We Fixed the iOS 18 Photos App: Try These Simple Tips!

With iOS 18, Apple overhauled the Photos app, introducing a new, unified design that did away with the navigation bar and merged everything into a single screen. It marked the single biggest change to image management since the launch of the ‌Photos‌ app, and it's been controversial with some users.

There's no returning to what the ‌Photos‌ app used to be unless Apple decides to roll back the changes, but there are a few tweaks that can be made to make it easier to get used to the new layout.

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[ericpisch]

Fantastic, removed everything apart from media and albums and boom back to how it used to be and working just how I want it 🎉

[jonnymakers]

There was NO reason to change this app. It was working perfectly. Apple at the very least needs to give us the option to revert back.

[Reezy]

We don’t THINK it kinda sucks. We KNOW it sucks

[robertbeadle]

This app has become a bloated mess. Thanks for this helpful video to sort through the clutter. Another example of software engineers adding so many features to an app, they make it less accessible.

[trumpcard]

Apple should add one slide button.
Retain new version <--> Retain old version
Let the consumers vote!

[Pressplayandrelax]

The engineers that “invented” this updated mess needs to be fired 🤬

[mr_daihatsu]

This doesn’t solve the problem of when you’re watching a video and it crops and you have to do extra touches swipes and gestures just to get the scroll up. The Photos app is a complete mess and needs to be reverted.

[chewy]

Is there a way to revert back. I can’t stand the new version

[SonnyDaniel]

Thanks for trying bro but it still sucks mostly for people syncing with the Mac, everything is still a mess at the top

[awc]

The old layout was so much better, opening the app and having all your photos sorted into albums especially the album with everything was so much better then all your photos dumped at the top.

[jjd]

I hate hate hate the new photos app, and imo it just moves further away from being useful then it ever has been. Any time I want to share a photo on any other app (messaging or socials) the photo picker makes it utterly impossible to find the exact photo I need because nothing is organised in date order, or by the actual album the photo is in. Its a colossal mess.

[JustAPersonWhoComments]

iOS 17 Photos app is better than iOS 18

[conversationswithcritters]

I need a tutorial that explains how to go back to original format when editing videos. The mini play / pause button on left and tiny slider is so glitchy and awful. I need the old format to simply tap the screen to go back and forth between pausing and playing that had absolutely easy and seamless slider.

[davepuma]

Just give us the old layout back or at least the option to stop using the current disaster!

[hanss]

Also not possible: if I move photo's in a folder in order to clean my library, they still appear in the library. No way to toggle on or off☹️

[xazqe]

FINALLY there's the option to not show screenshots, just actual photos - it has almost driven me nuts over the years that this feature hasn't existed before! BUT unfortunately it doesn't just show photos taken by the camera/a camera. It also shows other pictures that aren't screenshots, pictures that have been saved to the photo library from Safari or Facebook for example. So Apple were so close to nailing that feature down perfectly - they just have to improve that setting to filter out all images that don't have camera metadata stored in them, so that it only shows actual camera taken photos (no screenshots, nor saved pictures from the interwebs).

[davidbryanwoodworksandmore]

Thanks for the help. I really was not happy when I updated to this os. I still don’t like the playing of videos appearance. It’s like there is too much stuff on the screen and I just want it to play full screen. It used to be so simple. Is there a way to just have it start playing videos without a lot of crud on the screen? Also make it full screen from the start?

[veralevy]

Stick your AI features wherever you want, but please do not put them on our phones

[spyharpy]

With every UI change, there always one thing I ALWAYS notice. MORE CLICKING! In the previous version, I scroll down to Videos, click and boom, all my videos. Now, get to the up/down button, * click * that, then * click * View Options, again another * click * to finally see Videos. Click, click, click, click, …. How is this better?? All these suggested categories just plain suck as the photos I want rarely show up so I turn all that off. I will stay with 17 until my phone becomes unusable.

[Skikongen]

"After iOS 18, I can no longer find pictures from, for example, January 2018 using the search function. Does anyone know why?"