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T
tierecke_ind
Participant
March 21, 2025
Answered

iPad pro m4 doesn't show/edit HDR

  • March 21, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 951 views

Hi there,

 

I shoot HDR photos on my phone, can see and edit them in HDR on my Android Phone (Pixel 9 Pro XL) and on Lightroom classic on my Mac, but on my iPad Pro (m4) it doesn't show it in HDR, nor can I see and select "Edit in HDR mode". 

The histogram just shows "HDR unavailable". A screenshot is attached.
Am I doing something wrong? My iPad naturally supports HDR.

Would appreciate any help.

 

Thanks, Nils.

Correct answer Conrad_C

Two things to try (just ideas, they may or may not work). On the M4 iPad Pro, go into the Settings app, and look at these things:

 

Go into Displays settings, and enable Reference Mode.

 

Go into Accessibility settings, go into Display & Text Size, and see which settings are enabled. Some of them, such as Smart Invert and Reduce White Point, alter the display enough that HDR can't be shown accurately. If those are enabled, try disabling them and see if HDR becomes available.

2 replies

Conrad_C
Community Expert
Conrad_CCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
March 26, 2025

Two things to try (just ideas, they may or may not work). On the M4 iPad Pro, go into the Settings app, and look at these things:

 

Go into Displays settings, and enable Reference Mode.

 

Go into Accessibility settings, go into Display & Text Size, and see which settings are enabled. Some of them, such as Smart Invert and Reduce White Point, alter the display enough that HDR can't be shown accurately. If those are enabled, try disabling them and see if HDR becomes available.

    T
    tierecke_indAuthor
    Participant
    March 31, 2025

    Thanks a lot for your reply!...

    Found it in the meanwhile myself - the problem was indeed Reduce White Point. 
    It's crazy that you can't find it anyway.

    Conrad_C
    Community Expert
    Conrad_CCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 31, 2025

    You're not the only one that this has happened to.

     

    Reduce White Point is kind of obscure, but one way it can be unintentionally turned on is if you don’t know it’s assigned as an Accessibility Shortcut. For example, triple-clicking the Side Button can be assigned to various accessibility features such as Magnifier, Invert, and Reduce White Point. If Reduce White Point happens to be the Accessibility Shortcut assigned to triple-clicking the side button, then if that button is unintentionally triple-clicked it will put the screen into that state.

     

    If you find that it is assigned that way, triple-clicking the side button again will get it out of that state.

     

    Or, you can go into Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcuts to enable/disable or rearrange the shortcuts that are assigned. You can disable them all if you don’t have any medical issues that need any of the features.

    A
    AlexJz
    Inspiring
    March 22, 2025

    What format did you take your picture in?

    There's a huge difference between a "HDR" mode that you see in camera apps, and HDR here.
    If you have selected "HDR" in the camera app, that just "compresses" the dynamic range in the standard sRGB/Rec709 color space.

     

    HDR here is meant as the extended color space.

    You need something like a RAW format or HEIC, but not JPG

    iPad Pro M4 - Lightroom iPad
    T
    tierecke_indAuthor
    Participant
    March 23, 2025

    Thanks for your reply, @AlexJz .

    It doesn't matter in what format I take the photo. It happens both with JPG that is taken with my Pixel 9 Pro XL and also with RAW with my old Olympus. WIth photos on my phone, it displays it as HDR on my Lightroom on my Mac and on the RAW they are of course not HDR but I can push the HDR button and stretch the histogram or add brightness.

    This all functions well on my Mac, and is displayed well on Android Phone (Lightroom Mobile). But on my iPad it displays that photo as SDR and shows on the histogram "HDR Unavailable", although clearly my iPad supports HDR (as you can see on the attached image to the original post).

    I dunno how it would be on an iPhone, as I don't have one. 

     

    Really strange or does Lightroom mobile just not support HDR?!

     

    Thanks Nils

    A
    AlexJz
    Inspiring
    March 25, 2025

    It does. I'm editing almost exclusively on my iPad Pro.

    And I often turn on HDR.

    Do you have maybe Low power mode enabled? It clearly disables HDR

     

    iPad Pro M4 - Lightroom iPad
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