Unable to change the color of the text while editing photos after iOS 18 update

Thankyou dvillas & MANipulatorHeff your eraser solution worked for me🙏Really appreciate being able to use the text function again and change text colour once more; Just use the eraser tool first, then the text functions miraculously work again on my iPhone 13 - such a weird work around- but solves the problem🎉

Colour Text in Photos iOS 18.2 and newer

NEVER USE THE COLOUR CIRCLE THAT APPEARS WITH “Add Text”

Open edit as normal

Choose TEXT





Now click on the Aa tab



Now click on the colour circle and choose your colour: note the circle changes to your colour choice



If you want you can now choose other edit options. Now click (touch) on the picture



Edit your text as in the past

All the best to you

I had the same issue, browsing reddit, I found this work-around solution, it worked for me (iPhone 15 Pro Max: 18.1.1), hope it works for you as well:

MANipulatorHeff • 1m • edited 1 m ago •

I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!! ... do ALL of the "normal steps" you would to add text to a photo ** BUT FIRST ** click on the editing icons and PICK THE ERASER - touch the pic ANYWHERE with the eraser (I touched the center on my test) - THEN click the text option to add your text and you can type and change the color wheel of the text to anything you want and works like it always has!! Hope this helps/works for you. <I updated to 18.1 just now prior to testing this to see if that would solve the issue - it didn't>. But using the eraser FIRST, THEN adding text like normal worked 4 times in a row on two different photos. (iPhone 12 Pro Max: 18.1)

Since updating to iOS 18.2 on my iPhone 13 - thankfully this update seems to have fixed the issue of editing text colour in photos. So I no longer have a problem changing the text colours anymore - it works just fine now, letting me change the colour without any problems, which is such a relief - as I did not realise how much I use that feature until it stopped working on iOS 18.1.1

They have sort of fixed it with 18.2, but this is by NO means a real fix. It should not be this complicated to do something we could do before with three steps. This was working for some people after 18.1, but not for me until 18.2 I am using a 13 Pro Max.

1. Select Edit, Markup, Add Text as normal.
2. When the text bubble pops up, touch to add text as normal, then select your text again twice. You will now see a pop up with "cut, copy, paste, select, and a side arrow.
3. Choose the side arrow and then select "Format"
4. Choose the side arrow again and select "More"
5. The Format Box will now be at the bottom. Select the color wheel and then click out of it because it will not change the color, but you still have to select it and then get out.
6. Select the Text bubble again and you will get another pop up bubble - choose the Text (Aa) option and you will see a format bubble with a color wheel above the Text. Click the wheel and it will FINALLY change the color and allow other format options.

Tap the eraser icon, tap the image, fixed. Now both font and color can be changed. Weird, but works

Same problem on iPhone 15 after updating to 18.1.

Try "Snapseed" app, I found it to be quite slick, has a userfriendly editing options menu with lots of options & works great. Best of all its free.

Figured out an easy way!!!

After you tap ((+)) add text, etc.

then tap or change format ((at the bottom of pop up)) …. This will stop the editing from disappearing

MAKE YOUR CHANGES 😮‍💨 I TRIED IT A COUPLE OF TIMES ON RANDOM PHOTOS && IT WORKED😲

I knew it was too good to be true. It worked for a couple weeks after I upgraded to 18.2 but now I’m right back to the same. After adding the text, I have to go back and get to the format menu go in and choose a color that doesn’t work, then go back out then go back into the pop up box where I can change the color and be finished. Apple, please fix this.

With IOS 18.3 Apple has finally cracked its own problem. The photo editing controls as to formatting, fonts, colour, & text size, are rearranged, but this time everything works properly again. I use an Xr.

Snapseed is the way to go right now. As has been said, it's free so there are some limitations on text appearance, but you can change colors, rotate resize, double exposure layers, etc.

Updated to 18.2 and as Huelo posted, it is working again. Time will tell if it’s going to be permanent.

Nothing works to fix the text markup function iOS:18.1.1.

I’ll just have to learn to live with Black Text. Surely Apple could fix this bug, but seems this has been dragging on for so long now looking at this community thread.

Unbelievable Apple that Apple didn’t rectify this software issue before the last iOS 18.1.1 update. I guess, as so many other people are experiencing this same problem, that I can assure myself my iPhone 13 has been hacked😅

nikot3ch wrote: … I can't seem to change the color of the text when I go to edit the photo.

This seems to be a real problem. Markup works fine for me and for many others. Some people have reported that with two phones in their family, one works and the other doesn't. The differences occur even with the same camera model, the same operator, and the same OS. There's probably noting that we can do differently with our phones to fix it.

This is going to make it a crazy problem to solve.

Yes I know that. It’s not working though. It pops open and closes before you can change anything in relation to the text. It’s a bug. A bad one.

I’m using an iPhone 15 Pro Max; iOS 18.1. The bug started with iOS 18. I hoped that 18.1 would fix it.

Basically it makes the Photos editing function completely useless regarding TEXT.