Apple has quietly removed a camera feature that was a standard feature of the iPhone Pro for five generations. The iPhone 17 Pro no longer supports Portrait Mode with Night Mode, a combination that has been available since the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020.
This means users won’t be able to take beautiful, bright portraits in dark environments, an unexpected step back for Apple’s flagship. Cause? The position of the LiDAR scanner relative to the cameras.
No night portraits
The iPhone 17 Pro does not support Night Mode in Portrait Mode. This isn’t mentioned on the specs page or in the iOS 26 release notes, but users discovered it while testing their new devices. When they wanted to take night portraits, the Night Mode option disappeared when they switched to Portrait Mode.
After complaints from users, Apple decided to take action and has now done so confirmed on its official support pages. The company explicitly states that “Night Mode portraits are supported through the iPhone 16 Pro series.” This fact offers a sharp contrast to previous years, in which Apple continuously added and improved cameras – not phased out.
Portrait mode with LiDAR scanner
To understand why this happened, you need to understand how the feature worked. Since the iPhone 12 Pro, Pro models have had a LiDAR scanner – a sensor that records depth. This sensor helps with Portrait mode: it scans the contours of faces and bodies to keep them sharp, while blurring the background (bokeh effect).
Night mode works by increasing the exposure time – from 1 to 30 seconds, depending on the light – so the camera can capture more light and reveal better details. By using the LiDAR scanner, these two modes have been able to be combined since 2020, resulting in clear portraits with good contours in restaurants, bars and outdoors in the evening.
However, with the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple has redesigned the camera platform. The LiDAR scanner has now been moved to the right side, much further away from the camera lenses than in previous models. One theory is that this move disrupts depth sensing in Night Mode, although Apple has not provided an official explanation.
Why Apple might have done this
The reasons behind this choice remain guesswork, as Apple has not commented. However, experts suggest several possibilities:
- Resolution and noise: Night mode photos are limited to 12 megapixels, while Portrait mode can now shoot up to 24 megapixels. Apple may prioritize sharper portraits over brightness. The longer exposure in Night Mode can introduce noise that is missing from the new 24MP pipeline.
- Low usage frequency: Some experts think this feature was rarely used because Apple prefers to use computing power for other applications. The fact that this was only noticed three months after launch reinforces this idea.
- Software issues: It’s possible that something went wrong in the development of iOS 26 and the updated Camera app, and bringing the feature back isn’t a priority.
At this time, Apple is showing no sign of the feature returning via a software update. Apple’s official support documentation suggests this is a deliberate choice, not a bug. However, it is not inconceivable that Apple will reintroduce the feature in a future iOS update.