Suddenly, all my photos are dark! Happened a couple months ago. Both iPhone and Mac do the same. In my searching I found that HDR to turn off does not work with iPhone 13. Someone said it might be the latest upgrade. I have several thousand photos and this is just crazy!! I would appreciate any help!
MacBook Air, macOS 26.2
Tom Perkins1 wrote:
FIRST, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PROMPT REPLY!
TAHOE 26.2
ALL PHOTOS NEW AND OLD
I THINK I USE ICLOUD PHOTOS. (I AM A TECHNO IMPAIRED SENIOR...)
I DON'T THINK I USE OPTIMIZER STORAGE. THAT IS, NOTHING RINGS A BELL
SURE ENOUGH THE ICLOUD PHOTOS ARE NORMAL AND NOT DARK!!
So, you do use iCloud! That's good. You can see about "Optimize" at Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos
So it seems the bug is in Photo software...
I wouldn't thinK it's a bug, since I don't see it. Clearly your MacAir M2 is plenty up to date! We know the pictures are OK, since they are good at iCloud.com. The pictures on your Mac are exactly the same.
On the Mac, try these two things:
To narrow things down, try these steps:
Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
For safe mode, I'd write down the instructions (or print them) -- it's not at all hard, but I always have to look up the sequence, and I'll forget halfway through!
I'll be curious what happens…
What iOS are you using?
By all photos, do you include older ones that used to look OK?
Do you use iCloud Photos? If so, do you use Optimize Storage? How do the pictures look at iCloud.com?
What is your storage on this iPhone? At Settings>General>iPhone Storage, my phone says 50.5 GB of 128 GB used. What does yours say? Do you have more than 10% free storage on your iPhone?
Have you looked at the Photographic Styles at Settings>Camera?
Let us know…
FIRST, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PROMPT REPLY!
TAHOE 26.2
ALL PHOTOS NEW AND OLD
I THINK I USE ICLOUD PHOTOS. (I AM A TECHNO IMPAIRED SENIOR...)
I DON'T THINK I USE OPTIMIZER STORAGE. THAT IS, NOTHING RINGS A BELL
SURE ENOUGH THE ICLOUD PHOTOS ARE NORMAL AND NOT DARK!! I SPENT AN HOUR DOWNLOADING, EMAILING, AND TEXTING THOSE PHOTOS FROM ICLOUD.
55 OF 128 USED
PHOTOGRAPHIC STYLES: STANDARD.
So it seems the bug is in Photo software...I think, as both iPhone 13 and my Macbook 2022 M2 have the same dark images. Again, THANK YOU for this help!
Richard, have not forgotten and many thanks again. I'm slowly working through your suggestions. First following instructions in iCloud there is no text field for "optimize iPhone storage. I laughed as I have a bucket of screen shots to show but now realize I can only upload one per reply. Ditto for showing dark and light photos. I have done the "safe" mode twice, just to be sure. Ok, five if you really must know. I'm slow. So far, nothing. HOWEVER, now I get about 25% that stay light. Go figure!
All photos appear dark on iPhone and Mac
