Where did the Camera Roll go in iOS 18

This is what I've submitted via Feedback - Photos - Apple :

Prior to iOS 18, the Photos app provided a folder called "Recents" where a user could review the photos they'd taken using that phone (as well as photos saved from messages, screenshots, etc) in order to decide which to keep, which to upload to their Mac, etc. In iOS 18, the Photos app lost that functionality. The photos described above are shown mixed up with photos synced from other sources, making it impossible to do the triage. I cannot overstate the seriousness of this loss of functionality.

At https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255760698, I see that there's a clumsy workaround in the Camera app. This doesn't work on my iPhone.

Note: I don't use iCloud Photos. I sync selected photos from our Mac to my iPhone.

> The iOS version drop-down below doesn't include iOS 18.

Using Windows File Explorer has never been an approved way to view or copy photos from an iPhone, and using it can corrupt the Photos database. The database has been reorganized with each iOS version, as other posters have mentioned. And it also doesn’t merge photo files with sidecar files that contain editing data (.aae files). I’m happy to see that Apple has finally taken steps to block this way of seeing inside iOS. Here are the supported ways of copying photos→Copying personal photos and videos from iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer

Hopey- wrote:

It truly is awful. Which genius thought it would be a good idea to replace the day/month/year feature with just “days”. And no, the search /filter does not help when you are trying to look for a photo taken sometime at the beginning of 2008….

Have you told Apple?

Product Feedback - Apple

We now have two dozen different ways to look for photos and NOT ONE is an improvement on the old version.

I think the redesign of Photos is fantastic and I've told Apple so.

sunshine1077 wrote:

This is a huuuuuuuge fail from apple. I hate this new set up. I need my camera roll back. Whoever decided on this needs to be fired

Tell Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

I've given them my feedback about how much I like the redesign.

That is not so. Camera Roll aka Recents contained the photos that had been taken by that iPhone and hadn't been deleted. I need it back. There seems to be no equivalent functionality now.

Please put Camera Roll back in next push. I can't accept this new ugly design.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

Is it possible that what you're seeing are two albums you created and named that? Photo Stream, as an actual Apple service has been gone for a long time.

That's a good theory. Though it would be odd for the update to simply remove custom folders.

Also the screen shots show the albums in list format. On mine they appear as tiles.

Very odd.

Let me correct: The photos view in the camera app is on the lower left side.

Let me clarify: The "camera roll" view I get when I look at the photos view from the Camera app displays all photos/videos stored physically on my iPhone that originally came from (1) taken by the camera, (2) saved from messages (3) saved from email attachments and finally (4) screen captures I chose to save to "Photos". It does NOT show pictures/video I synced from my Mac/PC. I do not upload my photos to Apple for any reason if I can help it. Using the Camera app to view pictures physically on my phone is a stop-gap measure. I need to see them isolated from synced Mac/PC photos in my Photos application please.

Completely agree, it’s awful. I need to be able to see my camera roll I use it for all sorts of stuff like screenshots and photos that I don’t necessarily need to keep. I sort through it monthly delete the crap then sync my photos I want to keep on my Mac to folders.

My mum had a brain haemorrhage 3 years ago and is just starting to use her phone again, just as she’s getting to grips apple do this NOT HAPPY 😡

I started this discussion and I'm having a hard time in keeping up with it as all comments are not in chronological order, have to keep bouncing back and forth between pages to try and keep up :(

Change the "Sort By" from "Rank" to "Oldest" (or "Newest").

Solution found to the missing "Recents" folder but it cost me $16. I found an app called HashPhotos in the App Store that is a photo viewer that gives me back my "Recents" view from iOS17. I can easily view and delete picture/videos stored on my iPhone that I (1) took using the iPhone camera, (2) saved to photos from emails or texts or (3) screenshots. Never thought I would have to turn to a 3rd party app to give me back baked-in iPhone functionality that was there since day 1.

I also noticed that new photos I take no longer show up in Windows File Explorer when I connect my iPhone to my PC. I see all the iOS 17 pictures taken organized in monthly folders but no new pictures taken since the iOS18 update are there. That is how I get my photos off the iPhone and onto my computer where I keep my master repository of photos, edit videos, etc.

[Edited by Moderator]

WildBillWilly82 wrote:

Please do not post false information. I have been an iOS user since the beginning. Even at version 17 of iOS, the name “Camera Roll” has still been in use.

Please do not post false information. Apple stopped using the term "Camera Roll" with iOS 13. It has been called "Recents" since then. People may have continued to use the term but people also say "tumeric."