iOS 26 – Contact Photo & Poster System is Broken

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andylew0 Author

Level 1

87 points

iOS 26 – Contact Photo & Poster System is Broken

Since updating to iOS 26, the Contacts “Photo & Poster” system is completely bugged.

When setting a contact photo, the system forces you to create a Poster as well.

Choosing a background (like black) often nukes the contact photo (washed out or inverted).

Even when saving, the profile circle and Poster don’t match — sometimes it shows no photo at all.

iCloud sync makes it worse: duplicates appear, and edits on Mac don’t carry through properly to iPhone.

I’ve tested this across my own card and multiple family contacts — it’s consistent.

I’ve already:

Restarted and force-restarted the phone.

Toggled iCloud Contacts off and on.

Tried editing on Mac and iPad.

Result = still broken.

To make it worse: I had Apple Support on the phone, they screen-shared, saw the error with their own eyes… then came back 5 minutes later and told me I was “on Beta” because iOS 26 hasn’t been released yet. Except it was — last night.

This is clearly a release bug, not user error. Can Apple confirm if a fix is being worked on?

iPhone 16 Pro Max

Posted on Sep 16, 2025 4:54 AM

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Answer 1

andylew0 Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 16, 2025 7:41 AM in response to LD150

“Yeah, that’s how it should work — Avatar or Poster. The issue on iOS 26 is that it doesn’t actually let you pick just Avatar anymore. As soon as you hit the ✅ it forces you into setting a Poster, which then overrides the contact photo. That’s why it looks broken — you can’t just keep the contact photo on its own like before. Apple support have already screen-shared with me and seen the same behaviour, so it’s definitely not ‘either/or’ in practice right now

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Answer 2

LD150

Level 10

102,530 points

Sep 16, 2025 2:01 PM in response to andylew0

andylew0 wrote:

“Yeah, that’s how it should work — Avatar or Poster. The issue on iOS 26 is that it doesn’t actually let you pick just Avatar anymore. As soon as you hit the ✅ it forces you into setting a Poster, which then overrides the contact photo. That’s why it looks broken — you can’t just keep the contact photo on its own like before. Apple support have already screen-shared with me and seen the same behaviour, so it’s definitely not ‘either/or’ in practice right now

There is only one place to report what you think is a bug https://apple.com/feedback

Not here.

BTW I use the same image in avatar and poster so it doesn’t matter anyway.

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Answer 3

Sep 16, 2025 12:39 PM in response to andylew0

I have a similar issue in that the contacts list on iOS 26 is now a mixture of round and square profile pics. Was always round before update in iOS 18.6.1

MacOS 26 contacts are fine - all round. So its just an issue with iOS Contacts.

Also the sorting in iOS contacts differs from MacOS. For instance I have 2 contacts that are businesses with numbers in their titles. 7DayShop and 288 Bar and Wok. On iOS, 288 is first then 7DayShop. On MacOS its the other way around, correct, as 7 is before 288.

I really can't figure out why its happening and I've reset iCloud contacts and this doesn't help.

Hopefully 26.1 will resolve.

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Answer 4

andylew0 Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 17, 2025 1:55 AM in response to LD150

LD150 Wrote:

There is only one place to report what you think is a bug https://apple.com/feedback

Not here.

BTW I use the same image in avatar and poster so it doesn’t matter anyway.

Mate, honestly,try reading the post instead of replying on autopilot. I’m not confused about how Avatar/Poster should work, I’m pointing out that in iOS 26 it doesn’t let you choose Avatar only anymore. As soon as you tap Avatar, it forces a Poster too, which overrides the contact photo. Apple support literally screen-shared with me, saw it live, and confirmed it’s broken.

And it’s not just the iPhone, on my Mac, when I hover the mouse where the photo should be, it actually gives me options to edit the picture. That proves the photo is there, but it’s being hidden under the solid black Poster layer. So yeah, definitely a bug, not “either/or.”

Telling people to ‘just use the same image twice’ is like telling someone whose steering wheel fell off to ‘just keep driving straight.’ That’s not a fix, that’s papering over the crack.

If you’re happy duplicating images and pretending that’s normal behaviour, fair play but some of us actually prefer our devices working properly rather than sticking plaster solutions. Otherwise you’re basically beta testing denial.

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Answer 5

andylew0 Author

Level 1

87 points

Sep 16, 2025 7:46 AM in response to Kurtosis12

Yeah, I know it’s user-to-user — but let’s be real here, Apple does keep eyes on these forums. Posts get moderated, moved, or nuked if they step out of line, and every so often you’ll see the official “Apple Recommended” badge when a community specialist jumps in. It’s not just free-for-all Reddit chaos.

The point is: enough users reporting the same bug here does get Apple’s attention, because community specialists escalate hot threads internally. So while you lot can’t “confirm what Apple is working on,” don’t pretend this place is totally off the radar either.

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