Best reply' by Apple's magical algorithm, which also seems to sort all the replies into some incomprehensible order whether they have been upvoted or not. (I know one can manually select 'Sort By: Oldest', but that gets reset each time you come back.) It's as if Apple tried to take Stack's best answer sorting and apply it to a discussion forum, which is a big usability fail if you ask me. Anyway, I'm getting off-topic now so I'll leave it there (and see if the algorithm correctly leaves this comment at the bottom of the page 😂).

Edit: Somehow I managed to create a duplicate comment, even though I'm 99% sure I didn't hit the Post button on that first one—I just left the page briefly so I could test something. That breaks some long established rules about how a public forum should work. 🫤 I can't even edit it now that a few minutes have elapsed.

Thanks Jim! Found it under 'Preferences'.

Also, for the record, I can't replicate the other issue I mentioned about my draft comment getting published, leading me to wonder if I may have been editing an already published comment when I left the page. So that one we can probably put down to human error.

@Richard.Taylor, looks like you're in the Photos app. This issue occurs in the Files app remember.