iOS 26: Contact posters cannot be removed and “Phone” storage balloons (~3 GB) — severe regression

Delete the contact and add back.

This should take a minimum of storage. If it is several GB contact Apple support https://support.apple.com or report it https://apple.com/feedback

I agree. There needs to be an option to delete your own image, poster and your iPhone contact information if need be. For privacy. This did not used to be so hard to do. Now I can only change it to another photo or poster, I can’t just delete it. It’s a really simple option that is just nonexistent right now: Please fix this asap.

I'm so glad to have found your post. I thought I was going crazy. I can add that I tried to replace just the contact picture of a contact through Mac OS Contacts, and while it appears to work, the moment I click save, I see the poster and a "glass bubble" with initials, not the picture I chose. Re-creating the contact is impractical because some of mine have many entries, and deleting will also remove references to made and received calls.

I didn't ask for posters and wish they'd never "forced" this.

You can make a suggestion to Apple here -

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

I never had ANY avatars or posters but after the iOS v26.0 and v26.0.1 - I still have some funky background color, which I think is taken from my wallpaper, but no matter where its from, I can barely read my contact detail information on my OWN contact

[Edited by Moderator]

Here’s a new issue.

I just upgraded to iOS 26 last night

When I scroll down to the bottom of my contact the poster color is extended all the way down to notes.

This happens on contacts that didn't even have a poster!!!

For an older person who needs good contrast having dark gray blue where the white area used to be makes things very hard to see!

VKarnes wrote:

Here’s a new issue.

I just upgraded to iOS 26 last night

When I scroll down to the bottom of my contact the poster color is extended all the way down to notes.

This happens on contacts that didn't even have a poster!!!

For an older person who needs good contrast having dark gray blue where the white area used to be makes things very hard to see!

Contact legibility, white on grey for example, is not solvable without adding a contrasting contact photo .

You can put in a feature request here https://apple.com/feedback eg please make contacts readable!

This is not ideal as I do not have time to delete and re-enter each contact. I am having this issue on my state issued iPhone used for work. I do not want client photos showing up when they call and I would prefer all of the contacts to appear the same when receiving a call.

When it comes to IOS updates Apple have decided that an emoji or a background colour, etc. is the best they can do. If I was 5 years old I might think this is good and if you are 5, no problem.

But how about a choice? I would like black lettering on a white background but that is not available.

And even if you did like the 'M&M' approach, the colours are similarly dull and repetitive. Try changing

everyone in your contacts to make your day. Workaround advice is available but not to achieve what

Apple should have known - hours spent trying find some solution is about as bad as public relations and marketing can get.

I've been using Apple products since the early 80s and each change has taken some getting used to.

But not these latest examples. Perhaps it's time for a real update to remove the needless 'improvements'.

All agreed. This is a serious lapse in Apple consumer care. Urgent fix needed!

I know iOS26 is still in development but that is a huge step back in UX, would be nice to have possibility in managing the contact looks and the amount of storage it is taking is very confusing

I’m still having this problem. There should be a way to delete a contact’s photo that I added years ago and replace it with the default avatar.