Albums missing or moving in iOS 18 photos app

Moving Albums in IOS 18.1 does not work 90% of the time.

when you release the album it looks like it’s going to be in the new location then it disappears.

when I check the old location, there it is.

It’s terrible that it doesn’t work almost all of the time. Clearly Apple has zero testing or QC in their dev org

Also, why can’t you create a new album for selected photos within a nested folder like you used to? It’s totally unintuitive to have to create one at the top level of directories only to not be able to move the new album into a nested folder because the move function fails most of the time

I have bought more Apple products than anyone I know (at least 50 computers) and these OS updates keep getting worse

Google is way better at adding features to Android

I agree with all the comments made. This is a disaster for me. I have built up a well organised library based carefully on albums and all that work has been savaged. Could someone from apple tell us why they have done this? And how we can get our albums back? Or can I simply delete iOS 18 and reinstall 17? What on earth change a really good system and without any consultation with your users fraternity?

I set my phone to stop syncing. I don't need further issues. I bought a good drive to remove all docs and pics from phone except contact pics and background pic

The new IOS photo app is so bad, I am going to move everything to Android, as its so bad... I have lost so many years of photo's, after 7 new iPhones, multiple iMac's etc never a problem. Bought a watch ultra 2, ended up having to update IOS on phone to 18. and it has cause a total nightmare!!!! it would be cheaper to just buy a Microsoft laptop and copy it all across and sort it out that way, than the time required to sort out this complete and total abortion of an app!!!... absolutely threaders!!!! apple can good FOOK themselves!!!!

So true. I have over 40000 photos in my phone and I can’t even search them now..Worst thing is favourites album not showing in WhatsApp anymore! Am I supposed to search my whole gallery which has over 40000 photos when I want to post on which I took years ago?

This is the worst update ever! Photos looks so messy I can’t find anything anywhere anymore

Apple you have crucified absolutely crucified my albums that took weeks months and years to organise how dare you mess up my albums? This is the worst mistake you have ever made iOS 18. It is an absolute rum sack. It’s Rumack my whole phone what an utter utter pathetic joke for Theso-called world leading in technology. You’re an absolute Bimal rectify it with an immediate effect. So-called world leading in technology. You’re an absolute Bimal rectify it with a immediate effect because you are cause you’ve damaged all my business photos that took ages organising along with all my other photographs find a fixed fast because everyone’s up in arms about the mess you’ve caused thank you

Agreed. Why, Apple, would you mess with people’s memories? Having my family folders, kid’s first day at school, now-dead granparents, etc sorted into MY personal folders is infinitely more important than some AI editing. The AI features should be optional. Everyones long-ago created folders of family love and important moments must be considered untouchable. Please fix ASAP!!

It’s a catastrophic update and REALLY the worst update ever 😡

Hate hate hate new format. So does my digital frame. Can no longer upload recent pics. Please please please revert to old format

I have had the same issue since Friday. I have spoken to 6 different Apple techs and nothing. We have even restored the phone's ios 18 software, and still the same issue. Albums are not showing on the iPhone, but are clearly in iCloud, on my MacBook Pro and on my iPad. We have even tried setting up the phone from the iPad and that didn't work. If you sync the phone to the Mac the albums appear, but as soon as you turn IcLoud sync back on, they disappear. And now I noticed that RCS isn't working, but it was on Friday night. This has been a complete nightmare! The only thing that may have worked is if I had kept my iPhone 14 and reset it using the iPhone 14, but of course, I turned it in for the $500 trade in value already. If anyone can get a solution, please post!

It's actually really easy. I wrote overly detailed instructions in the rare event someone has never sync'ed with their PC or Mac before but most people should find it easy. Takes less than 10 mins even with over 5k photos like I have that I'm sync'ing from my PC due to work. I have talked to Apple and they don't consider it an issue at this point (thus in their minds there is nothing to fix). They think it makes it easier for people if they use their Mac or PC to sort their albums the way I did. And I admit, once you do it the albums ARE easier to use than they used to be, would have been nice though if they had made it more obvious the correct steps to set it up. I told them I had to figure it out myself and that was annoying because took some trial and errror and the first couple of people I spoke with didn't even know you could do what I did. I didn't find anyone who understood how I did it until I got escellated to Tier 3 support and even then the girl was like "oh, that's even easier than how I have been telling people". I told her well it wasn't for me because it took me a lot of trial and error playing with it one evening but I was glad she liked it and she said she'd start telling people to do it my way because it was easier than hers and would submit it as a known solution for people with the question.

Odd when customers figure it out better than the higest level of tech support.

I agree that Apple should address this nightmare. Apple had marketed there phone as such fabulous cameras so why are they messing with what so many people use their phones for. I was set on ordering an iPhone 16 pro but slammed on the brakes after I read about this. I have over 9000 photos that are stored on my phone for various reasons as well as documenting dates and issues. If I update to ISO18, from what I have read, it will be virtually impossible to find them. I wish Apple would address this issue and give a resolution and also can't understand why they don't put a warning about losing all of your albums and work of many years.

Maybe I misunderstand the issue and if so please put my mind to rest somebody. Otherwise I will stay with IOS 17.7 until forced to update to 18.0.

I read your fix but honestly, do you really expect people to have to go through all of that. People have bought Apple products because they just plain work. I moved away from PC’s and Microsoft years ago because of problems . Apple has always had a product that is easy to use and in my mind flawless . I am pretty darn good with computers but obviously not good enough to follow your steps. You are more advanced and capable.

I don’t use iCloud for my photos and also don’t sync photos between my ipad, MacBook or the iPhone . I tried to air drop the photos most needed to the MacBook but it too didn’t work I guess because of the fact it was over 200 photos. This is an album needed to remain in chronological order or else it is useless .

Am I understanding this situation correctly? Maybe I am completely wrong? If I update to ISO 18 will I regret it and lose all of my albums?

For example , I have albums of aircraft, boats, beaches, accidents , sharks , medical records, and on and on which all have important chronological records. Is that going to all be gone and unable to recover in the order they were taken if I upgrade to IOS 18?

Thanks for taking to time to advise me !!

It’s a shame Apple is disregarding this issue. I guess there are too few people complaining and therefore we are just insignificant. I am definitely shelving the idea of going to an iPhone 16 for sure now. Definitely not updating to ios 18. Good luck folks !!!

I updated my iPad mini, opened photos & thought I’d opened eBay by mistake. Tiring to read a mess of sub titles & scattered photos. Is anyone else’s Hidden Photo Album empty? I can’t find those photos.