Problems with composition references not being followed since the release of model 4 [merged thread]

[droopydog500]

Several people have reported problems with composition references not being followed since the release of Model 4.  I have merged some of those messages here. There have also been reports in the Firefly Discord.

If you are experiencing that problem, please reply to this post and include the reference image you used, your prompt, and whether you were using Model 3 or Model 4.

Thanks,

    droopy

[Laddy280177798h0e]

I am having the same issue, it almost completely ignores composition reference.

[Douglas231055676xfr]

It completely ignores the reference composition now. It's unusable. What happened?

[default29263euww7kn]

my firefly is not using the composition image at all

[droopydog500]

Hi @Douglas231055676xfr and @default29263euww7kn,

Adobe is aware of a problem and is working on a solution.

    droopy

[Mery_Bonjour8363]

Hi. It's been a month since this error occur. I use this tool at my work, I need it to be fixed. If you guys can't fix it, I get it, is not easy. But AT LEAST, give your clients that pay for firefly monthly, free access to firefly ultra. Because as far as I know, firefly ultra works fine. I am paying for this service and a whole month has been broken. You have to give a free alternative for your clients. Otherwise I will just start using another AI and so will other people

[LenkaSmol]

Hello everyone,
For the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to set the “composition” function to its maximum in Firefly. I try to move the slider, but the application is completely frozen.
At the very beginning, I was able to create visuals based on my model uploaded to the app, and the results were quite satisfactory, but now I can’t get it to work at all.
I should mention that I’m almost at the limit of the credits on my account.
Maybe you could help me?
Thanks in advance.

[Alina Pitsik]

I had the same problem. Now I solved that so fast haha. Just switch to Firefly version 3
You can see images above were created with 4th version. And lower are images with 3th verion.
My referance is a logo white on black. I researched a lot of articles 😞 This is weird that nobody told about that earlier

[Dhanraj_Banoth4335]

Dear Adobe Firefly Support Team,

I hope you're doing well.

I'm writing to report an issue with the *"Use as Style Reference"* feature in Adobe Firefly. Despite selecting this option and choosing a suitable reference image from my *recent generation history*, the results do not reflect the visual style, color tone, or artistic characteristics of the reference image.

For example, in my *latest generated image*, I used a previously created artwork with a very specific style as the reference. However, the new image that was generated did not adopt that style in any noticeable

way—it looked completely unrelated in terms of color, mood, and structure.

I've tried several troubleshooting steps, including refreshing the page, clearing cache, and using different browsers, but the issue still persists. I believe this may be a bug or a limitation that needs addressing.

Additionally, *please guide me through how to properly use the "Use as Style Reference" feature* to ensure it works as expected and helps generate accurate, style-matching results. Any tips or best practices would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your support. Looking forward to your assistance.

Best regards,

Banoth Dhanraj

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PII removed by moderator

[droopydog500]

Hi @Dhanraj_Banoth4335,

There is a known problem with Composition References on Model 4. Adobe engineers are working on it. As a work around, try using model 3. It does not seem to have the problems Model 4 does.

    droopy

[rachelcenter]

firefly completely ignores my style reference, even when i change strength to 100%

[droopydog500]

Hi @rachelcenter ,

Others have reported similar problems and Adobe is working on the problem. For now, try model 3.

     droopy

[tigerbotia]

When i first tried firefly i tried the text effect with composition reference, and it worked every time. now it dosnt work anymore, i have tried with Model 3 and 4. only sometimes it works, but not nearly as good as earlyer.

If i had  a image of a strawberry in styles, And made the text strawberry in ilustrator and put in composition and typed somethiing like, straberry text on isolated black background i would get crisp strawberry text made of strawberries. Now i get strawberrys all around the text. Not text made of strawberrys.

[motionwin14_0308]

Same problem here- wasting huge amounts of time as sometimes it will follow the reference for a while, then for some reason it won't no matter what I do.  Seems to be worse on starting up the program. 

[Fabio2239654776im]

Hello. I have a small problem. Firefly is no longer working with the same quality as before — now it produces images with much worse quality. This started happening yesterday. I uploaded a “composition reference” image and then added the prompt, but it generated an image that doesn’t follow the “composition reference” at all, and the quality was terrible. Then I tried again with another “reference” and prompt that I had successfully used before, but the issue persisted. I also tested it today in a different browser, and the problem is still there.

