Edit button missing on my photos in iPhone post iOS 18 update

When I click on the 3 'bubble lines' at the bottom, it see 'Cancel' upper left-hand corner, 'Done' on the upper right-hand corner and "Loading" on the photo and it stays that way until it stops and then reverts to the original photo without the options to edit it.

The three dots at the top give me copy, duplicate, hide, play as a slideshow, add to album, adjust date & time, adjust location.

I am also unable to email myself photos using the Icloud link now; it is stuck on ' Preparing iCloud Link...' and then it fails.

[Edited by Moderator]

Edit function missing for photos since recent upgrade. Not available when I click the 3 dots. Where is it?

Also, albums now hard to find, lots of unwanted miscellaneous photos that show up below when I go to photos.

You need to unlock the edit function Click on the pic you working on.

then Tap quickly twice on the 3 lines again. If a little 🔒shows up on your screen top left corner then click on it🔒 and it should unlocked the edit function

Click on the photo you want to edit with the 3lines and then double click on them again (tap-tap) a little yellow heart 💛 will show on top of the 3 lines .. !! After that should be able to use the edit function.

Hope it helps 🍀

Listen Apple, Why did you undo the excellent photo editing tools. As Valerie 1129 commented above, WHY???

Photographers are not necessarily computer geeks…like me, 83 yrs old, with little time left for shenanigans like you’ve pulled. Just revert back to before iOS 18 update. PLEASE

Yes, I put off updating as long as I could because I got a new prompt requiring me to agree with possibly losing functions that we previously had. So it sounds like Apple made a deal with some third party apps that we didn’t use to need. Brilliant. My iPhone 13 has been glitchy from day one anyway, but the great edit features that were one of their selling points is now relegated to a third party? This seems out of line with their stated mission and vision. Super frustrated with Apple.

Found it after an hour of searching through this forum and the phone itself. Needed and expected an easy edit to write a note on something before sending to work and lost that time this morning. Apple please give warnings with instructions when changing things like this. It’s very poor customer service. Disregards user experience which I thought was one of Apple’s values.

I do not get the extensions option when tapping the 3 dots at the top so what now? I only updated because it was meant to give me AI access to be able to erase prope/objects from photos via the edit button ( clean up) That facility isn’t there either?

Tillster20 wrote: "...( clean up) That facility isn’t there either?"

Tillster ~ Does this explain its absence?...

"Clean Up is available in iOS 18.1 on all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max in most regions around the world." Source:

Use Apple Intelligence in Photos on iPhone - Apple Support

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Any way for Apple to see the GRIEF they have caused? Do they get feedback and if so where?! What alot of wasted man hours trying to recoup what we had been contentedly using and mastering. All those programmers should be relieved of their jobs. Bring on a new set with ordinary common sense.

Ps: I’m almost 80, a semi professional photographer for many yrs, love the iPhone’s creative possibilities, love the basic editing tools and then onward from there, feel totally worked over by these ‘upgrades’ (it gives the word ‘upgrade’ a new and special meaning)…..

mbutler1945 wrote: "Any way for Apple to see the GRIEF they have caused? Do they get feedback and if so where?!..."

mbutler ~ Put your feedback along with the URL of this ASC thread into this form:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

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Mark I see it.. and I have it.. but it only brings up a basic edit option. Where are my 3rd party editing options that were always there until the recent update? I had several like camera plus and more. So if you can show us how to access those.

I want to rotate the picture and there is no way to do it under the new edit button. How can I rotate the picture? Where will I find the old edit button now? I figured it out on my own. The crop button rotates the picture. Not a smart move!

placorte wrote: "I hate this update with no editing tools..."

placorte ~ Are you sure there are no editing tools?...

Edit photos and videos on iPhone - Apple Support

Crop, rotate, flip, or straighten photos and videos on iPhone - Apple Support

Edit with third-party apps and extensions in Photos - Apple Support

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Ok so I found the edit. But what I can’t find is when I go to post a pic on my social media there used to be an option on the bottom of the photo to change the file size. Now it’s gone. Therefore many of my pics I cannot post because the file size is limited and my pic file size is too large. Ugh. Anyone???

Ok so being in a chat with apple for like 2 hours. Those squiggles lines did nothing for me. So this is what I found out. Double tap photo like you normally do. You will see markup on the top right. At the bottom of markup you will see a + sign. Hit that and you see a text button. So hit that and you see bold, size. BUT when i text I can’t change text size or other details. Then if you try to move the text sometimes I get a streak of color from the mark up. Best of luck and if you out how to change text please reply!!!!!