How can I fix Markup Photos with text problems on my iPhone?

It sounds like a bug with iOS 18. Here are a few things to try:

1. Restart your iPhone and check if the issue resolves.
2. Ensure you’re on the latest iOS version by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
3. If the issue persists, you can reset all settings (Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset All Settings). This won’t erase your data.

 Fix Photos App Keeps Crashing on iOS Guide

If none of these work, you can report the bug to Apple via the Feedback Assistant app. In the meantime, consider using a third-party app like Snapseed to edit text color.

allfost wrote: just installed the iOS 18.0.1 update. Looks like they fixed this issue. 🙌

Really! I hope that's true for everyone…

It is working for me now (on an iPhone 15 Pro Max), but I have to use the color palette in the text tools, not the color picker in the main toolbar. That is very confusing.

joanie161, do these steps below. It's a permanent fix and only needs to be done once:

Open your photo and click the 'edit' icon.

Click the "markup" icon at top-right (tip of a pen).

Select the pencil-eraser icon at the bottom.

Tap your photo.

Now you should be able to click the + icon and add text, change font colors, and edit normally.

Updating to iOS 18.3 resolve the issue for me.

dobomagnes, do these steps below. It's a permanent fix and only needs to be done once:

Open your photo and click the 'edit' icon.

Click the "markup" icon at top-right (tip of a pen).

Select the pencil-eraser icon at the bottom.

Tap your photo.

Now you should be able to click the + icon and add text, change font colors, and edit normally.

Tap the eraser icon, tap the image, then edit text as normal. Whatever, it works

As the photos are on the cloud, I was able to change the font color on the photo using my iPad 5, but NOT the iPhone 16 Pro that has the original photo. Recently updated to 18.1.1, but it wasn’t an issue until 17 or so. Weird.

Changing the text color has been an ongoing problem for many users. It appears as if it's a bug in that particular app and/or system. All you can do is report it to Apple frequently via iPhone Feedback.   

Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

its 2 feb 2025 - 4 months after this thread was opened and ive

just experienced it for the first time (I don’t use photos markup on iPhone very often but I have used it a number of times whilst on iOS 18 and head to change text colour for readability at least two or three times .

Initially I was trying to change the text colour and other text formatting using the”Aa” formatting option that appears briefly when you either past in a text box or open a new one.

The extremely clunky and convoluted procedure described as the “workaround” is however I’ve always changed formatting settings and i only recently noticed the “Aa” format option thinking “hallelujah! apples finally got something right in ios 18. No wondering if it was there all along? Either way, I can confirm that I first experience the colour picker disappears immediately upon opening bug this evening, and the workaround/ my only way of formatting markup text in photos edit until recently … is even more annoying and frustrating to use because there’s no select text or select all option when you press. Seeing the way iPhone is being increasingly locked down and how many apps are no longer available in the share sheet, I suspect that Apple either deliberately removed select/select all from the options in photos edit markup or is no longer removing that option on an app by app basis and is now removing select all at a global / system wide or at least wider basis.

Increasingly, I’m seeing just as many annoying bugs and crippled features with each minor or major update on apples products as we’re all accustomed to on windows and iPhone annoyance levels are now approaching the degree I experienced on Samsung‘s flagship phone about 12 years ago at which point I’ve ended my android experiment and returned to Apple.

still have the other bugs that iOS 18 introduced as well, battery still often drains very quickly – sometimes can barely keep up watching a YouTube video on Safari when plugged in to an Apple USB charger and high-quality USB to lightning cable – same charger that came with my 11 pro, screen reader bug – Siri starts narrating the page, but when you click on screen reader controls it shows that voice output is paused. Pressing play just opens a second narrator talking over the first one , quitting out of the app with the text being narrated doesn’t stop it – only way to make Phone shut up is to switch it off. then there’s AutoCorrect, voice dictation using Apple keyboard and text entry lagging out becoming ridiculous ridiculously slow and non-responsive as a long message, document, ETC is composed. This comment/reply started showing signs of serious text entry lag before I started this paragraph.

I’ve added mention of the other bugs I’m experiencing as they may well be implicated or relevant to the photo editing app issues.

ios 18.2.1, iphone 14pro

broken in 18.2.1 update.

was working in 18.1 on iphone13

Myself and many others have reported this same issue. It involves many different iphones, mine being Xr, but we all have the same complaint, that the results are from the last big update. Yet Apple has made zero response about this, and they have not provided an update to fix this issue. It is very frustrating because I use this tool very often, like many others who have contributed to this discussion. Maybe Apple has no idea how to fix it, or to them, it’s just not a big enough issue to waste their time on.

Interim solution: Create your text in the font and color in your notes app and copy and paste into your text field in the picture. Worked well for me today. Good luck.

please leave the feed back for Apple to fix it, which was mentioned in a previous post.

I did today.

I have the exact same problem since first updating to iOS 18.

I noticed it first with adding shapes (e.g. a rectangle—which is grey by default). I can’t choose a color or get to the color picker, because the menu keeps disappearing.

Same with text. At the first try I can still change the point size in the same floating menu, but once I try to change the color, the menu keeps popping up for half a second from then on.

I reported it as a bug on apple.com/feedback several times.

On iOS 18.2.1 (22C161) it’s still an issue.

iPhone 13 mini.

(Seems to work on my old iPad Pro, though)

First of the advisor is not the problem. Apple itself is the problem. You Apple train and advise your support team always wrong and unreliable information. Almost every time I have to go on internet or look at Apple discussion treads and find the solution. And the solution for rebooting or reinstalling the new phone hardware almost never works. Stop giving your tech people this choice. The problem almost always relies in your very own software glitches.

So for this problem of text to change color.

I found that you can do the format by selecting the word and taping format.

But then later reading more I. Discussions I later found that you can hit markup and tape in the erase and then everything goes back to normal. So again. An Apple glitch. Very frustrating and disappointing a company so massive can’t share this information in all related issues. Because I learned that months ago from the treads that if you did this with the erase it would solve the problem. So again. Why did I contact three tech people and all them told me to reset my phone or do a hard reset. Lucky I don’t listen to this people and make it harder on myself to reprogram ever Back. I learned 10 years ago this resetting almost never works. Stop tell the people this.