Video Playback on iOS 18 is Broken - Video size is small and timeline ends early when setting video to full frame or zooming in. Serious bug.

Can confirm that upgrading to 18.2 resolved the issue thankfully

Turns out you can still scrub, it just takes some effort.

if you tap “edit” (the one that looks like 3 sliders), the old scrubber comes up. You can even resize and zoom the video.

It’s not maybe ideal for instant viewing, but the feature is still in there.

Hope that helps.

MeMyselfIandU wrote:

The updated “Photos App” has ruined the use of video playback. I use video playback on my phone everyday for my work, analyzing high performance athletes. Because when you record video you cannot go from 0.5-7x zoom you use hi-res and pitch and zoom while dragging through video.

For what ever reason someone decided to remove this feature, yet keep the ability on IpadOS 18.2.1 does allow this? How can the developers make this kind of mistake?

i am thankful i do not need to tap the correct miniature thumbnail at the bottom to open it up in order to drag through the video so there has been improvements, but why is IOS unable to keep the video scrolling feature while zooming but my 3rd gen iPad Air on IpadOS18 can?

I have discussed this with hundred of clients who all hate this bug

So tell Apple. Have all of your clients tell Apple.

Product Feedback - Apple

Also, consider getting an app that's designed for professional use rather than a consumer-grade one.

I hate this upgrade for the Photos app too.

Not sure if it fully solves the issue, but if you pinch out slightly with 2 fingers, the video display size will increase to cover the whole screen. Most of the time it seems to still allow playback of the whole video while “zoomed in”. Certainly taking some getting used to. I prefer how it was before and really dislike the new scrubbing.

corp_tkjo wrote:

discussions.apple.com means this definitely should be Apple!

Are you there please?

Apple's participation in this user-to-user forum is largely limited to making sure that people follow the rules. The only time they respond in a thread is if there is a matter of health or safety. They will not be responding in this thread.

You can certainly let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

If you want to discuss your issues with them directly, use the Surpport link at the bottom left of every page of these forums.

I absolutely hate the latest update too. The Photos app is absolutely horrific. I can’t stand it! One of the worst issues is definitely with the videos and photos not showing and not playing in full screen, but I was able to fix that by just tapping the video, which makes it to go full screen.

However, doing that makes you lose access to the scrubber—and the new scrubber is awful! I can’t stand it. Apple really needs to get their priorities straight, what are we doing Apple???

Here’s something else to watch out for: I recorded a 20-minute video, but the playback would stop at around 3 minutes every time. I reset my phone, closed the Photos app multiple times, and thought I had lost all my footage. It seemed like the file was corrupted.

I’m not sure if it happened because I used the new pause feature and locked my phone, or if there was some other issue causing the corruption. But iOS 18 has been such a mixed bag—it’s great in some ways but also feels very unfinished and unpolished, which is so unlike Apple. Like it’s ok, just wait a little longer and finish it and make it work right, makes y’all look bad!

Thankfully, I managed to fix the video by importing the clip into an app called VideoShop (it’s a paid app, unfortunately). I’m sure iMovie or another editing app would work too. Once I imported and exported the clip, it worked all the way through. But before exporting, it wouldn’t even play properly in VideoShop. It’s crazy that we have to resort to these workarounds.

Honestly, Apple has been ridiculous lately—it’s genuinely upsetting.

Hope this helps someone.

I tried to use my phone to replay a work conference seminar to take notes and was surprised to see the video interface was totally changed on my work phone. Brentgrab's youtube video exactly demonstrates the problems with the video playback in iOS 18 in the Photos app. The scrubber bar was eliminated; it should return because it is much more intuitive to see where to scrub visually rather than on a blank bar. The viewing screen is by default zoomed out with useless buttons on the sides. If you make the video full screen, you lose the ability to navigate through the video at all. If you zoom into the video and then try to play it again, it only plays the very beginning of the video. The functionality of this part of the OS is totally broken and needs to be restored to the functionality available in the most recent version of iOS 17 as soon as possible.

JohnnyApple2 wrote:

The new way of viewing videos in the photos app is terrible. Apple, please fix it or revert it back to how it was before. I am seriously considering switching to an Android device because of this problem; it’s that debilitating for everyday use of my iPhone :(

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Folks: post this on the feedback channel were there is a much better chance of Apple seeing it. They do promise to read everything there.

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

or

Feedback - Camera - Apple

You can still zoom and scrub. Just don’t hit the pause button.

The old way was better, but at least this works until Apple fixes it.