Why Night Mode disappeared from iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max?

Night Mode, iPhone's beloved camera feature, has vanished overnight from the newest iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max models, though it has been a staple since 2020, giving the ability to shoot Portrait Mode photos.

The reason Night Mode vanished from iPhone 17 Pro models

Users started flagging the absence of Night Mode on their iPhone 17 Pro variants on Reddit and Apple forums, prompting the company to confirm in a support document that Night Mode Portraits are no longer available.

Portrait Mode entirely changed the photography on iPhones, particularly with the iPhone 12 Pro, which utilised the LiDAR scanner to combine Night Mode’s long exposure with depth mapping for stunning low-light shots.

However, this functionality is now absent in the iPhone 17 Pro.

Users attempting to activate Portrait Mode in low light are reporting the absence of the Night Mode icon, and the device fails to save necessary depth data.

Is iPhone 17's missing Night Mode a glitch?

Apple's confirmation has shown that this is not a glitch but a deliberate removal.

Countless iPhone users relied on Night Mode Portraits for capturing memorable moments in low-light settings, such as bars and concerts, and its absence drastically alters low-light photography.

Although Apple has not provided a clear reason for why it did it, a possible explanation could be issues with motion blur, noise and grain from combining processing techniques, and a resolution drop since Night Mode Portraits were limited to 12MP, while the new model can take 24MP images.

For now, iPhone 17 Pro users must choose between bright photos or blurred backgrounds, because the combination of both would no longer give a desired result.