How to permanently unlock aspect ratio when cropping photos on iPhone 16 running iOS 26.1?

No. The default setting used to be Freeform, as it is now on the Mac. My guess is that more people want it set to the aspect ratio they chose when they took the picture, so this works better for more people. But it's worth a shot to ask Apple to make this a choice, or to leave it as it was last set.

You can make suggestions to Apple here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

We've seen this work, before!

I want to permanently unlock the ratio aspect as well. As a photographer, I’m getting really tired of having to unlock my ratio aspect every single time! Apple, you should give the CHOICE of keeping the ratio aspect unlocked or locked!! Your new way is infuriating!

Beany73 wrote: I want to permanently unlock the ratio aspect as well. As a photographer, I’m getting really tired of having to unlock my ratio aspect every single time! Apple, you should give the CHOICE of keeping the ratio aspect unlocked or locked!! Your new way is infuriating!

Helpful Hint: It's a good idea to read the previous responses before entering yours, as well as reading the instructions for the site. You would see that this is not Apple, and Apple techs don't read this stuff. Rather, this is a Community of users like yourself who have no connection to how Apple designs its OSs. You would also see a link to a site where you can make suggestions directly to Apple. Here it is, again

You can make suggestions to Apple here:

Feedback - Photos - Apple

Thank you. I’ll try that link. I do apologize, after hitting send the entire page finally loaded where I was able to read the entire thread but there was no way of deleting my comment. 😊