Can't edit or share my iPhone photos

I know this is super late but I just recently saw your post. I had the same question and problem. Unfortunately in low power mode the phone will not allow you to upload or share. Once taken out of that mode you will be able to do so. I really hope this helps.

Thanks for "fixing" the problem for me. I just needed to update to iOS 11.1.2.
I now have the option to edit all the photos that I coudn't before.

THANKS!!!

Given the number of people that have indicated “me too”, Apple must be aware of this issue.

I’ve been using iOS and iPhoto (and now photos) for years without issue. This bug manifested itself only when I turned on iCloud Photo Library and optimize phone storage. I’ve got 123k photos and 5k videos.

If you’re patient, you can almost “see” that the bug is related to iCloud sync. If you take a picture, it’s immediately visible in the camera roll on the camera app, but not in Photos. If you display the picture in the camera app, and do nothing - sit there - while connected to WiFi, the share option will become available, presumably after the sync is complete. If you’re not in WiFi and have cellular sync disabled, the option to share will remain greyed out until you’re on WiFi.

What concerns me most is that Apple might consider this expected behavior and not a bug. It’s a terrible customer experience and needs to be fixed.

I finally spent the time to speak with Apple Support, eventually getting my case "escalated" to a Photos app specialist (who was very helpful but took me forever to be put in touch with). He suggested he have my iCloud Photo Library examined by a specialist as there might be some files therein that are causing the problem. Sure enough, about a week later, my entire camera roll is back to normal and no problem accessing/editing photos--just as it should.

Best thing I can recommend is to dedicate some time to work with Apple Support to resolve the issue. It's a bit painstaking, but eventually a solution was found.

I think I solved the problem. Go to settings, cellular and turn on camera.

Taking a screen shot of the image reduces image quality and doesn't capture metadata like date and time. The Afterlight suggestion worked for me. This issue has been happening periodically on my girlfriend's 7 Plus. Updating to iOS 11.2 didn't fix anything (maybe new pictures will work better). She doesn't have Afterlight but has VSCO. Saving a new copy of the image from the VSCO app enables the Edit and Share buttons for the new image in Photos. Seems like the workaround is to duplicate the image from some third party app. Hopefully Apple fixes this!

Hello,

I installed the last version of iOS (11.2.1) on my iPhone 6 Plus and in my case the problem was solved, now at last I can edit and share photos from the Photos app and from the Camera. Previously I had iOS 11.XXX (iOS11 but I do not remember exactly which version) and I could not edit and share photos. Just in case: I do not use iCloud to backup my photos.

Best regards

If you use iCloud Photo Library and Optimize IPhone Storage option, it might be a problem with your cloud library. I would recommend getting on the phone with Apple Support and getting them to transfer you to a Photos app specialist. They can have someone examine your iCloud Photo Library as there might be something in the cloud clogging up the memory/bandwidth, which can take about a week.

I did it a few weeks ago and everything seems to be working perfectly again—no longer having problems with editing/sharing photos.

I had the same problem until I downloaded the new iOS 11.1.2. Hope this helps!

A workaround, although not a solution necessarily, for those of us who like me, tried the "Solved" answer, and tried closing the photos app and restarting phone, neither of which worked, is to take a screenshot of the photo in question and work with that (share, edit, etc.). This was suggested in one of the answers but not really posed as a solution so I wanted to suggest that, as long as you don't need any of the "live" features embedded in that photo, since obviously a screenshot won't capture these.

Work around: I have Afterlight installed on my phone. I load the Afterlight App outside of photos (not using the extension in the photos app). I am then able to load the affected photo and save a copy of the photo. When I come back to photos the new copy is able to be sent. Don’t know why it just seems to work.

I noticed this behavior only occurs with photos taken while iPhone is locked and using camera shortcut/swipe. So all other photos taken while unlocked are able to be edited and shared. Hope Apple release a fix to unlock these photos... Shortcut is as its name describe it to reduce steps having the camera app handy and reachable with a single swipe... But this shortcut becomes to nonsense if these files are not able to be shared or edited for any other purposes through photo/camera roll app.

Here's a workaround that I found if you also have a Mac:

1. Open the problem photo in Photos on the Mac after it syncs.

2. Choose File -> Export -> Export Unmodified Original for 1 Photo

(This will put create two files - a file ending in .HEIC and the movie part of the live photo, ending in .mov.)

3. Delete the problem photo.

4. Choose File -> Import and select both exported files (hold the command key to select multiple files). This will import one photo with the metadata and the video part of the live photo preserved. When it syncs back to your iPhone it should be editable/sharable again.

Curious about you others out there having this issue of not being able to edit or share/export photos you literally JUST effing took. Trying to help determine the cause, as it doesn't seem to be the mass population...

• What version iPhone do you have?I'm on iPhone X
• What iOs version are you running?I'm on 11.3.1
• How many items (photos/videos) are in your iCloud photo library?Mine is over 110k which could be part of the problem
• Do you have your PHOTOS settings set to "Optimize iPhone Storage" or "Download and Keep Originals"?I have mine set to "Optimize iPhone Storage", which I understand requires a stable internet connection because photos are instantly sent to the cloud before they can be edited/exported to other apps.
  
• How long has this been happening for you?I started noticing it back in March 2018
• Do you notice any difference being connected to WiFi vs. LTE/cellular?I do notice that it eventually works while connected to Gigabit bandwidth wifi, but significantly lag time. Otherwise, on cellular, it doesn't seem to work at all.
• When you open PHOTO APP and look at PHOTOS tab, does the status at the very bottom under the photo grid say "Last Updated XX min ago" or "Uploading XXX,XXX photos" or....?For me, it usually says something like "Uploading 113,313 items" and never changes. On the rare occasion that it says "Last Updated" or "Update complete", my photos and editing ability magically work as it should be... which makes me think that the problem lies in when it's constantly updating/syncing to the iCloud server with a very large library.