Google Photos' edit bug is frustrating Pixel users; here are some workarounds

Published Sep 28, 2026, 11:57 AM EDT I've been covering Android and other mobile technology for close to ten years now, with a specific interest in phone accessories, e-readers, and what makes each individual phone different from another. I delight in looking at the phone market from as many angles as possible, and while my opinions may be odd, at times, they're always from the heart as much as the head. I have a background in the mobile accessories world, which explains my odd enthusiasm for cases and things that clip onto smartphones. I worked for Digital Trends from 2017 to 2025. Sign in to your Android Police account Google Photos is normally one of the best apps for making small edits to a picture, but that hasn't been true over the weekend. A bug has been stopping people from being able to share or save edited images. Thankfully, Google is aware of the problem, and has reached out to let us know a fix is on the way, as well as sharing some ways you can bypass the bug. Editing photos seems to crash Photos But there are ways around it Making small tweaks to images is something Google Photos has gotten very good at in the last few years. Thanks to tools like the Magic Editor, removing unwanted details (and people) is only a few taps away at all times. And since it's good, people have come to rely on it. Which is why it's so bad when it suddenly doesn't work. To be entirely fair, there's nothing wrong with the edit function per se. Instead, once edits are complete, the buttons beneath the edited image no longer work, making it impossible to delete the image, share it, or do any further edits. This bug seems to be a common one, with plenty of Reddit users reporting the same problem. Which may explain why Google has been so quick to notice the problem and promise a fix. In an email sent to Android Police, a Google spokesperson confirmed a fix is on the way. The email also confirmed Google has two official workarounds for the problem. The first is to use "Save as Copy" when saving new edits, while the other is to use the desktop version of Google Photos to share images. It makes sense that Google would want you to stay within Google Photos, but it's also worth remembering you have other options too. You could use another editing app to edit the image, and share from that. If you have a Samsung phone, then Samsung Gallery has many of the same tools as Google Photos. You could also just wait out the problem, as it seems Google is taking the problem seriously. For the moment, it simply means you won't be able to edit any of your photos. Sadly, that also includes cropping screenshots, a rather vital tool on the internet.