Instagram black and white bug has left many users baffled over the past few days as once-vibrant photos suddenly turned monochrome after posting.
Meta, which owns Instagram, has confirmed that a technical bug in its image-processing pipeline caused some HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos to appear in black and white for a limited number of accounts.
"Earlier today, a technical issue caused some HDR photos to appear incorrectly as black-and-white for a subset of accounts," the company said in a statement to technology outlet Engadget.
User reports about the Instagram black and white bug began appearing around 18 and 19 April, with posts looking normal in the camera roll but switching to greyscale once uploaded to the app.
The issue particularly affected HDR images, which carry more brightness and colour data and therefore rely on more complex processing on Instagram's servers.
Instagram says the underlying problem has now been resolved and that affected posts will gradually revert to their original colours without users needing to do anything.
The company has apologised for the inconvenience and says the automatic restoration should complete within a few hours for any remaining black and white HDR posts.
Importantly, there is no evidence that the Instagram black and white bug damaged photos on users' devices or indicated issues with cameras or account settings.
This was purely a server-side processing error, meaning the original colour files remain intact and are simply being re-rendered correctly.
While Meta says patience is usually enough, users still seeing monochrome uploads can try a few quick steps.
First, update Instagram to the latest version from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, then fully close and restart the app or your phone.
If the problem persists, some iPhone owners may opt to turn off HDR capture in the Camera settings to avoid fresh HDR uploads until the fix has clearly rolled out for them.
In all cases, Instagram stresses that remaining affected photos should return to colour automatically as changes propagate across its systems.
For now, the Instagram black and white bug appears to be a short-lived but noticeable bump in the platform's rollout of HDR photography rather than a long-term problem.
With Meta confirming a fix and promising automatic restoration of affected posts, users can safely keep sharing colour images, knowing that the issue lay with Instagram's processing, not their devices.