Photos In Apple iPhones Are Turning Red This Christmas! Here’s How To Fix Them

Software updates occasionally introduce unexpected glitches, ranging from minor annoyances like app crashes or faster battery drain to more unusual issues.

A recent peculiar bug in iOS 26 affects certain photos in the Photos app, particularly those originally taken on Android devices and then transferred to an iPhone (via sharing, AirDrop, messaging, or cloud sync) — and it's got nothing to do with the Christmas season.

When viewing photo library thumbnails on iPhones, everything appears normal. However, upon tapping to open and zoom into an affected image, users are reporting that it suddenly develops a strong red tint or overlay, as if an intense colour filter has been applied.

Reports indicate this primarily impacts photos captured on non-iPhone cameras, possibly due to how the Photos app handles embedded colour profiles or HDR metadata from Android devices.

If you’re experiencing this, it’s likely tied to cross-platform photo transfers rather than a hardware problem. The issue isn’t widespread, and not all transferred photos are affected — some users note it with transfers from specific models like recent Samsung Galaxy or Motorola phones.

The exact reason remains unclear, and the bug persists in recent updates like iOS 26.2. Apple hasn’t officially addressed it yet, but such rendering issues are typically fixed in security patches.

Fortunately, there’s no permanent data loss or corruption. The red haze is a rendering glitch, and a straightforward workaround restores the original colours. 

While Apple can be expected to address this bug in an update, if you wish to fix photos yourself till then, all you need to do is:

• Open the affected photo.

• Tap Edit.

• Select Revert (to original).

This removes the erroneous “filter” instantly. However, you’ll need to do this individually for each impacted image.