Google has finally fixed a persistent Google Photos bug that has been irritating users for well over a year. But, unfortunately, the fix may not be working for everyone.

If you’ve been having problems sharing images from Google Photos in third-party apps, then you’re not alone. A bug spotted as long ago as September 2025 prevented some photos with minor edits from appearing in photo pickers in other apps.

The bug was only triggered when editing an image in Google Photos and saving the edits over the original file. Even minor non-destructive edits, like rotating 90 degrees, could trigger the bug. However, using “Save as copy” worked as intended. Thanks to the bug, affected images simply don’t show up in apps including Discord, Facebook, Gemini, Google Messages, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Interestingly, only Pixel devices seem to be impacted by this issue.

The fact that Google’s own Gemini and Messages also seem to be impacted shows that the bug had a wider impact crater than was first suspected.

Now, after a nudge from APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii, it appears the issue has finally been fixed in version 7.97 of the Google Photos app. With any luck, this will be the end of having to save duplicate copies of edits just to send a photo to a friend. If you’ve been affected by the problem, update your Google Photos app and try again.

Google hasn’t provided an explanation for the bug, and at least one user claims it still occurs in Google Photos v7.99, so we may not be out of the woods yet. A screen recording (above), posted on October 31, shows the problem still occurring on an unnamed device. This user reports that edited screenshots work, but edited photos shot with the rear camera do not. The examples show a cropped camera photo disappearing from Google’s Files app while an edited screenshot remains visible.

Google Photos Edit Bug: 13 Months From First Report To Fix

What makes this bug remarkable is that it seems to have been left unfixed for a very long time. A Pixel 10 Pro user reported it in the Google support forum over a year ago on September 11, 2025, with 63 others now claiming to have experienced the same problem.

A forum volunteer reportedly passed the report on to the “escalation team” the very next day, but to no avail: Over a year later, on October 8, 2026, a bug report was filed for the same issue, only to be closed with the status “Won’t Fix (Obsolete)” on October 20 on a technicality. The final (we hope) fix didn’t appear until 13 months after the original report.

What To Do If Your Edited Photos Are Still Missing

If you’re among those unfortunate enough to still be affected by this bug, at least we know that Google is aware of the problem and has attempted to fix it. For now, the best solution is to use the “Save as copy” feature to ensure your edited image is available for picking in third-party apps.

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This article was originally published on Forbes.com