I wanted to ask if anyone knows whether the AI has been updated and if others are experiencing the same issue. Or if someone has found a solution. Here’s a test for you to see: the first image is the composition reference, the second is the one I generated a week ago (which worked perfectly), and the third is the one I generated yesterday (with very poor quality). I also made sure the settings when generating the image were the same, using “Firefly Image 4. My operating system is Windows 10. I tested it both in the Brave browser and in Google Chrome, and the issue persists. Thank you very much!

[Kartika Rawat]

Hi Fabio2239654776im!

Thanks for writing in. We're seeing some reports where the composition reference is not being followed in Image 4. Please try Image 3 model and see if that helps. 

Let us know how it goes.

^KR

moved to bugs

[Fabio2239654776im]

Hi. Thanks for your reply! Yes, “firefly image 3” does work, it still follows the reference composition image perfectly. The problem is that “firefly image 4” has much better image quality (you can’t even tell it’s AI). I use it for work, and clients are already used to that level of quality. I really can’t switch. Now I wanted to ask you: do you know if issues like this usually happen often and then go back to normal after a few days? The only solution I’ve found so far is just waiting for it to start working normally again. Thank you so much for your kindness!

[droopydog500]

Hi @Fabio2239654776im,

When you mention quality of the Model 3 images, are you referring to the resolution or that the AI Model is creating a poor image?  If resolution, you can turn fast mode off and it will generate the same resolution as Model 4:

My best,

    droopy

[SarahLovesCats]

I am experiencing the exact same issues. I have gone back to previous image generations and clicked "rerun" and it is COMPLETELY different. The settings are all the same. I just started having this issue yesterday, (August 23, 2025).

I did try running Firefly Image 3, with better results, but still not near the superior results given with 4. Its not an actual resolution quality issue with 3, its just 4 is superior in every aspect. At least it was!

I have also tried a different browser. Please help! 

Here is an example of an image generated a week ago (a cute maple syrup bottle).

  Here is the result I got today when I clicked rerun with all the same settings ( I reran it several times, but all the results were this bizarre style)

[Modztur]

i have the same issue. its AWFUL, and it was almost PERFECT a week or two ago so frustrating. 

[Modztur]

For months, Firefly was generating pristine, high-quality images that matched my reference uploads almost perfectly. Up until about a week ago, it was working exactly the way I needed. Now, the results are terrible—images come out distorted, low quality, and not even close to my prompts or references. The quality literally went from a 100 down to maybe a 15 overnight. Nothing has changed on my end (same browser, same device, same prompts). This feels like either a recent update or a bug broke the system. Is anyone else experiencing this sudden drop in quality? And if so, is Adobe working on a fix?

SEE ATTATCHED Version 1 from a month ago, to version 2 ( just now ) this is so frustrating.... 

[Modztur]

the same thing is happening to me. all of my models go shirtless... and the reference image is not remotely followed. hopefully this gets fixed soon 

[hardvix]

I’m having the same issue with Firefly Image 4 - the quality suddenly dropped a couple of days ago, even on very simple prompts that used to work great. Also, before this happened, I had another problem where generated images disappeared from my history.

[SammieS]

Same here, I had a prompt for a football jersey & it gave me such a crappy image, it's adding extras. Tried on different models but not really getting good results. Ran a prompt from 2 weeks ago & the image it gave was absolutely terrible compared to 2 weeks ago. I chatted with support today & got no where. They say there hasn't been an update, but there's no way something wasn't messed with. Just a week ago I was getting perfect images, now not a single one!! Support basically just said to use the gpt model, well if that's the case, why am I paying for firefly, I can just got to gpt. So frustrating, whatever it is I wish they would fix it, because the quality is 0% now. 

[SammieS]

Forgot to mention, support said my prompt wasn't descriptive enough, reworked the prompt and it was very descriptive & still gave terrible images. 

[adaptable_Sunflower3916]

Hi guys, I've been having this issue for the last week or so and the firefly floor is not remotely following the reference images that I input.  it will add its own random stuff sometimes take the shirts off my models and the quality is just completely distorted like the colors are all wrong and everything. I don't wanna unsubscribe as I absolutely love firefly 4 a month ago.  I'm really hoping for a fix.