Can I downgrade from iOS 18.5 to iOS 17 to avoid Photos app issues?

No. Downgrading iOS has NEVER been supported. iOS 17 is no longer signed. If you want to update and your phone is eligible to be updated, it will update to the most current version of iOS, which is 18.5.

The new Photos App is way more customizable than it ever was before. You can organize it any way you want. And once you get used to it, you'll wonder how you survived without it.

Read this link to learn about customization of the app --> Customize the Photos app on iPhone - Apple Support

Is it possible to update to iOS 17 and not 18? Because in the update settings, it only shows 18.5. Having many folders and albums organized in a certain way, I'm not willing to take these risks because if they get lost, it would obviously be a disaster for me. I've even read about lost albums and photos after upgrading to iOS 18.

No, you can only update to the most current iOS version supported by your device, no intermediate updates are possible. For an iPhone 14 that is iOS 18.5

In these months, after all these reports and complaints, has Apple resolved the issues?

There are no real issues to be resolved. People simply don't like change, and have had a hard time adapting to the way the Photos app works now. But it works as its designed to work. It has a lot of customization now.

The only issue I had was with the Markup toolbar glitch where it moved out of view so could not be used when adding text or a shape to a photo. But that was fixed in a previous update.

Is version 18.5 better than 18, or is it the same?

Pretty much the same. 18.5 does not make any real changes to the way the Photos app works or any functional updates. It's mostly a security patch for different vulnerabilities.

During the upgrade, besides the Photos app, have you encountered problems with other apps?

I have not personally had any issues with iOS 18, all the intermediate updates or currently with iOS 18.5 other than the aforementioned Markup toolbar issue in the Photos app.

For example, Notes app, Voice Memos, etc.? I use the Notes app a lot, where I also have several screenshots. Have you noticed changes and disappearing photos in the Notes app?

I have seen no issues either the notes app on iOS 18, though some people reported the lost their notes in a previous update, not 18.5 though. I never saw that. I use Voice Memo and Notes quite a bit and both work fine for me.

I also have many Safari pages open Could they get lost after the update?

Possibly. You should bookmark any open pages you have. Also iCloud for Safair can save you open tabs and restore them.

click here ➜ Set up iCloud for Safari on all your devices - Apple Support

You cannot upgrade to only iOS 17 and the next update for you would be iOS 18.5. Downgrading has never been possible, so you will not be able to go to iOS 17 after updating to iOS 18. Some people do not like the new Photos app, but honestly for me it is much better. You will always find people that do not want anything to ever change, but that has been true for absolutely every update and also true on devices from other manufacturers that are updated every year. You can expect when iOS 19 is launched that the same people will say it is a disaster and iOS 18 was the best ever and they want to go back to that one.

There was an issue when iOS 18 was first released where Notes disappeared. They did not actually disappear and turning Notes off/on in iCloud resynced those Notes to the device. That is no longer the case.

The contents of my Albums in the Photos app did not change at all. There are more customization options available in Photos so you now have many different ways to view them, but there was no data loss for me.

I have seen reports where Safari tabs were reset by some users, but I cannot confirm if that was widespread or in isolated cases. I don't leave tabs open in Safari, so for me I wouldn't even know if that happened when I upgraded. Sorry, I can't be more informative on that topic. Saving an open tab as a bookmark is the preferred method to manage open tabs and that is what you should be doing anyway for a website you want to return to frequently.