Why did my iPhone stopped taking pictures are high quality?

[LuchoRLR]

I have bought a new iPhone 7 Plus a month ago. The quality of the first pictures i took is great (pics sizes are 5 MB) but suddenly from one day to another quality reduced a lot and pics sizes are very low (about 500 KB and 700 KB but always under 1 MB)
Why did my iPhone stopped taking high quality pictures? How can i repair it?

Thanks!

 

[Rob Phillips]

Re: Problem taking photos

Did you upgrade to iOS 11? iOS 11 uses a new file system that’s quite a bit more efficient and one of the benefits is...you guessed it...reduced file sizes.
If that’s not it, then make sure you didn’t turn off auto HDR in Settings > Camera.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Re: Problem taking photos

I have bought a new iPhone 7 Plus a month ago. The quality of the first pictures i took is great (pics sizes are 5 MB) but suddenly from one day to another quality reduced a lot and pics sizes are very low (about 500 KB and 700 KB but always under 1 MB)
Why did my iPhone stopped taking pictures are high quality? How can i repair it?

Thanks!

Go to Settings → Photos, and then select the “Download and Keep Originals” option.

 

[SwitchBeach]

Also, are you zooming in when you are taking these "low quality" pictures?

 

[LuchoRLR]

Re: Problem taking photos

Did you upgrade to iOS 11? iOS 11 uses a new file system that’s quite a bit more efficient and one of the benefits is...you guessed it...reduced file sizes.
If that’s not it, then make sure you didn’t turn off auto HDR in Settings > Camera.

I have iOS 11. Does it really reduce the sizes that much?
HDR is always on.

 

[LuchoRLR]

Re: Problem taking photos

Go to Settings → Photos, and then select the “Download and Keep Originals” option.

That option was always marked

 

[LuchoRLR]

Also, are you zooming in when you are taking these "low quality" pictures?

Nope, not at all.

 

[Rob Phillips]

I have iOS 11. Does it really reduce the sizes that much?
HDR is always on.

Not by that much. HEIF reduces photos by about half but shouldn’t result in reduced quality. Where are you viewing the photos and seeing the file sizes? If you have Optimize iPhone Storage enabled in Settings > Photos your device will keep low resolution versions of your photos on device and will download the full res version on the fly when needed. This generally works pretty well but I’ve seen instances where third party apps transfer over the low res photo instead of the full res version.

 

[LuchoRLR]

Not by that much. HEIF reduces photos by about half but shouldn’t result in reduced quality. Where are you viewing the photos and seeing the file sizes? If you have Optimize iPhone Storage enabled in Settings > Photos your device will keep low resolution versions of your photos on device and will download the full res version on the fly when needed. This generally works pretty well but I’ve seen instances where third party apps transfer over the low res photo instead of the full res version.

I'm checking the file sizes in the photo library and iCloud, in both of them quality is bad. Optimize iPhone Storage was always disabled since the first day.

Should i downgrade to iOS 10 to take high quality pics again?

 

[robertk328]

Two things:
1. Are you using the stock camera app?
2. Do you have any photo examples showing the quality issues?

Photos of bright, colorful scenes will generally have larger file sizes than darker, poorly lit scenes as there's less data in the file.

 

[Rob Phillips]

I'm checking the file sizes in the photo library and iCloud, in both of them quality is bad. Optimize iPhone Storage was always disabled since the first day.

Should i downgrade to iOS 10 to take high quality pics again?

All of the things @robertk328 asked above. Also, did you have Live Photos turned on previously and maybe recently turned them off? I’m not sure of the average file size but I’d be willing to bet Live Photos are considerably larger than those taken with the feature turned off.

Unless you’re jailbroken I don’t think you’ll be able to revert back to iOS 10. Apple stopped signing any version of iOS 10 for your device a while ago.

 

[LuchoRLR]

Two things:
1. Are you using the stock camera app?
2. Do you have any photo examples showing the quality issues?

Photos of bright, colorful scenes will generally have larger file sizes than darker, poorly lit scenes as there's less data in the file.

1- Yeah, always stock camera app.
2- I tried to upload the images here but i got an error so i'm gonna post the links.

This photo was the first one i took when i got my iPhone, file size is 5 MB. https://i.imgur.com/QhNFmDq.jpg

I took this one a week later, file size is 548 KB
https://i.imgur.com/GfjZ6Tl.jpg

 

[LuchoRLR]

All of the things @robertk328 asked above. Also, did you have Live Photos turned on previously and maybe recently turned them off? I’m not sure of the average file size but I’d be willing to bet Live Photos are considerably larger than those taken with the feature turned off.

Unless you’re jailbroken I don’t think you’ll be able to revert back to iOS 10. Apple stopped signing any version of iOS 10 for your device a while ago.

Live Photos is turned on 24/7 and no, my iPhone is not jailbroken

 

[robertk328]

1- Yeah, always stock camera app.
2- I tried to upload the images here but i got an error so i'm gonna post the links.

This photo was the first one i took when i got my iPhone, file size is 5 MB. https://i.imgur.com/QhNFmDq.jpg

I took this one a week later, file size is 548 KB
https://i.imgur.com/GfjZ6Tl.jpg

Take another photo like the green grassy one and check it. The second one is quite sharp but doesn't have much color to it, so less data.

 

[tr1ad]

I've got this issue with the insertion of iOS 10; I do believe the compression ratio of photos have changed, resulting in poor quality photos and in some cases, A watercolour type effect.

Google "iPhone watercolour photos" and there are other complaints about it.

Example
https://discussions.apple.com/message/32554796?ac_cid=tw123456#32554796