Owners of iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max models have discovered that Night mode cannot be used when Portrait mode is selected—an option that has been supported on Pro-level iPhones since the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020.
The limitation is easy to confirm. With Photo selected in the Camera app, covering the rear lenses in a dark environment triggers the Night-mode crescent icon in the upper-right corner of the interface. Opening the options panel also shows a Night mode toggle. However, when Portrait mode is selected under the same conditions, the crescent icon does not appear, and the Night mode button is absent from the options panel.
Users of previous Pro devices, including the iPhone 16 Pro, do not encounter this issue, and Apple’s iOS 26 iPhone User Guide indicates that the behavior is intentional.
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Reports of the omission surfaced several weeks ago on Reddit and in Apple’s support forums, but broader awareness appears to be recent. The situation has raised questions because the iPhone 17 Pro hardware should, in principle, support simultaneous use of both features. One possible explanation is that Night mode captures remain limited to 12 megapixels, whereas Portrait images can be recorded at 24 megapixels.
Apple has not commented publicly on the decision and has not indicated whether combined Portrait-and-Night mode support may return in a future software update. For users accustomed to the feature on earlier models, the change is likely to be seen as a downgrade.