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Where is Camera Roll after iOS 18 Update?

So I appreciate many of the features in the new iOS 18, with photos getting a huge redesign, but where did the camera roll go? For more than 10 years I’ve moved photos from my camera roll to folders on my laptop, then sync about half back to my iPhone. Before the bashing starts I do this for a few reasons - it allows me to backup my photos multiple ways, by only syncing about half back I

can keep pictures that I don’t necessarily want taking up storage (especially videos), and I can better organize them in folders. Any help? Thanks.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]


iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 17, 2024 6:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 23, 2024 7:32 AM

This is a huge headache for me as well. Now I'm stuck searching through thousands of photos for a picture I kept in my camera roll for the past month.

24 replies

Sep 17, 2024 6:06 PM in response to railroadme


Now, everything from photos, screenshots, etc. is commingled and shoved into the entire library and there is no way to find the old ones other than scroll after scroll after scroll, or hoping the search finds something. So far, the search hasn't found any of what I have searched for. But hey, if you need to find an image that has handwriting in it, it can find that…because nothing says “good search results” like the picture taken where a sign in the background used a certain font or had a handwritten note!! Morons. 


Worse is that they created a "recents" folder but there is nothing in it, so it's not recents unless you press and hold the image to add the image to this folder! So now I have to either do this to every pic I want in that folder, or sync to my Mac where I created my own "Recent" folder to put all of the stuff in that I would normally have found automatically. This means lots of extra steps with every photo I take or every image I save, or syncing far more often than necessary only for the reason of being able to keep things available so I can find them. 


[Edited by Moderator]


Sep 23, 2024 7:00 AM in response to railroadme

While I do like many of the features of iOS 18, including the Photos redesign, the fact that there is no longer a "Camera Roll" album where photos/videos taken on that specific device go is highly annoying. I just plugged in my iPhone and did a sync to Photos and told Photos to "Delete on device after import". This it did not do and now my iPhone has duplicates of photos, some from Photos imported on my Mac and some on the phone but no clear way of determining which is which!


Terrible idea Apple!

Sep 23, 2024 9:36 AM in response to railroadme

Apparently, Apple doesn’t like being told something isn’t right as they removed my response!! So trying again.


100% the issue - the only way to see what is sync’d and what is only on the iPhone/iPad now is to look for the trash can icon when viewing the photo! So if I have 2 of the same pictures on my device and one has the trash can and one doesn’t, the one that doesn’t is sync’d and then loaded back to my device and the one with the trash can is only on my device! Completely frustrating! And there is no way to search for those on device only, or find an album for these. I’ve created an album that I use to ‘add to album’ after I take the picture so I can find them. To say this is annoying and ridiculous is an understatement.

Sep 18, 2024 8:16 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

There was an actual folder called Camera Roll which was replaced by Recents. You are referring to a carousel of every picture in the library. This does not separate the pictures as every single picture is jumbled together by date taken or date captured. The Recents folder is no longer in existence, while the carousel of the library is as long as you like the only 2 sort options.

Oct 2, 2024 8:23 AM in response to SF Tech

My son in law needed a photo I had in a hurry. I looked for my favorites album but found it no longer existed, not even in the cloud. The photo was gone from my phone along with thousands of others. It’s taken I don’t know how many hours trying to figure this nonsense out. I didn’t even have an option in the cloud to download my photos. I have two iPhones and a MacBook Air, but this latest fiasco has given me serious concerns about purchasing another Apple product.

Oct 19, 2024 11:44 AM in response to jnarewsk

Unfortunately, this is not completely accurate. If you have items that you kept in your Camera Roll for a period of time, they will drop from this folder after a short time. This folder acts more like "added within 30 days" or something like that. I have pictures from a vacation with 381 photos along with other photos/scans/screenshots but only 23 of those photos are in the Recently Added folder in the Pinned group! The only way I have found as a half-baked workaround is to have a "Recents" album where I move all the photos into from the day until I can sync to my laptop and put them in their official album. Then this album will keep the unsync'd stuff so I don't have to hunt through my entire library. None of the albums they have provided work as the former Camera Roll or Recents that used to be in the app. NONE OF THEM!! I've been on with Apple, I've gone to the Genius Bar, I have read every blog I can find…nothing provides this simple functionality!

Where is Camera Roll after iOS 18 Update?

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