Why Instagram was turning some users' photos black and white

Have your Instagram posts been turning black and white without your consent? You're not alone.

According to Engadget, some users on Facebook and presumably elsewhere (though I wasn't able to find a lot of complaints on X) have complained that photos uploaded to the Instagram app in color were being automatically and unintentionally turned black and white at some point in the uploading process.

It was enough of a problem that Instagram confirmed its existence to Engadget, explained what the problem was, and claimed it had already been fixed.

"Earlier today, a technical issue caused some HDR photos to appear incorrectly as black-and-white for a subset of accounts,” Instagram told Engadget, before saying the problem was already being fixed.

According to the Instagram spokesperson, anyone still experiencing the problem should simply wait a few hours for the photos to automatically go back to their original, intended state.

In the meantime, if you want to avoid anything like this happening in the future, there's a way to turn off HDR photos on an iPhone. By default, your iPhone will turn on HDR automatically when it's called for, but if you go to Settings, then Camera, then turn off Auto HDR, you can avoid any HDR-related mishaps going forward.