Photo “Albums” disappeared after updating to IOS 18

Cannot locate my Albums in Photos. HELP!

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 8:55 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 9:02 AM

Yeah, it changed a bunch. There is no longer separate Library, Albums, etc, windows to select at the bottom. Now when you open Photos in iOS 18, you get everything all a once. (good movie) The top half is the Library, and the bottom has Recent Days and then Albums, People&Pets, Pinned collections like Map and Recent, Memories, and so on. You just Scroll up and down to find Albums.


You can tap on Albums to get a screen that has only albums in their folders. I just discovered that!


Does this work?

171 replies

Dec 5, 2024 1:08 PM in response to TulsaGB

Hi Apple Community, in response to Photo Albums disappearing in iOS 18, I found this useful video that guides you to making Photos like they were in iOS 17. It also makes suggestions for new features to enhance the experience. The best part is it’s fully customizable.


I good this helps and eases frustrations…as I was one that experienced the same issue but was on a mission to find a solution.


https://youtu.be/SGBZLmp8T-Q?si=eUloMImBW1yDgZ2_

Dec 18, 2024 2:10 PM in response to allecia128

allecia128 wrote:

FIX IT APPLE, I am furious! Most users have multiple devices, meaning we are loyal to the brand for a reason….this is not it. I made careful curated albums over the years. Now they are all gone and no solid answers on how to get them back… FIX IT!

Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:


Product Feedback - Apple


Meanwhile, if there is an Apple Store near you, I suggest you make an appointment to have someone there show you how to use Photos. It's the sort of thing that's probably easier to do in person. Almost everyone I've interacted with who thought their albums are gone has discovered they weren't.

Dec 13, 2024 8:23 PM in response to Lindajoysmith

Same here. My pregnancy /birth/baby albums, wedding album all gone. Two hours on phone with Apple and they are nowhere to be found. Said I can try a third party date recovery company they can recommend but would charge fee. I was like “I’m not paying a cent when it’s your update that caused the loss of my albums”. I’m waiting to hear back from them now. I’m pretty sure I will never get them back. I’m devastated. All I can do now is go back through Facebook and save the photos from each event again and I’m going to check through external drives we have at home praying I backed them up at some point 😢 I feel your pain

Jan 18, 2025 2:27 PM in response to Pucelanimous

The albums are not gone, but for my big library it took days for all to rearrange. In addition album search on random occations show the wrong search results, and as such renders itself useless. Searching for a specific name on one day shows all albums starting with that name, on other days the search results for same name only shows ⅓ of those.

Feb 26, 2025 8:33 AM in response to Uchel

Uchel wrote:

I want to go back to the old app. This is the worst upgrade. I can’t seem to locate my albums! How do I go back?

It is not possible to go back. However, there is a lot of information in this thread explaining how to use the new Photos app.


Start by going to the top of the page. Just under the lower left of the original post, you'll see "Sort by" and a drop-down menu. Select "Oldest" from the drop-down menu. Then, go to the first page of the thread and start reading.

Feb 27, 2025 8:39 AM in response to Candwrliz

Candwrliz wrote:

I definitely have lost all my folders and the photos that were in them! They are not in the Recently Deleted section nor do they appear if I swipe right on Albums or if I swipe to the bottom. Does anyone have any other ideas, please?

What is in folders or albums is only a link to the photo in the Photo library. So, even if you can't find the folders or albums, the photos should still be there.

Mar 31, 2025 1:29 AM in response to Naptown58

Yes My Albums were there but there was 0 photos in them I have contacted Apple Support Altogether over 2 hours on the phone and they couldn’t find them and then they cut me off That was after spending over 1 hour in the shop before that I have an Android phone and have Google photos App on my iPad which is synced with my Apple photos and guess what! I found all the photos still in my google photos app and have now had to put the in Albums in my Google app

Hope this helps somebody

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Photo “Albums” disappeared after updating to IOS 18

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